Spanish Chorizo & Butter Bean Slow Cooker Stew

This Spanish stew recipe has such intense flavours whilst still being super comforting and warming. This chorizo and bean stew offers a low-effort solution to a weeknight dinner.

Why this recipe works

A chorizo stew is always a winner as the intense flavours from the spicy, salty, fatty meat offer the best foundation to a bean stew. You can pop all the ingredients into your slow-cooker to get to know each other whilst you get on with your day. The recipe is perfect for meal prep as the flavours only intensify with time. Cook up a batch of this recipe in your slow cooker, divide into meal prep containers and serve whenever you fancy a bowl of stew.

Other chicken recipes for you to try after this one ; Spanish Chicken & Chorizo Stew, Chicken Shawarma Bowl and Rigatoni Fiorentina (Creamy Chicken Rigatoni)

Ingredients

Spanish Chorizo Sausage
The spanish inspired flavours within this recipe come from the spanish chorizo sausage and the paprika. Chorizo has such an intense flavour that lends itself perfectly to flavouring the whole stew. It’s the perfect meat to accompany the creamy butter beans. 

Onion & Garlic
Gently sauteed in the chorizo oil & paprika = the best foundation to dive into this chorizo and bean stew. 

Butter Beans
As mentioned earlier, the dried butter beans offer the best texture and creaminess against the fiery chorizo broth. 

Chopped and Cherry Tomatoes
It wouldn’t be a tomato stew recipe without both fresh and canned tomatoes. Tomato stew recipes offer a brightness against the warming/comforting vibe that stews offer. 

Spinach
I chose spinach as the green to add to this recipe but you could use kale/cavolo-nero or any green that you love. Just increase the cook time depending on what you use as spinach doesn’t need to be cooked for longer than a minute. 

Sour cream
I love a dollop of sour cream to balance against the spicy spanish chorizo, the cayenne pepper and paprika. 

Cheddar
Just like adding the dollop of sour cream, a sharp cheddar adds a creamy contrast to the rest of the ingredients within the tomato stew. 

See the recipe card for full information on all ingredients and quantities.

How to cook chorizo

The first stage of this recipe includes frying the chorizo on low in a non-stick frying pan. This allows the delicious oils/fats from the Spanish chorizo to render out of the sausage. After the rendering stage, the chorizo starts to crisp up which adds to the flavour intensity, also allowing the chorizo to withstand being cooked in a liquid for hours. 

By sauteing the combination of chorizo, onion, paprika and garlic in a pan before adding to the slow-cooker, we get the best possible foundation to flavour this chorizo and butter bean stew. Without this step, we’d be putting all the raw ingredients into the pot at once, which would still offer an ok end result, but not the home-run that you achieve with this little extra step.

Other chorizo recipes…Crispy Roasted Gnocchi with Chorizo & Vegetables, Easy Chicken and Chorizo Risotto and Chicken & Chorizo Paella 

What kind of beans can I use?

For this recipe, I heavily suggest using dried/uncooked butter beans. I’m never usually an advocate of using these as they are a pretty fussy ingredient in comparison to the perfectly tasty tinned butter beans. As we are already allowing a long time for this recipe to develop it’s intense flavours in the slow-cooker, we may as well benefit from the creamier texture of cooking the butter beans from scratch.

The beans also thicken the stew more than their canned alternative. For this butter bean recipe, they’re definitely worth it! If you only have canned beans though, just use 200ml less stock.

How to make this recipe

1. Start by slicing the chorizo into small pieces (Image 1).
2. Then add the chorizo to a non stick frying pan to brown. Fry for around 4 minutes with the olive oil on a medium heat, until slightly crispy. Remove the chorizo and set aside, leaving all of the flavoured oil still in the pan (Image 2).

3. To the same pan, add the chopped onion to sweat in the chorizo oil (Image 3).

4. Once the onions have softened, add the tomato puree, minced garlic, paprika and cayenne pepper to fry for a minute (Image 4).

