Braised Sweet Potato and Kidney Beans

I swear, I actually had this on the menu plan without looking at the weather forecast first. Pinky swear.

For the past 5 days, it has been gorgeous and sunny and warm, here in the Pacific Northwest. It was finally looking like summer.

And then, today, the gray gloom was back. It seemed to mist all day, the day that I chose to wear a skirt and heels to work, naturally. The day I had to go run a bunch of errands after work, naturally.

But at least I had a big bowl of comfort to come home to.

I snagged this Braised Sweet Potato and Kidney Beans recipe off of VegWeb, one of my new favorite recipe resources for vegetarian (duh) meals.

Confession: I had to look up the exact definition of “braised” after I made this. It just seemed like a stew to me. Maybe I had too high of a liquid ratio?

Ingredients:
    1 Tbls olive oil
    1 large onion, chopped
    3 garlic scapes, minced
    1 rutabaga, diced
    1 medium red bell pepper, sliced
    1 extra large sweet potato, chopped into 1 inch squared
    1 cup mushrooms, sliced
    1 teaspoon paprika
    1 heaping teaspoon chili powder
    1 tablespoon tomato paste
    1 quart vegetable stock 
    1 15-ounce can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
    1 bunch of scallions, cut into 1” pieces
    salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat a olive oil in a soup pot on a medium heat and add the chopped onion for 4-5 minutes, stirring regularly until the onion becomes translucent.

Add the garlic, rutabaga, pepper, sweet potato, mushrooms and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.

Add the spices, tomato puree and vegetable stock and stir.

Cover the pot and leave to simmer for 25 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally.

Add the kidney beans, salt and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes on a medium heat until the vegetables are tender.

Stir in scallions and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with pumpkin seeds.

Serves 4.