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Dietary key

  • V

    Vegetarian

  • V*

    Vegetarian Option

  • Ve

    Vegan

  • Ve*

    Vegan Option

  • G

    Gluten-Free

  • G*

    Gluten-Free Option

  • D

    Dairy-Free

  • D*

    Dairy-Free Option

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Rated 4.6 by 162 users.

Butter Beans with Ricotta, Lemon + Basil Pesto

This can be served as a speedy weeknight dinner with a fresh side salad, or topped with some roasted toms for a burst of sweetness and colour. If wild garlic is in season, swap the garlic clove for a bunch of wild garlic leaves.

The beans can be served either hot or cold - making it ideal for all seasons!


Check out our Top 10 Butter Bean Recipes if you loved this one!


Feeds: 3
Takes: 15 minutes
V
Ve*
G

Ingredients

For the pesto

A large bunch of fresh basil (roughly 30g)

A good handful of pine nuts

1 garlic clove, crushed

25 g parmesan cheese, grated (or vegan alternative)

4-5 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve

1 jar of Queen Butter Beans - half of the liquid from the jar

250g ricotta cheese, or vegan alternative (refrigerated)

Zest of 2 lemons, plsu wedges to serve

Serving suggestions

Crusty bread

Substitutions

Garlic clove - a small bunch of wild garlic (when in season)

Shop The Recipe

Queen Butter Beans
Queen Butter Beans
570g / Bold Pack (6) £22.00

Directions

1

Toast the pine nuts in a large, dry pan (big enough to cook the beans in) set over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes until just golden, shaking the pan often to stop the nuts from burning.

2

Add the nuts, basil, garlic, grated parmesan, pinch of salt and black pepper and the olive oil to a blender or food processor and blitz until you reach an oozy, pesto-like consistency; you may need to add more oil to bind the mixture together. (Equally, if you can’t be bothered, you could just buy ready-made pesto: it still makes a delicious dish!)

3

Next, prepare the butter beans. In winter, we like serving this as a brothy bean base, so we recommend saving some of the bean stock and warming through with the beans in a pan for about 3 minutes. For summer, we like it lighter, so simply drain and rinse the beans and don’t bother to warm it through.

4

Spoon the beans on to your serving plate and dollop over the ricotta. Drizzle over the pesto and scatter over the lemon zest, plus a small squeeze of the juice if you like a real zing! Finish with some cracked black pepper and a final drizzle of olive oil.

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