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Bowl of beans served with rice and naan.

Curried Red Bean Skillet

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 1 review
  • Author: Catherine Perez
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x
  • Category: Main Dish
  • Method: Stove Top
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegan

Description

This Curried Red Bean Skillet is the ultimate vegan dinner recipe loaded with cumin, garlic, and ginger stewed together with tomatoes.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 tsp avocado oil
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1/2 medium red onion, finely diced
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 5 cloves garlic, crushed or finely minced
  • 1 inch fresh ginger, finely minced
  • 1, 15 oz can San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes
  • 1 cup Yukon gold potatoes, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 2, 15 oz cans of red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
  • 2 tbsp almond butter (optional, but makes this dish really rich and creamy)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Warm up some oil in a large skillet and start to bloom your cumin and bay leaves for about 45 seconds to a minute.
  2. Once your cumin is fragrant, add in your onion along with a pinch of salt and allow onion to soften and begin to caramelize.
  3. Stir in your coriander and give it a quick sauté, then add in the garlic and ginger, adding a little more oil or a splash of water to help prevent your ingredients from sticking to the pan.
  4. Pour in your tomatoes and with your cooking spoon start to carefully mash and break down the tomatoes into smaller chunks and cook for about 1-2 minutes.
  5. Add in your potatoes, red beans and vegetable broth and bring your mix to a low simmer, cover with a lid and cook for about 15 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.
  6. Remove the lid from the pan and stir in your almond butter making sure that it dissolves into the stew.
  7. Feel free to add a little splash of water if almond butter is not blending well then cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste then serve as desired.

Notes

To really get the best flavors, focus on layering your flavors. We do this by blooming the spices in the beginning and then slowly developing the remaining aromatics. While they are extra steps, it helps to elevate all of the complex flavors in this dish. Don’t take the short cut.

Bloom your spices. If you’ve never heard of blooming your spices, it simply means allowing them to cook in some oil. Many of the compounds in spices are fat soluble, so cooking them with fat actually helps to bring out the most flavor.

Use whole spices and fresh garlic and ginger. Can’t recommend whole spices enough as they are more elevated in flavor while ground spices tend to lose flavor overtime. Don’t skimp on the fresh garlic and ginger in this dish either as these are flavor builders as well.

INSTANTPOT INSTRUCTIONS: Want to make this in the instant pot? Use the sauté setting and follow the exact steps listed in the instructions, but add your almond butter in along with the veggie broth. Once added in, seal the pressure cooker lid and set to manual pressure for 5 minutes and then manually release the pressure. Give your beans a good stir to make sure the sauce is evenly mixed before serving.