With its touch of autumn fire to warm the eyes and heart as well as the stomach, this squash and butter bean stew recipe is a hug in a bowl. It’s a simple one pot meal, but incredibly tasty and satisfying. Suitable for vegans and vegetarians alike, it’s easy-to-make, economical and visually appealing. Take it to a heartier plane and serve with rice, quinoa or crusty bread, if liked.
When the days get short and cold, a warming tasty stew is such a comfort. I always make a large pot, so it feeds us for two days. And somehow, it always tastes even better on day two than it does on day one.
Dive Right In
- Why Make Squash Butter Bean Stew?
- Squash And Butter Bean Stew
- Ingredients
- How To Make Squash Butter Bean Stew
- Other Vegan Stew Recipes You Might Like
- Keep In Touch
- The Recipe
Why Make Squash Butter Bean Stew?
It’s hard to resist the vibrant colours in this squash and butter bean stew. Even more so when you take the first bite. Sweet squash, creamy butterbeans and umami tomatoes combine with herbs and spices to make a most delicious meal.
If you need more reasons to convince you though, I’ve listed a few below.
- Budget-Friendly – Squash and butter beans are both economical when it comes to the cost of ingredients. This makes my stew an affordable option for both individuals and families looking to enjoy a satisfying and budget-friendly meal.
- Ease of Preparation – With its straightforward one-pot preparation, this recipe is a time-saving and hassle-free solution for busy days when you still want a homemade, wholesome meal. This is especially true if you make enough for two days.
- Hug in a Bowl – The warm and hearty nature of the stew makes for perfect comfort food during colder months. Just serve it in a bowl and eat with a spoon. And if you choose to do so wrapped up in a rug on the sofa, I won’t tell if you don’t.
- Leftovers Shine – Stews often taste even better the next day when flavours have had a chance to marinate. This means you can prepare it in advance and thus save time without sacrificing taste. Indeed, I always make enough for two days just so we can cook once, eat twice and enjoy an even better meal on day two.
- Nutrient-Rich – Packed with protein, vitamins, minerals and fibre from the vegetables and butter beans, this stew is a nutrient-dense meal that doesn’t compromise on taste. It’s also surprisingly low in calories.
- Vegan Friendly – Ideal for vegans and vegetarians alike, this stew is also a good stepping stone for those exploring plant-based options.
Squash And Butter Bean Stew
The combination of squash and tomatoes is such a good one, both for flavour and colour. Add butter beans and you suddenly have a hearty, healthy and tasty meal. The beans have a wonderful creamy texture, but they’re also great vehicles for soaking up flavours.
As well as squash, I include carrots, celery and onion. These vegetables not only add flavour, but lots of additional nutrition. But as it’s the squash and butter beans that are the stars of the show, they’re all diced up nice and small so you don’t really notice them.
I like to serve the stew on a bed of rice with a good sprinkling of fresh chopped parsley. But if you’re after a low calorie meal, it actually works well all on its own. It’s surprisingly filling. Otherwise, crusty bread makes a great accompaniment too.
Other additions that complement my squash and butter bean stew are yoghurt and pumpkin seeds. Place a spoonful of yoghurt on top of each bowl before scattering with the parsley. If using pumpkin seeds, toast them first and scatter on top along with the parsley.
Storage
This squash and butter bean stew is a great make-ahead meal. It keeps well in the fridge for three to four days and the flavours just get better and better. Make sure to store it in an airtight container and then you can reheat when needed.
Likewise, it also freezes well, though the squash tends to go a bit mushy.
Ingredients
There’s nothing unusual in this squash and butterbean stew and the ingredients are all easy to get hold of.
Squash
I’ve used a butternut squash for the recipe this time. They’re good all round winter squashes in that they’re easy to get hold of, easy to prepare and taste good.
As always, however, there are better flavoured squashes out there. Crown Prince, Uchiki Kuri, Delicata, Kabocha, Acorn and Queensland Blue are all excellent.
At this time of year you should be able to get them from farmer’s markets or you may have grown your own. Such squashes, however, are generally a lot harder to peel and deseed than the good old butternut. So I leave this one entirely to you.
