Easy €1 wholefood stew - sweet potato, spinach and bean

This is a really tasty wholesome stew based on sweet potatoes, spinach and haricot beans. It's easy, tasty and freezes well too. Sweet potatoes are great sources of slow releasing carbohydrates we always cook them with the skin on.  

Takes 25 minutes

Serves 5

Ingredients

2 cloves of garlic

1 bunch of scallions/spring onions

150g mushrooms

750g sweet potato

200g baby spinach

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

3 tins of cheap baked beans (we have a trick for these!) or 3 tins of any cooked beans/pulse

750ml veg stock

2 tbsp Tamari

1 tbsp curry powder

1.5 tsp Salt

½ tsp black pepper

Juice ½ lime/lemon

Directions

• Finely chop the scallions/spring onions, the cloves of garlic and the mushrooms.
• Put a wide bottomed non-stick pan on a high heat. Once hot add the chopped scallions and fry for 3 minutes. Then add the prepared garlic. We didn’t use any oil but if you prefer to use oil add a tablespoon now. Cook for a further minute
• Add the chopped mushrooms and cook for 4-5 minutes stirring occasionally, once they start to stick to the bottom of the pan and start to brown they are done. 
• While the mushrooms are cooking, chop the sweet potatoes into small bite-size pieces.
• Add the chopped sweet potatoes, a 1 tsp of salt and 500ml of the veg stock and give a good stir. Put a lid on and leave to sweat for 10 minutes. The sweet potatoes will steam in their own juices and the veg stock.
• Drain and rinse the tinned beans and wash off all the tomato sauce.
• Add the 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and the drained and rinsed beans and stir mixing it well.
• Add the curry powder, black pepper and the tamari.
• Add the remaining 250ml of veg stock and the spinach and put the lid on for a further 2-3 minutes to steam the spinach. 
• Remove the lids and mix and incorporate the spinach. 
• Taste and adjust the seasoning.
• Squeeze in the juice of the lime/lemon.
• Enjoy with a nice slice of good bread or grain of choice.