Lamb bean stew

The inspiration for this dish started with a pairing I’d been meaning to try, getting the richness of the lamb paired with the creamy bean texture. The farro’s starch provides the necessary body to the gravy here, and ‘cause the whole grains are sturdy enough to stand up to being cooked way past their usual time, they still come out great!

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs cubed lamb shoulder
• 3/4 cup farro
• 1 cup white beans, sorted & rinsed
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes, liquid drained & reserved
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 cups total tomato juice & chicken stock – see note
• Couple sprigs of thyme & rosemary, stripped and minced
• Paprika, ground pepper, salt to taste.

Note on stock: I use Better than Bouillon chicken stock here, but I take the reserved tomato juice and pour boiling water into it until I have 3 cups, then add enough stock concentrate. The goal here is to get the correct amount of liquid for the beans and the farro, but not to make a soup. From experience, I know farro takes about twice its volume in liquid, while beans-especially navy or great northern-need 2.5x the liquid. Therefore I need 1.5c for the farro, and 2.5c for the beans. The vegetables and lamb will be fine–but more about that later.

Preparation

1. Wash & chop veggies & lamb, prepare beans, set aside liquids. Turn on your Instant Pot to sauté on high, then add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.
2. Once the oil is shimmering, lay in a single layer of lamb. Don’t overcrowd it, let it sit and brown. Flip each piece to evenly brown, then remove to a plate to drain. Brown all the lamb, then we’ll move on to the veggies.
3. Add the onions and stir to achieve a uniform layer. Once the onions have picked up some colour and you can hear more sizzle than steam, introduce the carrots and stir.
4. Once the carrots are also sufficiently sautéed, add the tomatoes & garlic, stir, add spices, stop the heat, add the wine & stir to deglaze, followed by the stock, beans, and farro. You can add the lamb now or later, see note.
5. Close the lid and start the instant pot on high pressure for 50 minutes (or as long as you normally cook white beans for–with very new beans I’ve had good results from as little as 40 minutes. Farro and other grains take about 12 minutes to cook, so you won’t be undercooking the grain.)
6. Let the stew naturally release for around 20 minutes. If you held the meat, now is a good time to re-add it and get it back up to temp.

Serve with crusty bread.

Notes

If the lamb is added before pressure cooking, it’ll be very thoroughly cooked! However, if it’s left to sit covered, it may be considered unsafe on some diets. So, choose your adventure here. The lamb will be definitely cooked if inserted, but very dry. It’ll come back up to temp just fine if re-added.