As promised, here is the recipe for the pinto bean stew I made in the crockpot on Sunday. You can find the original recipe here at Eating Well. I would only make a few changes to this recipe, starting with the addition of cheese to the dumplings because, well, why not? I used medium cheddar because that’s what I had in the fridge, but would have preferred sharp cheddar. Next time I will double the jalapeño in the dumplings, but I like spicy food, so if you order a 4 at Thai restaurants too, double it. I really enjoyed the crunch of the radish in this dish, so next time I might dice the radish to maximize the bites with delicious radish crunch. And, last but certainly not least, add some hot sauce. Tapatio with beans is a kind of a no brainer.

Prep was a breeze. Really, you just need to chop some veggies and measure out the ingredients, and then put it into the crockpot.

This is what it will look like, once it’s all in the crockpot.

The dumplings were very easy too, and once you whisk the dry ingredients and add the buttermilk, this is what the dough should look like. This took maybe 10 minutes, if that.

Take some generous scoops of dumpling dough and drop them into the crockpot. At this point, everything needs to continue cooking for one more hour.

In the final 5-10 minutes, chop your radishes and cilantro. And then, feast!

Happy Friday to all, on this very gloomy and rainy day in the PNW.

xo