Warm Up With This Healthy, Hearty And Herby Stew from BOSH!

Herby Stew
(Image credit: Unknown)

Photograph: Lizzie Mayson

Before Greggs were wowing the good people of this country with sausage rolls that were both vegan and widely regarded as delicious, the foodies behind BOSH! were doing it for other traditionally meaty fare – burgers, lasagne, chilli and more – through wildly popular videos on social media and recipe books.

Henry Firth and Ian Theasby, are staying one step ahead of Greggs with their new cookbook, which focuses on the healthy side of vegan food, often by tamping down the fat content – Gregg’s vegan sausage roll, for the record, is high in both fat and saturated fat.

We don’t expect this healthy turn to mean the dishes will be any less flavourful: our experience of the previous cookbook, BISH BASH BOSH!, is that the BOSH! guys expertly call on herbs, spices, rich ingredients like yeast extract and simple culinary techniques to fill the flavour void left by the absence of animal fat.

While we’re digging into the new BOSH! Healthy Vegan this week for a forthcoming review, the duo have shared this winter warmer for you to try. As long as you don’t skip any ingredients we wager this will match any meat-based stew.

BOSH! Hearty, Herby Stew Recipe

Ingredients (Serves Two)

  • 3 echalion (banana) shallots (about 100g)
  • 2 large garlic cloves
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 celery stick
  • 8 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 4 fresh sage leaves
  • 250g new potatoes
  • 400g canned green lentils in water
  • 400g canned cannellini beans in water
  • 200g cavolo nero
  • 15g fresh parsley leaves
  • 1 lemon
  • 1½ tbsp olive oil
  • 50ml white wine
  • 250ml vegetable stock
  • 500ml water
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1tsp yeast extract (eg Marmite)
  • 2tbsp nutritional yeast
  • Salt and black pepper

Method

  1. Prep the ingredients. Peel and finely dice the shallots, peel and grate the garlic, peel and finely chop the carrots, trim and thinly slice the celery, pick the thyme and rosemary leaves from the sprigs and finely chop, and thinly slice the sage leaves. Slice any larger potatoes so they are all a similar size. Drain and rinse the green lentils and cannellini beans. Remove the tough stems from the cavolo nero and shred the leaves. Roughly chop the parsley and halve the lemon.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the shallots, carrots, celery and a pinch of salt to the pan and cook, stirring, for four to five minutes.
  3. Add the garlic and stir for one minute. Add the thyme and rosemary and stir for a further minute. Add the wine and simmer for one minute.
  4. Add the vegetable stock, water, bay leaf and mustard and bring to a gentle simmer. Add the new potatoes and cook for 12-15 minutes until the potatoes are tender, then taste and season to perfection with salt and pepper.
  5. Add the lentils and cannellini beans to the stew, along with the juice of half the lemon, and simmer for three to four minutes.
  6. Add the cavolo nero, sage, yeast extract, 10g of the parsley and stir for two minutes. Taste the stew, check the tenderness of the potatoes and season again with salt and pepper.
  7. Ladle the stew into bowls, squeeze over lemon juice to taste, and season with salt and pepper if needed. Sprinkle with the nutritional yeast and the remaining parsley and serve immediately with crusty wholemeal bread.

Vegan Cook Book

(Image credit: Unknown)

BOSH! Healthy Vegan: Over 80 Brand New Simple and Delicious Plant Based Recipes from the Sunday Times Bestselling Vegan Cook Book Authors.

£8.99

Buy now

Jonathan Shannon
Former editor

Jonathan Shannon was the editor of the Coach website from 2016 to 2024, developing a wide-ranging experience of health and fitness. Jonathan took up running while editing Coach and used the training plans on the site to run a sub-40min 10K, 1hr 28min half marathon and 3hr 6min marathon. He’s an advocate of cycling to work and is Coach’s e-bike reviewer, and not just because he lives up a bit of a hill. He also reviews fitness trackers and other workout gear.