Vegetarian Hunters Stew

The original plan for last night’s dinner was to continue using up every morsel of food we have in the house. With a swag bag full of beautiful Muir Glen tomatoes from the Garden at the Cellar/Muir Glen Vine Dining event and chicken drumsticks in the freezer, left over from my chicken adobo night, I set out to make a sort of hunters stew like the stew from Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Express.

I started by thawing the chicken and decided to cook it in vinegar as I did for the adobo recipe. Unfortunately, the chicken looked really wrong when it started cooking. Let’s just say there was a lot of blood, and it just kept coming. . . and so my stew became vegetarian.

The ingredients: 1 can of tomatoes, 3 cloves garlic, crushed, and chopped finely, 1 can of white beans, rinsed, about 20 teeny tiny potatoes, and about 1/2 cup of orzo

I know, two different starches in one dish; I was feeling physically pretty blah by the time I started cooking last night. I have been having a lot of fun with my really hard workouts lately, but as a result I don’t think I refuel enough.

I seriously chowed down on this dinner.

It was quick and simple. I boiled the potatoes in about a centimeter of water until the water was almost boiled away. To that I added the tomatoes, juice and all, a bit more water, and the garlic and cumin. Once everything was at a nice boil, I dropped in the orzo so that it could soak up the tomato goodness. At the very end, I mixed in the white beans, topped with crushed red pepper, and served myself a giant bowl.

Alongside a glass of Travessia Urban Winery Jester, a red blend made right here in Massachusetts, this meal was perfect comfort food and just what I needed to brighten up an exhausted day. Except, I really wanted nachos, and I still do.

I will be back later with a recap of the Boston Wine Expo, and for the rest of this week I will have lots of great guest posts from recipes to travel posts to a virtual tour of a US wine region. And I will be popping in here and there from Ireland to say hello, hopefully, so check back often!

Are you ready for spring yet?