Lamb Stew with Great Northern Beans

Lamb Stew with Great Northern Beans

By Mark Hinds | Updated April 1, 2023

Lamb stew with fresh herbs and white beans is a dish full of delicious flavors that has the right combination of fresh and hearty to work any time of year.

What makes this lamb stew recipe so delicious is the combination of the interesting flavors from the coriander and fresh herbs and how the seasoned flour helps the lamb stay tender while creating a thick, rich stew.

The reason we coat the lamb in flour is it helps the meat brown and protects it during the cooking process. The flour also acts as a thickener for the stew. The colander method is one of our tips for easier cooking. It’s just so much easier than hand dipping each piece of lamb in the flour and browning them in small batches.

Since we haven’t found a lot of places that carry lamb stew meat, we usually buy a leg or shoulder and cut them up into bite-sized pieces. This way, we have stew meat for this dish, and if we’re lucky we have enough for another dish or two.

Looking for more ideas, a few of our favorite lamb recipes include Sous Vide Leg of Lamb and Grilled Lamb Chops.

We also have delicious soup and stews, like this Bison Stew and Chicken Stew with White Beans.

Lamb Stew with Great Northern Beans

Lamb Stew with Great Northern Beans

4.1 from 10 votes
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Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 3 hours
Servings: 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 lb lamb stew meat
  • 1 lb great northern beans
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 2 cups white onion, , finely diced
  • 1-1/2 cups celery, , finely diced
  • 2-1/2 cups carrots, , finely diced
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 tbsp rosemary, , minced
  • 1 tbsp thyme, , minced
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper

Seasoned flour

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp ground coriander

Instructions

  • Wash and sort the beans, picking out any off looking ones. Place them in a large pot, cover with 48 ounces of water, bring to a boil for three minutes, remove from the heat and let them sit for at least an hour. Drain the water and set the beans aside.
  • While the beans are resting, finely dice the carrots, celery, and onion. Mince the garlic, rosemary, and thyme.
  • Make the seasoned flour by mixing the coriander, a 1/2 tsp of salt, a 1/2 tsp of pepper and the flour together. Make sure the stew meat is cut into bite sized pieces.
  • Place the lamb in a large colander in the sink, dump in the seasoned flour, and stir the lamb until all the pieces are evenly coated with flour. Notice how all the extra flour is sitting in the sink, pretty nice huh.
  • In a dutch oven or large pot with a heavy bottom, brown the lamb on high heat in some olive oil. Once the lamb pieces have been browned, add in the onions, celery, and garlic. Sauté everything while stirring for 3 to 5 minutes.
  • Add the stock, beans, rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper. Bring the stew to a boil and then turn the heat down to a low simmer. Add the carrots and let everything cook for a couple of hours; making sure to stir the stew every once a while, so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot or feel lonely.
  • The stew is done cooking when the lamb is so tender it falls apart under a little pressure from a fork, and the stew has thickened up. The stew should start to thicken up between an hour-and-a-half and two hours. Like all great stews, it gets better and thicker after resting overnight.
  • Season to taste with a little more salt and pepper and serve with a good hearty bread.
Tried this RecipeLet us know what you think of this recipe. Leave your thoughts and rating in the comments.

The nutrition information shown is an estimate based on available ingredients and preparation.

Mark is an experienced food writer, recipe developer, and photographer who is also Umami’s publisher and CEO. A passionate cook who loves to cook for friends, he can often be found in the kitchen or by the grill testing new recipes.

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Responses

  1. Janett Mac

    I prepared this stew prior to seeing your recipe. The lamb was sauteed without flour in avocado oil, then removed. In the same pot the onion, celery, green bell pepper, and garlic was sauteed. The soaked great northern beans were strained and rinsed and added to the pot along with unsalted chicken stock, rosemary, thyme and white pepper. The stew was brought to a boil then simmered on medium low with periodic stirring close to 2 hours. It was delicious. The next time carrots and coriander will be added.

    1. Fred Markham

      Sounds great! When did you re-add the lamb? I am going to make something like this tomorrow with many of your suggestions. I have never done this before but it sounds like a great idea, and I will use your flour mixture in the colander before browning the meat. As we prefer medium rare meat, I will take out about 20% of the lamb, mince it, and then throw it in with everything else to cook for a while before adding in the remainder of the lamb at the end to heat up. I will also add some for pimentón and harissa just enough for some background taste without heat. Maybe even some anchovy paste. Starting to get excited…