Green Bean Stew - Southern European Recipe

Every so often I make a good old fashioned green bean stew.

They are healthy for growing children and for us adults.

This recipe was handed down to me by my mother, it is a traditional stew made in Croatia and has a strong flavour to it. I use mild herbs and spices for the children, so that it isn't too hot, but if you like spicy foods you can add a little more of the hot paprika and some chilli.

Ingredients

300g of cut green beans
1 onion
2 potatoes
3 carrots
1 fresh capsicum
3 smoked sausages
pinch of pepper
1 tablespoon of mild paprika
1 teaspoon of Vegeta
1 teaspoon of salt

cooking oil for pan and for pot
about 3 to 4 tablespoons of flour

and water

Step 1
Cut up the onions, carrots, capsicums and potatoes (make sure the potatoes are in 3 x 3cm cm cubes and the smoked sausages into bite size pieces.

Then stir fry the onions on oil until they soften up.
then add your carrots and capsicum and stir fry for about 5 minutes.

Step 2
Add the green beans and stir fry for about 5 minutes after which you add the potatoes.

Step 3
Then add about 1 to 1.5 l of water, enough so the water covers 1 to 2 cm above the vegetables, and add your smoked sausages.

Here is where you add all the herbs and spices except for the paprika (this is needed later), stir it all up and let it cook for about half an hour.
You may need to add some water during this 30 minutes, make sure the water level is always above the mix.

Step 4

On your frying pan, heat up a bit of oil, no more than 50ml, then add your flour, the amount of flour shall depend on the amount of oil. The mix has to be a little thicker, but not too thick, as shown in the photo.

Once the mix has changed a little in colour, then add your paprika and stir it all until it is all nice and even.

Then add mix this up in the pot and stir well for a minute until your mix is all nice and even and then leave it to cook for an added 5 minutes.

Once you take it off the oven for a minute or two, put a lid on it until luch or dinner time, you want to serve this nice and hot.

So this was the lunch I made for my family today!

For dinner I took the easy way out and quickly baked a basted chicken and fried up some chips!

I recommend this recipe to anyone who enjoys cooked vegetables, you can leave out the sausages, but then it doesn't have the traditional flavour. Maybe I can try some eggplant or some sort of pumpkin instead of sausages, with which I would add then some cauliflower, just to see how it tastes. If anyone tries this with a replacement for the sausages please share me a link to your post or in the comments tell me how it was and what you used.

Thank you for reading.