Beans/ Lentils

(All Recipes have Gluten-Free Options)

Fine Green Beans with Almonds (Serves 4)

A great classic combination – and super easy to serve up!

250g fine green beans

10g butter

15g flaked almonds

Sea salt and black pepper

  1. Top the green beans, place in a saucepan of salted boiling water and cook for about 4 minutes until nearly tender but still with some bite – al dente.
  2. Meanwhile melt the butter in a frying pan, when it foams add the flaked almonds. Cook until the almonds start to lightly brown – stirring continuously to ensure even browning. Remove from the heat.
  3. Drain the beans and stir into the buttery almonds. Season well with salt and pepper.

White Cannellini Beans (Serves 4)

It’s just amazing how delicious tinned cannellini beans can be with the addition of a little onion and herbs…

1 onion, chopped

400g tin white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon olive oil (plus extra to drizzle)

A handful of fresh thyme leaves

Sea salt and black pepper

  1. In a small pan, fry the onion with the olive oil over a low heat for about 5 minutes, until soft and beginning to colour.
  2. Add the cannellini beans to the pan with 100ml water and the thyme leaves, season with salt and pepper. Cook, covered, for 5 minutes.
  3. Serve drizzled with 1-2 tablespoons of a good olive oil.

Green Beans with Shallots & Sherry Vinegar (Serves 4)

This turns the humble bean into something really special, and it only takes a few minutes! The recipe is from Rachel Allen’s cookbook, ‘Recipes From My Mother’.

300g French green beans

25g butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

50g shallots, peeled, halved and thinly sliced

1½ teaspoons sherry vinegar

Sea salt and black pepper

  1. Place the beans in a saucepan, cover with boiling water and cook for 3-4 minutes until just tender (al dente). Drain and keep to one side.
  2. Add the butter and oil to the empty saucepan, when the butter starts to foam add the shallots with the vinegar and cook for a minute or so over a medium heat.
  3. Return the beans to the pan and toss in the shallot butter. Season to taste and serve.

Braised Puy Lentils (Serves 4-6)

This is a great recipe that I found in J.Sheekey’s Cookbook, ‘Fish’, where they are served with cod (recipe here). However, they would also make a great accompaniment to other dishes…for instance simply with oven baked sausages for an easy midweek treat!..

250g puy lentils

40ml extra virgin olive oil

100g cubed pancetta

1 onion, finely diced

1 carrot, finely diced

1 leek, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 sprigs thyme, leaves picked and chopped

2 sprigs rosemary, leaves picked and chopped

1 litre chicken stock

30g unsalted butter

½ bunch of parsley, chopped

Sea salt and black pepper

  1. If you have time and remember, soak the lentils in cold water for an hour before you cook them. The recipe calls for this, but these days most puy lentils (I use ‘Merchant Gourmet’) don’t require soaking, but there is a theory that they are more digestible if soaked?!…
  2. Pour 20ml of the olive oil into a heavy bottomed saucepan and gently cook the cubed pancetta, onion, carrot, leek, celery, garlic, thyme and rosemary for 5 minutes.
  3. Add the lentils (drained if you soaked them), stir, then add the chicken stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes until they are soft to toast – not too mushy. The consistency should be sauce like.
  4. Gently stir in the butter and parsley, check the seasoning and serve.

Flageolet Beans with Lemon and Parsley

So simple, yet so delicious!…

400g tin flageolet beans (or cannellini beans), drained

A generous slice of butter

Half lemon

Handful chopped parsley

Sea salt and black pepper

  1. Place the drained beans in a saucepan, gently heat with the butter.
  2. Add the parsley, season with a squeeze of lemon juice and the salt and pepper.
  3. Serve

Garlic Green Beans (Serves 4)

This is a delicious recipe for beans, and despite the amount of garlic the recipe calls for, the flavour is not overpowering. I found this recipe in David Lebovitz’s cookbook ‘My Paris Kitchen’, I love French cooking, so this is a favourite book of mine, not only for the recipes but for the Parisian tales he shares. The recipe in French is Haricot Verts au Beurre d’Escargot (beans with snail butter!), apparently it refers to the butter mixed with copious amounts of garlic which normally dresses the popular French dish of snails!

450g green beans

55g unsalted butter

3 tablespoons crushed garlic

30g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

1 teaspoon sea salt

Black pepper

Half a lemon

  1. Cook the beans for about 4 minutes in boiling water until just tender.
  2. Melt the butter in a small frying pan, add the garlic, cook for a few minutes until it just begins to brown. Stir in the parsley, salt and a few grinds of black pepper.
  3. Add the beans to the pan, stir so that they are beautifully covered in this delicious ‘snail butter’, and squeeze over a few drops of lemon juice to taste.

Tarragon Green Beans (serves 4)

250g fine green beans

10g butter

1/2 clove of garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons tarragon, chopped

sea salt and black pepper

  1. Top the beans, place in salted boiling water and cook for about 4 minutes until they are nearly tender but still have ‘bite’.
  2. Meanwhile melt the butter and fry the garlic until lightly golden.
  3. Add the drained beans to the butter and garlic, stir in the tarragon and season before serving.