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Lemony Cavolo Nero Butter Beans + Capered Fish En Papillote
This recipe is from Alice Zaslavsky cookbook 'Weeknights with Alice: Smart, speedy dinners, starting with the veg'. Alice is an award-winning author, broadcaster + taste-maker from Australia.
"The cavolo nero and butter beans are the hero here, and the fish is the ‘garnish’. The deep forest green of the cavolo nero against the creamy butter beans, combined with the zip of lemon, make this an irresistible combo that could also be enjoyed as a hearty vego side if you leave the fish in the sea" - Alice.
Book Credit: Weeknights with Alice by Alice Zaslavsky is published by Murdoch Books, £20.00, www.murdochbooks.co.uk
Photo Credit: © Rochelle Eagle 2026
Ingredients
500g smaller fish fillets, such as flathead, mullet or whiting (roughly 4–6 fillets)
15g finely chopped dill
1½ tablespoons lilliput capers, rinsed and drained
30g butter
Lemony cavolo nero butter beans2 jars Queen Butter Beans – with their bean stock
20g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 brown onion, finely sliced against the grain
3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
200ml vegetable stock (or water)
½ bunch cavolo nero or other kale (about 3 large leaves), leaves stripped and finely sliced
zest of 1 lemon (reserve the nude lemon for serving)
Home stretchnude lemon (reserved from the beans), cut into wedges
crusty baguette
lashings of butter
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Directions
Preheat your oven to 210°C and pull the fish out of the fridge.
Butter bean butter boom → Make a start on those lemony butter beans by melting the butter and oil together in a large heavy-based pan over medium heat. Add the onion and listen for the sizzle. Drop the heat to medium–low and whack the lid on. Set the timer for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until translucent. A little colour here won’t hurt.
Fishy parcels → Meanwhile, tear off four sheets of foil and four sheets of baking paper, each roughly 20 x 30cm in size. Layer the baking paper sheets over the foil ones. Pop a fish fillet in each parcel. Arrange the dill, capers and butter on top of the fish, along with a sprinkling of salt flakes and a crack of black pepper. Fold the foil up into a parcel around each fish fillet, like a Cornish pasty, and tuck the edges and crimp the foil while leaving a bit of a ceiling so the air won’t escape but the fish isn’t squished. It doesn’t have to look pretty – it just needs to be secure. Place the fish parcels on a baking tray.
When the oven has come up to temperature, slide the tray in and bake the fish for about 8 minutes, or until the flesh just flakes apart.
Kale yeah → Once the buttery onion is sufficiently softened, add the garlic and stir about for a minute, until fragrant. Reduce the heat to low, tumble in the butter beans and stir in the stock. Bring to the boil, then add the shredded cavolo nero and stir until lovely and coated. Drop the heat to medium, whack the lid back on and set the timer for 3 minutes.
Switch off the heat and stir in the lemon zest, along with salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.
Bring it home → Serve the beans and fish parcels at the table so eaters can help themselves – or pop a tumble of bean ’n’ green onto each plate, top with the fish fillets, drizzle the sauce from the parcels over and finish with a lemon wedge or two. Crusty bread, generously buttered, will help to mop up the sauce and bring it all together.
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