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Butter Beans and Beets (s)Mush
Butter Beans and Beets sMush
"I was telling you that I love beans and I wasn’t joking. I will put up every single bean recipe that I could possibly think of. Come on, let’s just face it! Beans are such a fab ingredient, especially for the cold winter period, because they’re nutritious, pretty filling and with a low GI, which means they are very safe and truly healthy to eat. This dish can be a prepared in advance and could be a really nice spread, a side, a snack or a small main dish served with a really beautiful homemade flat bread."
NotesIf you do not plan or fancy cooking the beans from scratch, you can use canned ones. They are as good. Use any beans type: if you don’t have butter beans, then use cannellini beans, or borlotti or any other beans will be as good.I prefer white beans like butter (my faves) or cannelini.
Serves4
Cooking Time20 min
Ingredients
- 500 g butter beans (cooked)
- 150 g beetroot (cooked)
- 1 onion (finely chopped)
- 1 leek (finely chopped)
- 1 leek (finely chopped)
- 250 ml vegetable stock
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (if necessary)
- 1 spring rosemary (optional)
- salt (to taste)
Instruction
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Start by cooking the beans according to the packet instructions ( I will tell you a secret - 50% of the time I use canned beans for this recipe as it is supposed to be a quick recipe. At times it happens that I have kept aside on purpose some beans cooked for a cassoulet or a beans soup.
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Chop the cooked beetroots and set aside. I normally buy the ones that are baked and are slightly marinated in vinegar or I just bake my own and add tiny little balsamic vinegar to the whole thing.
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Wash peel and chop the onion and the leek. Peel, crush and chop the garlic.
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Heat the olive oil in a skillet using medium heat and when this is hot (not fuming please) put in the chopped onion and the leek and sauté until they become slightly translucent, I would say 2-3 minutes not longer. Add the rosemary spring and allow it to infuse for about 1-2 minutes and then remove.
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Add in the cooked butter beans, garlic, and vegetable stock. Cover and reduce heat to low, simmer for about 7-10 minutes until the liquid reduces considerably. When beans are done with the cooking, turn the heat off and set aside for a good few minutes to cool slightly.
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When beans have cooled a little, transfer them together with the roughly chopped beets, salt and pepper to a food processor and blend until they smushed but not become a totally smooth paste.
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Spoon beans into your desired dish and serve. I do prefer this cold as a spread but I do sometimes have it with a steak and mushrooms - see suggestion in recipe notes.
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