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Yotam Ottolenghi’s Bkeila, Potato, and Butter Bean Stew
From the book
Ottolenghi FLAVOUR
A guide to unlocking the complex flavour in simple vegetables
With a focus on creative cooking processes and clever ingredient pairing
Including recipes for everything from midweek meals to weekend feasts
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Introduction from Yotam Ottolenghi
Tunisian Jews make a condiment called pkaila or bkeila, which is extraordinary. It is prepared by cooking down plenty of spinach for hours in a generous quantity of oil. The spinach – Swiss chard is often used as well – loses all its water, and very slowly fries in the oil, resulting in a small amount of greasy paste as black as crude oil, which is used to flavour all kinds of soups and stews. Our version here is modified and highly simplified but it still imparts an essence-of-spinach flavour in this rustic stew, which makes it rather special; the kind of dish you keep coming back to for sustenance and comfort.
If you have time to make the butter beans in smoked cascabel oil (p. 41 of Ottolenghi FLAVOUR), or indeed if you’ve cleverly made a stash already, they are a wonderful addition to this stew in place of the plain butter beans.
The stew will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to a month.
Ingredients
Method
1. Put the herbs and spinach into a food processor in batches and pulse until finely chopped (or finely chop by hand). Set aside.
2. Put 75ml of oil into a large, heavy-based pot on a medium heat. Add the onion and gently fry for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden. Add the garlic, chillies and spices, and continue to cook for 6 minutes, stirring often.
3. Increase the heat to high and add the chopped spinach and herbs to the pot along with the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the spinach turns a dark green, almost grey colour. You want the spinach to catch a bit at the bottom, but not to burn, so turn the heat down if necessary. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice, stock and 2 teaspoons of salt, scraping the bottom with a spatula as you go. Bring to a rapid simmer, then lower the heat to medium, add the potatoes and gently cook until they are soft all the way through, about 25 minutes. Add the butter beans and cook until warmed through, about 5 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 20g of coriander. Divide between four bowls, drizzle with some oil and serve with the lemon wedges alongside.
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