Amolesili Lobio
Lobio is a beans and walnut stew from Georgia, eastern Europe. Its a traditional dish with a great amount of variations (all with coriander and garlic). It can be served both hot and cold, and is traditionally stored in a clay pot and served with flatbread. Amolesili Lobio is a version that is well documented over the net, so we gathered several recipes and made our own version using our stew powers to discern the good ideas from the bad ones.
Ingredients
- ½ kilo red kidney beans
- 2 medium golden onions
- 1 large leek
- 1 medium sized carrot
- 1 cup of toasted walnuts
- ½ cup of olive oil
- 5 to 6 cloves of garlic
- ¼ cup fresh dill
- ¼ cup fresh coriander
- ½ cup fresh parsley
- 2 chili peppers of medium strength.
- 1 liter of chicken stock
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
Optional:
- Pomegranate juice
Preparation
First soak the kidney beans for a few hours, you can use hot water if you’re in a hurry, it will wrinkle your beans but since Lobio is more of a puree your beans can be wrinkly and busted.
Do the leek first, because the green part of the leek is going to cook with the beans.
When your beans are soaked and ready, put them in the heaviest pot you can find and add the leek greens and the chicken stock. The water should be about 2 fingers above the beans. Boil them at medium heat for at least 45 - 60 minutes. The beans have to be very soft, slightly overcooked, add water if necessary.
While the beans are cooking chop up the rest of your vegetables, the carrots, onions, and the white part of the leek. Put them in a large pan or pot with olive oil and add the chopped garlic and chili peppers just before the leek turns golden.
The beans will still not be ready, so put your walnuts in a pan and toast them, its OK if some come out a bit charred. Put the walnuts and about two spoon fulls of olive oil in a food processor and turn it all into a very thin puree, add olive oil or walnuts freely to make sure the consistency is right. When ready add the finely chopped dill, coriander, and parsley.
By now the beans will be almost done so try one and make sure its nice and soft. When they are ready turn the heat to medium and add the vegetable mix we did earlier. Mix the stew well and separate about two cups of beans and mash them with a fork, then add them back into the stew.
Finally turn off the stew completely and add the walnut and herbs. Last of all, add the wine vinegar and optionally a dash of pomegranate juice and stir it all well. Try it out and add salt or pepper if needed.
Let it thicken for 10 minutes before serving with abundant amounts of brown bread or flatbread.
This stew will serve 6 hungry stew lovers.