5. Now add the fried onions, chopped tomatoes, butter beans, sliced cherry tomatoes and fried chorizo (reserving some for garnish) to the slow cooker (Image 5).

6. Add the stock and stir. Set the slow cooker to high and cook for a minimum of 3 hours (Image 6).

7. Try the stew and check the butter beans are soft and creamy (depending on how powerful your slow-cooker is, it might take a bit longer than 3 hours) (Image 7).

8. Then add the spinach into the pot to wilt (this will happen immediately) before serving in a bowl with a dollop of sour cream and enjoy (Image 8).

When you are ready to serve, add with a dollop of sour cream, a sprinkle of chopped chives and an optional sprinkle of cheddar.

More recipes, to give you inspiration : Marry Me Chicken Recipe, One Pot Chicken & Rice and Nando’s Fino Pitta

FAQs

Other slow cooker recipes to try : White Bean Stew with Crispy Bacon, Gochujang Pork Ramen and Vegetable Thai Ramen

Spanish Chorizo and Butter Bean Slow Cooker Stew

by Mimi Harrison

Print

4.61 from 46 votes

Prep Time: 5 minutes mins

Cook Time: 4 hours hrs

Total Time: 4 hours hrs 5 minutes mins

£1.28

mains

Spanish

Freezable

Servings: 5

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MetricUS Standard

This comforting slow cooker stew is packed full of flavour, thanks to the intensity of the spanish chorizo sausage and the creaminess of the slow cooked butter beans.

Ingredients

• ▢ 225 g chorizo sausage, paper removed and chopped into chunks (£1.85)
• ▢ 1 white onion, finely chopped (£0.09)
• ▢ 3 cloves garlic, minced (£0.20)
• ▢ 1 pack of cherry tomatoes, sliced (£0.49)
• ▢ 375 g butter beans, dried (£1.20)
• ▢ 1 can of chopped tomatoes (£0.32)
• ▢ 180 g spinach (£0.75)
• ▢ 5 tbsp sour cream (£1.00)
• ▢ Handful of chopped chives (£0.50)
• ▢ Handful of cheddar optional garnish

Cupboard Essentials

• ▢ 1 tbsp tomato puree
• ▢ 2 tsp paprika
• ▢ ½ tsp cayenne chilli powder
• ▢ 1.8 litre chicken stock

Method

• To a non-stick frying pan, add the sliced chorizo to fry with the olive oil on a medium heat, until slightly crispy. This should take around 4 minutes.
• Remove the chorizo and set aside, leaving all of the flavoured oil still in the pan. To that, add the chopped onion to sweat until soft.
• Once softened, add the tomato puree, minced garlic, paprika and cayenne pepper to fry for a minute before transferring to the slow cooker.
• Then, add the chopped tomatoes, chicken stock, butter beans, sliced cherry tomatoes and fried chorizo (reserving some for garnish). Stir to combine, set the slow cooker to high and cook for a minimum of 3 hours. Depending on how powerful your slow-cooker is, it might take a bit longer. Once the beans are soft and creamy, add the spinach into the pot to wilt (this will happen immediately).
• Serve with a dollop of sour cream, a sprinkle of chopped chives and an optional sprinkle of cheddar. So so good.

Notes

• Before adding the chorizo to the slow cooker, sear it in a hot skillet for a few minutes. This step caramelises the sugars in the sausage, enhancing its flavour and adding depth to the stew. Remove excess oil after searing if necessary.
• Be mindful of the amount of liquid you add to the slow cooker although the butter beans will absorb the liquid. Start with less broth, as you can always add more later if the stew becomes too thick.
• Spanish chorizo can be quite flavourful and salty, so taste your stew before adding any additional salt. You can also add fresh herbs, such as parsley or coriander toward the end of the cooking time for a burst of freshness.

Nutrition

Servings: 5 servings

Fat: 23g

Calories: 463kcal

Carbohydrates: 37g

Protein: 28g