VeganMoFo Day 15 - Bountiful Autumn Stew

A lot of hand chopping with this stew. This one comes from the September 2009 McDougall newsletter.

Bountiful Autumn Stew

This vibrant stew takes advantage of many of the garden fresh vegetables available at this time of year.

Preparation Time:  20 minutes (need cooked rice)
Cooking Time:  45 minutes
Servings:  6-8

1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
4 cups vegetable broth
3 cups peeled and diced yams
2 cups tightly packed chopped kale
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1  15 ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 large chopped fresh tomatoes
2 zucchini, chopped
2 cups cooked brown rice
1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Place the onion, garlic and ginger in a large pot with a tablespoon or 2 of the broth.  Cook, stirring frequently, until onion softens and turns translucent.  Add the remaining broth, the yams, kale, soy sauce, mustard and crushed pepper.  Mix well, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered for about 15 minutes.  Add the beans, tomatoes and zucchini, return to a simmer and continue to cook for another 15 minutes.  Stir in the rice, vinegar and pepper.  Cook for another 10 minutes or so until flavors are well blended.

Hints:  Since I usually have dinosaur (lacinato) kale growing in my garden, that’s what I use in this recipe.  I usually remove the tough inner stem from any kale that I use, then chop into bite-sized pieces.  To easily remove the inner stem, just grab the bottom of the stem with one hand and pull the other hand firmly along the stem of the kale.  The leafy part should easily separate from the stem.  Substitute 1 ½ cups cooked beans for the canned beans, if desired.


Since I don't have a garden in my third floor walk-up apartment, I used frozen kale. For convenience I used frozen diced onions, but hand-chopped the other fresh veggies. I wish I could find the frozen sweet potatoes that Jeff Novick talks about in his Fast Food 4: Beyond the Basics DVD. That stuff is like trying to cut through rocks, they're so hard! By the time I was done with all the chopping my poor arthritic fingers were swollen and sore.

I did use the crushed red pepper, and my husband loved that I did, but it was way to much heat for me. I would have liked this stew better without it.

I also had to cook this for almost an hour total before my sweet potatoes were soft enough to eat. I've complained abut my stove here in the past. Foods cooked go right into a boil even on the lowest settings unless I put 2 flame tamers in place. For something like this, I start it on a burner without the tamers, then move it over to a burner with them to simmer. Hard to regulate, so I guess the simmer temp was a bit too low to cook those taters within the same time frame the recipe gave. It was a problem on my end, not the recipe's.

I can't say yet whether I would make this stew again in the future. My husband liked it more than me, so I guess if I wanted to make him a special treat I would make it again.

And recruit someone to help with the chopping!