A tale of beans, barley and chick peas

I was planning on blogging tonight's dinner (chicken, chick pea and [kosher] chorizo stew if you're asking) but when I got home from delivering my first Weight Watchers meeting (had to get that in somewhere) I was so exhausted that I gobbled it all up without taking a picture first. So that will have to wait until next week.

But seeing as we're already in the realm of no pictures, I'm going to indulge Gina, who specifically asked me to blog my cholent recipe - and wasn't interested in the fact that a)I can't take a photo of it on Shabbos for obvious reasons and b)it really wouldn't look that appetizing after 24 hours in a slow cooker anyway.

Appearances not withstanding though, my cholent recipe (traditional Sabbath bean stew for the uninitiated) is especially delicious and extremely low in fat! So here goes!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup haricot beans, soaked in cold water overnight
1/2 cup pearl barley, rinsed well
1 large onion, sliced
1 leek, sliced
150g chopped butternut squash
2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
6 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped
2 tablespoons paprika
1/2 tsp hot paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
200g chicken breast, cubed
150g shin meat, trimmed of fat as much as possible and cut into large chunks
1 pint cold water

And that, my friends, is it. You bung it in the slow cooker on high, turn it down to low after about 4 hours, and it's ready to roll on Shabbos morning. I have to tell you that this recipe did nearly start World War 3 in my house - you'd have thought I was starting to add pork to the beans, not chicken... but after a couple of months of no further complaints made, the husband and children did sheepishly admit that they rather liked the addition of the chicken after all.... What can I tell you? A propointer always knows best.