Lokanta stew

A lokanta or 'tradesmen's restaurant' is where you can find delicious home-cooked style food in Turkey – such as this roasted vegetable stew with butterbeans.

Lokanta stew. Credit: Nigel Slater's Middle East

• serves

  4

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  1:30 hour

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 6 capsicum (peppers), assorted red and yellow, deseeded and quartered
• 400 g (14 oz) tomatoes, assorted sizes and colours
• 20 thyme sprigs
• 120 ml (6 tbsp) olive oil
• 2 400 g tins butter beans, drained
• 2 tsp ground allspice
• 350 g (12 oz) green beans
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C Fan/Gas 6).
2. Transfer the onion and other vegetables to a roasting tin with the whole thyme sprigs and trickle over the olive oil. Roast the vegetables for 1 hour.
3. Add the butter beans and ground allspice to the roasting tray and mix well, making sure that any dry parts are well coated in olive oil. Bake for a further 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, cut the stem ends off the green beans. Cook in a pan of boiling salted water for 4 minutes. Remove and refresh in a bowl of iced water.
5. Fold the green beans into the roasted vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.