Lamb stew with legumes and vegetables
( Agnello in umido con verdure )

Recipe for lamb stew with legumes (pulses) and vegetables

Preparation

• - Wash cherry tomatoes, boil them in hot water for few seconds, peel and halve.
• - Chop onions finely.
• - Prepare your vegetable stock (or simplier water) and keep it boiling.
• - Put olive oil, bay leaf, onions in a large saucepan.
• - Remove visible fat from the lamb pieces.
• - Wash lamb pieces, pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper and place in the saucepan, after seasoning with salt.

Cooking

• - Fry lightly lamb pieces until golden on very gentle heat.
• - Pour in wine and let it evaporate, turning your meat pieces.
• - At this point add cherry tomatoes and tomato paste.
  Stir and continue cooking, half-covered.
  Add your vegetable stock, if necessary.
• - Thaw legumes and vegetables using the boiling stock.
  Read carefully the cooking time of every frozen ingredient. If they are the same you can thaw the ingredients all together otherwise you should thaw them separately.
  In any case you have to pour both the legumes and vegetables, still frozen, in boiling water and then bring to the boil again.
  At this point remove them with a skimming ladle.
  Do not throw your stock. It will be necessary to cook your lamb.
• - Put apart all vegetables and legumes.
  Remember to cut off asparagus tips and put them apart, they must be added to lamb meat only few minutes before turning off the stove.
• - Calculate when adding your thawed vegetables and pulses.
  Check their cooking time and calculate lamb takes about 60 minutes.
  From these data you'll be able to know when adding the various vegetables.
  If you evaluate your lamb requires more time to finish cooking wait before adding vegetables and legumes.
• - Continue cooking over a low heat, half-covered, stirring now and then, until both lamb and vegetables are tender and cooking juices are well reduced, adding other hot water or stock when necessary (a ladle at a time).

Just before serving

• - Have you remembered to add your asparagus tips?
• - Add parsley and chives just before turning off the stove.
• - Taste to determine if your dish needs added salt.
• - Wait for some minutes before serving.
• - Serve hot or warm.

Note

Tips

• - For an healthier recipe, without sauteing. Avoid sauteing, your liver will thank you! Skip the first step and put all lamb pieces, bay leaf, onions, wine, cherry tomatoes and tomato paste in the pan. Don't change the other steps. Add olive oil once turned off the stove to preserve its important nutritional properties and to give more flavor to your dish.
  Besides this is an ideal recipe for all people who have to follow a low salt diet. It's so rich in ingredients and aromatics that it's very tasty with no salt too!
  Are you skeptical and don't you believe it's a tasty dish without sauteing onion and lamb in the olive oil? You have only to make a test. Let me know ...
• - If you prepare this dish in spring, you can use fresh vegetables but with different doses. Here they are!
  Fresh artichokes: 1.0 to 1.1 pound
  Fresh asparagus: 1.0 to 1.1 pound
  Peas in the pod: 1.1 pound
  Fava beans in the pod: 1 3/4 pound.
  The same weight for French beans and jackdaws.
• - For a quicker recipe: use 1 can cherry tomatoes
• - Your dish must be tastier if you have a crock pot.
• - Use fresh parsley and chives in season for the best result!

Menu planning

• - It's difficult you have the time for this lamb stew with vegetables and pulses in the weekdays. My tip is to prepare this lamb stew for your Sunday dinner or a dinner party with your friends if you want to astonish them with an authentic recipe from the South of Italy. In this case choose lamb pieces very carefully not to embarrass your guests with fork and knife.
  Start your menu with a savory pie and tart accompanied by assorted salami, then serve this lamb stew and at the end a cake such as crostata (seasonal fruit tart) or other typical Italian dessert. This is a real Italian menu!

Useful links for this recipe

• - Want to know more on artichokes or lamb? follow the links.
• - Consult our directories on savory pies and desserts to look for recipe ideas, suitable for planning your special menu.
• - If you want to know more about fat and lamb read goes to the page dedicated to lamb with potatoes and mushrooms.

Healthy eating

• - This lamb dish is very rich in protein, very close to the maximum recommended daily intake according to the European guideline daily amounts.
  Total fat doesn't seem very high but I calculated nutrition facts considering muscle tissue free of visible fat.
  This means to choose lean meat with visible fat that is easy to remove. If these characteristics change the nutritional data may vary greatly. Read what I've just written on the lamb recipe with mushrooms and potatoes.
  Besides I remember you it isn't correct to combine two protein sources together: meat and legumes (pulses) in this case.
  My tip is to choose the lamb stew with vegetables and legumes for a special occasion or your Sunday dinner but not frequently.
  Anyway if you want to prepare it for your family dinner the solution is planning very well the other meals of the day. Prefer vegetables, fruit and foods source of carbohydrates (total carbohydrates are very low in this lamb stew) but in the right quantity. What about a tasty minestrone served on toasted bread for lunch? Remember: the bread portion is 50g (1 3/4 ounces)
  Accompany your lamb stew with a bread portion and fresh seasonal fruit.
• - This lamb dish has 12.5g of fiber (daily intake is 30g).
• - The recommended portions of meat per week must not be more than 3 to 4, included cuts (not more than one per week).
  Anyway give preference to poultry.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Lamb stew with legumes and vegetables "?

Pair this lamb stew dish with Dolcetto d'Alba (red wine from Piedmont)