butter bean, pearl barley and kale stew with cheesy herb dumplings

butter bean, pearl barley and kale stew with cheesy herb dumplings

… i’ve been on a bit of a mission to reduce our intake of palm oil.  The stuff is pretty ubiquitous so it’s not as easy to do as you may think.  It’s in everything from the glorious Nutella to spreadable butter to tomato ketchup … on average we consume up to 8K of palm oil per person per year.  You have to try hard not to eat it and even then I often forget to check the ingredients because it’s in so much of my favourite foods.  The issue with palm oil is in its production. The high oil yield of the trees has encouraged wider cultivation, leading to the clearing of forests in parts of Indonesia and Malaysia to make space for oil-palm monoculture (never good for any environment.)  This has a devastating effect on local communities, climate change and has resulted in significant acreage losses of the natural habitat of the three surviving species of orangutan – I feel an unacceptable exchange for a packet of hob-nobs.

There are now some brands who are pushing their sustainable palm-oil which is excellent but still feels to me an encouragement to rely on the stuff rather than going completely pal-oil free, which of course is utterly and entirely possible, just not easy.

All of the above brings me to stew and dumplings.  Let me explain. For years I was unbelievably pleased with myself that i’d found a vegetarian suet so I could make The Viking’s favourite, dumplings.  Fluffy clouds of doughy goodness that sit atop your favourite stew to soak up all the glorious juices.  What I didn’t realise is that whilst I could finally make veggie dumplings, vegetarian suet is essential 100% grated palm-oil.  Totally because i’m a lazy traditionist and couldn’t bring myself to check or change my shopping habits… I also didn’t bother looking for an alternate recipe until I recently stumbled upon a Jamie Oliver book i’d had for years and a wonderful recipe for dumplings that uses frozen butter instead of suet.  Let’s just say this may have just changed our life…

butter bean, pearl barley and kale stew with cheesy herb dumplings

January is stew season in Belleau.  Stew is simply the best kind of food for this kind of weather.  Like a warm hug in a bowl, the glorious combination of slow-cooked vegetables, meats and pulses, wrapped together is a rich gravy and served with various toppings such as mash or sliced potatoes, pastry or of course the classic dumplings.  Knowing that I have a stew on the hob is enough to lifts my spirits like nothing else… and I cannot tell you how cold the cottage is today so this stew could not be more welcome.  Totally vegetarian, with seasonal veg, barley and my favourite butter beans as well as the most divine, fluffy and tasty cheesy dumplings,  It’s also a one-pot, oven dish with almost zero actual cooking technique needed, which means it’s a breeze to make and whilst it slowly cookies in your oven your home smells incredible as it fills with the aroma of unctuous vegetables and wine  I also portioned it up into tuppaware so it lasted for 4 meals and got more flavourful with each meal! Pure heaven.

for the stew

• 1 large onion – roughly chopped
• 1 large carrot – roughly chopped
• 2 sticks of celery – roughly chopped
• 6 garlic cloves – unpeeled
• 50g pearl barley
• 120g chopped kale
• 1 tin of butter bean
• 3 small potatoes – chopped
• 100g frozen peas
• 100g green beans – chopped
• 200ml of white wine
• 1 litre good quality vegetable stock
• olive oil and butter
• salt and pepper
• fresh rosemary, thyme and oregano

for the dumplings

• 300g self-raising flour
• 100g frozen butter – coarsely grated
• 50g strong cheddar cheese – coarsely grated
• salt and pepper
• oregano and rosemary – finely chopped

i’ve used my 30cm shallow casserole dish with a lid but any casserole dish would work – pre-heat the oven to 150C

place the pearl barley, garlic and all the vegetables apart from the peas, beans and kale into your dish, season well with salt and pepper and fresh herbs and then drizzle with at least 2 tablespoons of olive oil and stir around.  Drizzle over 100ml of wine. Place the lid on and pop the dish into the oven for an hour

after an hour, remove from the oven and stir in the rest of the veg, butter bean the stock and remaining wine then place the lid on and back into the oven for another hour

now make the dumplings.  Start with sieving the flour into a large bowl and grate in the frozen butter.  Add the grated cheese and fresh herbs and season well.

rub the butter and cheese into the flour until it resembles large breadcrumbs, then add a little cold water whilst bringing together with your hands until a light soft dough is formed.  Keep it all light and quick and try not to over-handle the dough.

split the dough into 12 little balls and place them onto the top of the stew.  Place the lid back on the stew and into the oven for 15 minutes with the lid on and 10 minutes with the lid off for a crispy finsih

serve warm, eat and of course, enjoy!

SaveSave