Easy-Peasy Winter Beans

How to fabulise tinned borlotti beans. Recipe below.

My dear friends! How’s your wellness journey going? Because if cabbage is the only thing you've massaged in the past six months, we need to talk.

Good food (and the entire month of January!) is not about penance.

I've said it before in this space, but I think it's worth repeating - healthy food should always taste fab, and make you feel fab too.

It wasn't under a cloud of burning sage or in a vat of reiki-infused lentils I had my lightbulb moment. It was a simple bean dish like this one which really hit the spot, and sent my serotonin wild.

No penance necessary. Nutritious food should be joyful and goddamn tasty. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Why focus on beans this month?

Beans are a brilliant option to help reduce our reliance on meat, reduce our crazy carbon footprint, and reduce our grocery bills. Nice.

Beans are also a wily combination of protein as well as complex carbohydrates, making them particularly satisfying and filling. My motor always feels like it runs for longer on a meal of beans.

Then there’s gut health; the fibre found within beans and lentils act as a prebiotic in our pipes, fertilising our microbiota. Prebiotics are sort of like MarioKart mushrooms. They boost our bacterial activity by directly feeding them. It can be helpful to anthropomorphise our gut bacteria, like little Tamagotchis that need tending. I end up treating my gut with more respect, and less like the unglamorous apparatus we see in science books. Minding a pet demands much more love and attention.

And so, to this week’s recipe, using easy-to-find tinned beans! It won’t take longer than 25 minutes to make.

A big batch of these winter beans can last all week in the fridge, ready to be served in so many ways.

Here are 13 suggestions …

1. Smothered over baked sweet potato boats.

2. Tucked into burritos with leftovers from the fridge.

3. Upgrade a slice of toasted sourdough (as photographed).

4. On top of rice, with a dot of turmeric yoghurt and pappadums.

5. Topped with mash, as a fancy vegetarian shepherd’s pie.

6. Serve on a bed of warm spinach, with cold salty feta scattered across the top.

7. Taco party, with avocado, sourcream, pickled red onion, chilli, fresh coriander, grated cheese, rice and frankly any leftovers we find loitering in our lives. This kitchen demo for quick-pickled cucumber helps transform any bean dish.

8. Inside cheesy Mexican corn quesadillas, fried until melted (photographed).

9. Snuggle a serving beside soft-boiled eggs and chilli sauce.

10. Parachute over soups to pump up the protein, B vitamins, and prebiotic fibre.

11. Turn into a lasagne, replacing the basic mince layer with these beans (as photographed). If you don’t have enough beans left to make a full lasagne, try doing one layer of ricotta or cooked spinach. It’s totally wonderful.

12. Tortilla chip night, with these beans shelled across a tray of excellent Blanco Nino salted tortilla chips, crushed avocado, and your favourite cheese (as photographed).

13. Smuggled onto pizza bases, and covered with your favourite cheese.

Cheesy qaesadillas (left) and tucked into lasagne (right)

Drop onto tortilla chips before baking for 5 minutes (left) or spread on sourdough with eggs (right)