Lima-Tomato Stew and Coconut Cheese Biscuits

It's very very cold here. We're talking -38 Celcius, going down to -44 this weekend. This makes me eschew raw food in favor of the cooked, starchy variety...and so, my craving for lima beans surfaced again. I didn't measure the following recipe exactly because I started off by cooking a full bag of limas in the slow cooker, then removing 2 cups of the cooked beans to use in my Luscious Lima Bean Spread. The remainder became Lima-Tomato Stew, something I crave every few months. To go with it, I made some coconut flour biscuits (the only kind of flour I brought with me to the Yukon...it's going to be heavily experimented with in the next few months). I made cheese biscuits because a certain someone I know loves his cheese...he loved the biscuits too and ate 4 at one go. I didn't make up that recipe, it came from here. The only thing I would change next time is to add more onion powder and perhaps some spices too...(their coconut bread recipe is good too, but too sweet to go with a stew.)

Lima-Tomato Stew

about 1/2 bag of baby lima beans, dried...or about 3 cups cooked
1 small tin of whole tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp rosemary
4 cloves garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper

If you are cooking beans from scratch, you can do the following quick-cook method: put dried beans in a pot with lots of water, and boil for 2 minutes. Take off heat, cover tightly and let sit 1 hour (this stands in for the overnight soaking that is part of the usual dried-bean process). Then rinse your beans and either put in a slow cooker on high for 2 hours (that is all it took for mine!!) or back in the pot with more water, and simmer on the stove till tender, I am guessing a little over an hour.

Then, when beans are tender but not totally falling apart, drain and rinse them and leave in sink to cool while prepping the rest of the stew:

Saute your onion in a little olive oil in a medium pot till golden. Add in the rosemary halfway through and enjoy the aroma. Then add the tomatoes (chopped up) with their juice, the beans, the garlic, and some salt and pepper. Stew this as long as you like on low...at least 15 minutes to let the flavors meld. Then adjust seasonings and serve with biscuits and asparagus, or with a salad, or in smaller portions as a side dish to a larger meal. You can also top it with cheese - mozzarella or cheddar are great with this.

Easy, yummy. Good for winter nights. Serves at least four and tastes even better left over!