Tunisian Red Bean Stew

adapted from the International Vegetarian Union's Tunisian Yam and Red Bean Stew

Serves 10 (main dish servings)
Soaking time: 8 hours • Passive cooking time: 4-6 hours on high, 8-10 on low • Active cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 cup small dried red beans, sorted, rinsed, and soaked 8 hours (or 1 can small red beans)
1 large onion, chopped
2 large red bell peppers, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced or 1 tsp ground ginger
2 medium potatoes, chopped into 1/2-inch cubes
3 cups vegetable stock or water
2 large tomatoes, diced or 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1-3 jalapeno pepper, minced (adjust this to your preference)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter


Steps:

1. Sort through the dry beans, rinse with cold water, and cover with an inch of water. Let soak for 8 hours until rehydrated. After rehydrating, drain and rinse the beans.

2. Add rehydrated beans and all ingredients except peanut butter to a crock pot, and mix well.

3. Cover and cook either 4 to 6 hours on high or 8 to 10 hours on low. After cooking, make sure potatoes and beans are tender.

4. About 10 minutes before serving, ladle some of the stew juices into a bowl and mix in the peanut butter. Stir well. Add mixture back to crockpot.


Notes: This recipe originally calls for yams. As DH does not care for yams, we substituted potatoes. This stew came out a little thinner than I like, so next time around, I would add only 2 cups of liquid. The stew turns out surprisingly spicy, to adjust the spices if you don't like spicy. No rice in this recipe, but it could easily be served over rice. We served this with corn tortillas on the side.

Historical context: Tunisia is the northern most country on the African continent and benefits greatly from its trade with Europe. Tunisian food combines Arabic, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and French influences. In Tunisia, it is said that the amount of love a wife feels for her husband is measured by the amount of hot pepper she puts in the meal. So if you can handle the spice, add some peppers for your spouse/partner!

5/26 EDIT: On subsequent servings of this stew, I found I grew very tired of eating it. Not a good sign for me! I doubt I will be making this one again. You've been forewarned.