Mediterranean Style Butter Beans

I don’t know about you, but where I am, the weather is pretty dire. Cold, rainy, and generally grey. We don’t even have snow to make snowmen out of! It did snow a little on Sunday, but only for about ten minutes and nothing landed on the ground. If you wanted to throw a snowball, it’d be made of a single snowflake.

Anyway, miserable weather calls for non-miserable food! This baked butter bean dish is warm and comforting with a hint of the Mediterranean (don’t you wish you were sunbathing there right now?). I served it with oven baked potatoes and it just hit the spot!

You start by cooking the vegetables on the stove until they’re cooked nicely down, onions, garlic, and shredded carrots with some dried herbs and tinned tomatoes. Grating carrots is a bit annoying, true, but they really add to the dish – both in thickening the stew, adding a subtle sweetness, and also of course plenty of Vitamin A!

Once nicely cooked down, you add the beans, cook for a couple more minutes, then transfer into a casserole dish. Bake in the oven for half an hour, allowing the top to crisp slightly and the flavours to really meld together – and then serve! The butter beans give a creamy texture to the stew.

• Servings: 2
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Ingredients

• 1 can butter beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2-3 large carrots, grated (about 300g)
• 1 heaped tsp dried oregano
• 1 heaped tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp cayenne powder
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• Salt & Pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200C/190C Fan/400F/Gas Mark 6
1. First, fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil until translucent.
2. Next stir through the grated carrots and cook for 2-3 minutes until they begin to soften.
3. Stir through the remaining ingredients except the butter beans, and cook for 10 minutes on a medium heat.
4. Add the butter beans and cook for a further 5 minutes, or until the stew is thickened.
5. Transfer the mixture into a baking dish, and place in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
6. Serve with bread, or potatoes, or rice – however you like!