Beans
Large butter beans (lima beans) are the best ones to use in this squash stew. Their size stands up to the chunks of squash and provide a pleasing contrast in both colour and taste.
My preferred beans to use are jarred ones. However, they’re expensive and I only ever buy them when they’re on offer. As I didn’t have any in this particular instance, I used tinned ones instead. Although the stew is still delicious, I do notice the difference.
When I get my act together, I soak and cook dried beans. This is definitely the cheapest option and they taste much better than tinned ones too. However, you do need to plan ahead if going down this route. Something I’m not very good at.
Tomatoes
When it comes to tomatoes, quality really counts. You can use fresh tomatoes if you like, but for most of us at this time of year tinned are the best option. But there are tinned tomatoes and tinned tomatoes.
You tend to get what you pay for. Good quality tinned tomatoes are often more expensive, but in this instance, you get what you pay for and it really does make a difference.
Soffritto
It’s perhaps no surprise that Italians use the holy trinity of finely diced onion, carrot and celery in so many of their recipes. Fry them gently together at the start of a dish and it really adds depth and flavour.
So not to be outdone, I start my squash and butter bean stew with soffritto.
Vegetable Stock
Use a light slightly salted vegetable stock. I usually use water leftover from boiling vegetables. Or failing that, I add a teaspoon of tamari to water. You can use the liquid drained from the cans of beans if you like. I don’t like the flavour, so I discard it. If you do use this and it’s unsalted, you’ll need to adjust the salt levels accordingly.
Herbs And Spices
No self-respecting stew is going to be without garlic and this one is no exception. But what else have I used to flavour it? Well actually not a lot. Squash already has quite a lot of flavour, put that together with soffrito, tomatoes, vegetable stock and sea salt and you already have a flavoursome stew.
Red wine vinegar adds subtle acidic notes, although I’ll use red wine instead if there’s an open bottle in the house.
As for the herbs and spices, there’s cumin seeds, chilli pepper and fresh rosemary. These three together with freshly ground black pepper and sea salt do a wondrous job. They’re all you really need.
If you don’t like your food hot or are catering for children, use a mild chilli, otherwise go as hot as you like. Though maybe not so much that it overwhelms all the other flavours.
How To Make Squash Butter Bean Stew
You don’t need any special culinary skills to make this simple squash and butter bean stew. As long as you can prepare vegetables and open tins, it’s a nice easy recipe.
You’ll find ingredients and full instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1. Make Soffritto
First off, scrub your carrot, then top and tail it. Wash the celery stick and top and tail that too. Peel the onion and dice it finely, then finely dice the carrot and celery.
Warm a large lidded pan over a low to moderate heat. Once it’s hot, add the olive oil, followed by the cumin seeds. This mix, minus the cumin, is a classic soffritto used as the base for stews and the like in Italy.
Allow the cumin seeds to sizzle for a few seconds, then add the diced vegetables along with a pinch of salt. Let the veg cook for ten minutes, but give an occasional stir.
Step 2. Add Squash
Whilst the soffritto is cooking, prepare the squash, garlic, chilli and fresh rosemary.
Peel the garlic, then finely chop it along with the chilli. Remove the needles from the rosemary stalks and discard the latter. Chop the needles finely.
Chopping the garlic first has the added advantage of enabling healthy sulphide compounds, such as allicin, to form. Heat stops this process. Allicin is a powerful antioxidant (Ref: Science Direct), so it’s a shame to lose out on it by cooking garlic immediately after chopping it.
Next peel the squash. If the skin is soft on a butternut, you can leave it on, but if it’s at all hard, remove it. Then remove the membrane and seeds from the middle. I find the easiest way to do this is to slice it into rings, then run a teaspoon around the middle to remove said seeds and stringy bits.
Use a sturdy, but sharp knife to cut the squash. Chop it into roughly two centimetre chunks (not quite an inch). Don’t worry if they’re not the exact same size.
Crank up the heat a little, then add the squash, garlic, chilli and rosemary. Stir and let the squash cook for five minutes with the lid off. Again give an occasional stir.
