Parmesan Rind Bean Stew

I hate throwing out any type of food. I always try my best to use as much as possible. So whenever I get to the end of a chunk of parmesan cheese, I store the rind to a ziplock bag in the freezer. Once I have collected 4 or 5, I use them to make a hearty stew or a soup. It is hard to explain the wonderful depth that these rinds impart. Pure Umami flavor. You just have to try it.

Beans add texture to the stew or soup and also provide protein, fiber and tons of great vitamins and minerals. I use mostly use Cannellini beans, chickpeas and Bulgarian lentils, but really any combination will do. Soaking the beans in this recipe and any others helps us access the nutrition and also helps keep the beans whole while they are cooking.

Carrots and potatoes are generally my staples with stews. I then add whatever is in the fridge that feels like it would be good. That includes mushrooms, tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, burdock root, kale, spinach or any other greens.

As always both the mushroom powders and astragalus are building immunity and hiding it in delicious foods.

I have grown to love cooking stews in a dutch oven and this recipe is no exception.. They just do magical things to food. Up until recently the options were limited to super expensive (and indestructible) products from La Creuset, but I recently purchased one from Milo which is really well priced and seems to be just as awesome.

You really can't go wrong here. It is a wonderful recipe to experiment with.

Ingredients

• Up to 4 or 5 parmesan rinds (if you only have 1 that is also fine!)

• ½ cup each of the bean combination you are using.

• 3 small potatoes

• 1 onion 

• 1 carrot

• 1 tablespoon of ghee

• 1 tablespoon of mushroom powder (my go to is the Mushroom Harvest 5 blend)

• 5 slices of astragalus

Instructions

• Soak the beans overnight in cold water. Enough to cover them with an inch or two of water in the bowl

• Melt the ghee and add the onions, fry for 5 minutes on medium heat

• Add chopped carrot and fry for a further two minutes

• Add potatoes and then whatever vegetables you like and continue with 5 minutes of frying

• Add the mushroom powder and coat all the veggies

• Drain the beans and rinse a couple of times

• Add the beans, astragalus and some salt and pepper

• Add cold liquid to about 3 inches above the level of the beans. Water is fine here because there is so much flavor and goodness coming from the mushrooms and the parmesan, but you can also use a broth if you have it available

• Add the parmesan rinds

• Cook in the oven at 300℃ for several hours. I often end up cooking this for 4 or 5 hours!

• Check after a couple of hours and if the water has gone down the stew is starting to dry out, add more water.

• Add any greens you are using, 15 min before serving.