Tuscan Bean Stew

This is very easy and delicious, and when served with olive oil drizzled on wholemeal toast it makes a nice filling meal. This one is full of sun-dried tomato oil, but it would be possible to make it with no fat by replacing oil with water.

I used: a big onion, two carrots, three cloves of garlic, a tin of tomatoes, about a teaspoon of very lovely veg stock, a good squirt of tomato paste, a few chopped sun-dried tomatoes and their oil, a handful of kale, a chinese take-away box of frozen butterbeans (boil them up in bulk and freeze to avoid throwing away lots of tins) and a fistful of fresh coriander.

First I fried the onion and diced carrots in sunflower oil until they softened, then I added the chopped garlic for just a minute or two. Before it started to burn I added the tomatoes in all their forms, I also added the butterbeans. After letting it reduce for about 5 minutes I stirred in the kale. When it was all cooked and soft and bubbling beautifully I crushed my coriander (hence the fistful, rather than handful) then used scissors to chop it into the mixture before mixing it all it and taking it off the heat. A bit of freshly crushed black pepper and there you are - an excellent Tuscan bean stew.