Slow Cooker Sephardic White Bean Stew

It is almost slow cooker weather in Florida!  Granted, that means Highs below 85 degrees, but still, it makes me happy.  In an effort to use expand my slow cooker repertoire to a more healthy variety, I decided to turn to vegetarian cookbooks and happened upon Gil Marks' Olive Trees and Honey.   In it, was a recipe for Sephardic White Beans with Leeks.  While I was making it, it looked more like a side dish than the main dish, so I bulked it up with some zucchini and eggplant I had in the refrigerator.  It made the house smell fantastic and is great over rice for a hearty vegetarian meal. 

I didn't take any pictures of it while cooking, but I do have photos of the finished product.  I made this in between building a sukkah at my synagogue and celebrating a friend's new baby - not a whole lot of time left over for photography.  Speaking of which, if you are Jewish, Happy Sukkot!  I won't go into the details of the holiday here, so if you would like more information, here's a link. 

Sephardic White Bean Stew - Up Close and Personal

Ingredients:

1 pound dried white beans

I bay leaf

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 leeks, sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch rings, washed, and drained

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups tomato sauce, not heavily seasoned 

1/2 half of a large eggplant, chopped into half-inch pieces

2 zucchini, chopped into half-inch pieces

1 and 1/2 teaspoons table salt

Ground black pepper to taste

Pinch of sugar

Juice of I to 2 lemon

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (for serving)

Recipe:
Place beans and the bay leaf in slow cooker, and cover with two inches of water.  Cook on HIGH for two hours.

While the beans are cooking, heat the oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the leeks and garlic and saute until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add eggplant and zucchini until soft and lightly browned.   Add the tomato sauce, salt, pepper, sugar, and the lemon juice. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the fla­vors meld, about 20 minutes.  You may be able to add all the ingredients to the slow cooker after the two hours are up, but you won't get the same depth of flavor from sauteing the vegetables. 

Pour off bean cooking liquid until the liquid is at the level of the beans.  Remove the bay leaf.  Add the vegetable mixture to the slow cooker and put it on LOW for four to six hours.  Top with the parsley and serve over rice, preferably brown.