19 hours Ago By Phoebe Cornish
Stews are a staple in winter home cooking, with rich cuts of meat and hearty root vegetables popular in comforting dinners. With the right recipes, stews can be enjoyed throughout the year, even in warmer weather. All it takes is a few easy swaps to reflect what's in season when picking your vegetables and swapping rich beef for something lighter.
Sharing a recipe on his website , Jamie Oliver revealed his go-to spring stew, which combines chicken, bacon and pearl barley with "loads of lovely veg". He said: "Humble pearl barley – a brilliant store-cupboard staple – is a source of several essential vitamins and minerals, especially manganese, which we need for good bone health." Ingredients Olive oil Two rashers of higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon Two sprigs of fresh rosemary Two onions Two carrots 400g new potatoes 100g pearl barley One heaped tablespoon of plain wholemeal flour 500ml organic chicken stock 500ml semi-skimmed milk Two courgettes A bunch of asparagus (350g) 200g green beans Four x 120g free-range skinless chicken breasts One tablespoon mint sauce Method For this recipe , you'll need a large casserole dish, preferably with a lid.
Add one tablespoon of olive oil to the dish and set it on medium heat on the stove. Finely slice two rashers of smoked streaky bacon and add them to the dish. Then, strip in the leaves from two sprigs of fresh rosemary and add to the bacon.
Leave the contents of the pan to cook until golden, stirring regularly. Meanwhile, start prepping your vegetables. The aim is to chop everything roughly the same size—around 2cm—stirring each vegetable into the pan as you prepare it.
Once chopped, add the onions, followed by the carrots and potatoes, leaving the rest of the vegetables for later. Stir in 100g of pearl barley and cook for 10 minutes or until softening. Ensure the vegetables and barley don't turn too deep in colour, and stir regularly.
Add one heaped tablespoon of plain wholemeal flour and stir through. Gradually pour in 500ml of chicken stock and 500ml of semi-skimmed milk, stirring as you go. Simmer for 10 minutes while you trim and quarter two courgettes lengthways, trim the woody ends off one bunch of asparagus (350g), trim just the stalk end off 200g of green beans, then chop it all into 2cm chunks.
Chop four 120g chicken breasts into 2cm chunks, just like the vegetables, then stir the chicken and courgettes into the pan. Cover the dish with a scrunched sheet of wet greaseproof paper and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes. Give the stew a good stir, add the asparagus and beans, replace the paper and cook for 20 minutes or until thickened and cooked through, stirring occasionally.
Finally, stir in one tablespoon of mint sauce through the stew, taste, season to perfection, and serve hot from the dish..
