October 17, 2022

Vegan Chickpea Stew

Name: Vegan Chickpea Stew
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 1
Ingredients: 2 Tbsp Olive Oil; 1 Medium onion, diced; ½ green bell pepper, diced,; ½ red bell pepper, diced; 3 medium cloves garlic, minced; Handful fresh parsley, leaves (roughly chopped) and stems (finely chopped) separated; 1 Tbsp Tomato Puree / Paste; 1 tbsp sweet smoked paprika; 1 tsp hot smoked paprika; ½ tsp oregano; ½ teaspoon Onion Powder; ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder; 1 540g jar chickpeas, drained (you can substitute with a 400g tin or 250g dried chickpeas soaked overnight and pre-cooked); Around 250g green beans, ends trimmed; 1 Bay Leaf; 500ml veg stock; 1 tsp Sherry Vinegar

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This is a gluten-free vegan chickpea stew recipe that’s perfect on a cold winter’s day, but is equally good served cold in summer. Its flavour packs a serious punch, and I know you’ll keep coming back to it!

But strangely for such a perfect vegan winter stew, it’s a recipe I developed when living in Portugal.

Travel is daunting for gluten-free vegetarians, and when I first moved to Porto food was high on my list of anxieties.

Despite finding some surprisingly good gluten free vegan spots my stress levels were hitting overdrive. Thankfully, delicious produce isn’t hard to find in Portugal.

Jarred Chickpeas & Green Beans

After a week or so of eating out, vegetables were high on my list when I first ventured down the supermarket aisle. And two things struck me right away: huge bunches of leafy green parsley, and huge punnets of feijao verde – green beans.

Later, I came across another gem. Jarred chickpeas.

Ultimately, these are the same as the canned versions, and if that’s what you have to hand you’ll still get a delicious meal. But what sets the jarred versions of these legumes apart is how incredibly large, soft and creamy they are. And when mixed with juicy green beans and flavorful parsley in this stew, they create the most wonderfully flavourful and comforting dish.

On the way home from the supermarket, I couldn’t resist a trip to Porto’s Bolhao market to find my absolute favourite – smoked paprika… and so I simply had to make this vegan chickpea stew.

Start with a sofrito of diced onion and bell pepper and garlic, then create a paste with tomato puree (or tomato paste if you’re in North America). Add the smoky spice mix, legumes and vegetable stock and simmer until reduced – or leave it soupy and eat with gluten free bread, your choice.

Eat hot or serve cold.

Ingredients List

Sofrito

A staple in so much of the cuisines around the world, a base of flavourful aromatics is the basic building block of deliciousness. So too in this vegan chickpea stew: start with onions, celery, and bell pepper, and cook down in extra virgin olive oil until soft. Add garlic and soften that too – and that’s the base of your stew.

Herbs

I love adding parsley at the end as a garnish, but I also love using the stems to flavour the dish as it’s cooking. Chop the stems finely and add them when cooking, and garnish with the leaves at the end.

Green Beans

These aren’t essential to this vegan chickpea stew, but they lend another interesting texture alongside the chickpeas, and they also add a touch of colour to help brighten the dish.

Spinach would be a great substitution here!

Tomatoes

Of all the ingredients in my pantry, canned tomatoes are probably the most plentiful. I treat it like toilet roll – I never want to run out, so I buy in bulk and replenish my stock frequently!

But, in this vegan chickpea stew I don’t like to use them. Instead, I use 1 tbsp tomato puree.

If you want to add canned tomatoes at this stage then feel free to do so. You’ll get a less intense flavour that feels fresher and somewhat soupier, but my preference is for the deeper flavour of the tomato puree.

Speaking of which, make sure you leave the tomato puree to hang out with sofrito for a few minutes once you’ve added it! For maximum flavour, it should be allowed time to caramelise and grow in complexity before adding the spices.

Chickpeas

This is the main ingredient and the star of the show! And let me tell you not all chickpeas are created equal!

This recipe really calls for the jarred version if you can get it. Canned chickpeas are cooked in the can, which can make them hard. We want the luscious creamy texture of jarred legumes in our vegan chickpea stew!

That said, canned chickpeas are essentialy the same thing as jarred just cooked differently. If all you have on hand is the stuff in a tin then feel free to use – but if you get the chance to try jarred chickpeas (especially in Portugal where a four-portion jar costs €0.69) then be sure to give them a try!

Smoky Spice Mix

Spanish smoked paprika is what this recipe calls for and it pays to go the extra mile and keep this in your pantry, not just for this vegan chickpea stew, but also for my weeknight vegan bean chili as well!

Spanish smoked paprika comes in a variety of different types, but what I’m using here is La Chinata brand sweet and hot varieties – the combination allows you to add the desired heat alongside the sweet and smoky flavour profile of the dish.

To the paprika, I add onion powder, garlic powder, oregano and a pinch of chili flakes to make an even more flavourful mix. I’ve written it up in a little more detail here.

Stock

If you have a homemade vegan stock to use here, go right ahead! If not, a gluten free stock cube will be absolutely fine.

Serve this warming, smoky stew with rice!