Three-Bean Cowboy Stew

Cooking with tinned ingredients has become more popular since the pandemic due to supermarket shortages and people needing to eat more frugally after sadly losing their jobs or livelihoods. Thankfully, you can still eat healthily and imaginatively with tinned goods and Three-Bean Cowboy Stew from Two Chubby Cubs is a belly-busting vegetable stew which you can make for less than £1 per head.

You’ll need a few fresh ingredients and dried herbs (see below) to make the tins sing, but nothing out of the ordinary. This dish might not look particularly appetising, however it’s tasty and will provide 6 generous portions which those with big appetites can serve with a small portion of rice.

Cowboy stew is best known to contain meat, so if you’re looking for a meat-based alternative check out campfire stew which uses gammon.

Recipe: Three-Bean Cowboy Stew

Calories: 422 per serving (without rice)

Serves: 6

Book: Two Chubby Cubs – The Cookbook

Prep time: Approx 20 mins

Cooking time: Approx 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 1 large red pepper (finely diced)
• 1 large white onion (finely diced)
• 1 small red chilli (chopped, if you like it spicy)
• 3 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• 1 tbsp hot chilli powder
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 x 400g tin of baked beans (use BBQ beans if you can find them)
• 1 x 400g tin of butter beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1 x 400g tin of red kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1 large sweet potato (peeled and cut into chunks)
• 300g red lentils
• 8 sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 litre stock (either beef or use a vegetarian alternative if you want to keep it veggie)

Cost per portion: Approx £0.99 (without rice)

Method:

Find a decent pan that will hold all your ingredients.

Gently fry the red pepper, onion and chilli in a little oil, adding the crushed garlic, chilli powder, smoked paprika and cumin for a couple of minutes at the end.

Tip everything else into the pan and give it all a good stir. Bring to the boil, then leave to simmer over a low heat for an hour or 2 – do keep checking on it lest it needs a touch more stock.

When you’re ready to serve, ladle it out over cooked rice.