Step 3. Add Remaining Ingredients
Whilst the squash is cooking, drain and rinse the butterbeans in a sieve. I only do this if using tinned beans. If I cook my own from dried I drain but don’t rinse. If I use jarred, I don’t drain or rinse, but I do reduce the stock by a little.
Open the can of tomatoes and add them to the squash along with the butterbeans, vinegar and stock.
Give it all a good stir, then put the lid on the pan and bring it to the boil. Turn the heat down and let simmer for fifteen minutes or until the squash is just cooked. It should be tender, but not mushy. If a sharp knife slips in easily, it’s done.
Step 4. Taste And Serve
Add a few grinds of black pepper at this point. If you think it needs it, add the salt as well. Taste test for flavour and add more seasoning, if needed. Give everything a good stir.
How much salt you need depends on personal taste, but also how salty your stock is and whether the beans are already salted.
Serve whilst hot. Ladle into bowls then scatter with plenty of chopped parsley. Enjoy on its own or for something more hearty, accompany with some crusty bread, rice, whole grains or quinoa.
Other Warming Vegan Stew Recipes You Might Like
- Bean chilli
- Carlin pea stew with sweet peppers
- Oca peanut stew with kale
- Pumpkin stew with borlotti beans & kale
- Slow cooker vegetable stew
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this squash and butternut stew, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for preparing squash?
Please rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, use the hashtag #tinandthyme so I can see them.
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If you’d like more squash recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Squash Butter Bean Stew. PIN IT.
Squash And Butter Bean Stew
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 large onion or two small ones – finely diced
- 1 large carrot finely diced
- 1 celery stick finely diced
- 1 pinch sea or rock salt
- 1 medium butternut squash weighing approximately 800-900g – peeled, deseeded and cut into 2cm chunks (a bit less than an inch).
- 2 plump cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 1 red chilli mild or hot as you prefer, but deseeded unless you like it really hot – finely chopped
- 3-4 sprig fresh rosemary needles finely chopped
- 800 g tinned butter beans (lima beans) (2 tins) or 450-500g cooked and drained
- 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes
- 1 tsp red wine vinegar or 1 tbsp red wine
- 300 ml light vegetable stock
- ½ tsp sea or rock salt
- good grinding of black pepper
Instructions
- Warm a large lidded pan over a low to moderate heat. Add the olive oil, followed by the cumin seeds.2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp cumin seeds
- Allow the cumin seeds to sizzle for a few seconds, then add the diced onion, celery and carrot along with a pinch of salt. Let the veg cook for ten minutes, but give an occasional stir.1 large onion, 1 large carrot, 1 celery stick, 1 pinch sea or rock salt
- Crank up the heat a little, then add the squash, garlic, chilli and rosemary. Stir and let the squash cook for five minutes, again giving an occasional stir.1 medium butternut squash, 2 plump cloves of garlic, 1 red chilli, 3-4 sprig fresh rosemary
- Add the tomatoes, butterbeans, vinegar and stock. Give a good stir, then cover the pan and bring it to the boil. Turn the heat down and let simmer for fifteen minutes or until the squash is just cooked. It should be tender, but not mushy. If a sharp knife slips in easily, it’s done.800 g tinned butter beans (lima beans), 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes, 1 tsp red wine vinegar, 300 ml light vegetable stock
- Add salt, if necessary and a few grinds of black pepper. Taste test and add more seasoning, if needed.½ tsp sea or rock salt, good grinding of black pepper
- Serve in bowls with a good scattering of chopped parsley. Enjoy on its own, with some crusty bread or on a bed of rice, whole grains or quinoa.
Erin says
I love that this squash butter bean stew is vegan and so easy to make. It’s so hearty and delicious!
Choclette says
I’m all for one pot cooking, it’s nice and simple and usually delicious. Glad you liked my stew too Erin.
Karlie says
“A hug in a bowl” is the perfect description. The combination of garlic, rosemary, squash, and butter beans is my absolute favorite — the epitome of fall.
Choclette says
Hahaha, indeed that’s just what it is. The combination of ingredients in this stew really is a good one.
Kathleen says
Delicious combination of flavours to cheer up a rain soaked November day
Choclette says
Yay! Glad it worked for you. The squash’s bright colour helps too I find.