humble home-cooked beans

servings
4

method

My first thought when I saw these beans on a menu in Italy was ‘Beans on toast?’ But then I tasted them. I felt pretty humbled that such a simple dish had been made to taste so gorgeous. Once you’ve learned how to season and cook them in the right way, you can apply the method to cannellini beans, butter beans, borlotti beans, haricots verts, lentils, even chickpeas. If you’ve grown your own beans, good on ya! Fresh ones will take about 45 minutes to cook, but you’re more likely to get dried beans as they’re cheap, and very reliable to cook. However, they will need soaking for at least 12 hours.

Drain your soaked beans, then give them a good wash. Place them in a deep pot and cover them with cold water. Throw in your garlic, herb sprigs, bay leaves, celery stick, potato and tomatoes. Place the beans on the heat and slowly bring to the boil. Cover with a lid and simmer very gently for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on whether you’re using fresh or dried, until soft and cooked nicely. Skim if necessary, topping up with boiling water from the kettle if you need to.

When the beans are cooked, drain them in a colander, reserving enough of the cooking water to cover them halfway up when put back in the pot. Remove the garlic, herbs, celery, potato and tomatoes from the beans. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins and pinch the skin off the tomatoes. Put the garlic, tomatoes and potato on to a plate, mash them with a fork and stir back into the beans. Season well with salt and pepper, and pour in three generous lugs of extra virgin olive oil and a few splashes of vinegar. Stir in the parsley and serve on some toasted sourdough bread.

• from Jamie at Home

ingredients

• 300g dried borlotti or cannellini beans, soaked in cold water for at least 12 hours
• 3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
• a few sprigs of fresh thyme
• a sprig of fresh rosemary
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 stick of celery, trimmed
• 1 small potato, peeled and halved
• 2 cherry tomatoes
• extra virgin olive oil
• red wine vinegar
• a few sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 4 slices of sourdough bread

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tried this recipe or a similar one? share your tips...

1. by Parker on Thu 19 Apr 2012 @ 10:36

Hey Ally. Try adding a little salt and covering the pot when you simmer them so that they steam like rice. Hope that works!

2. by Manisha Dookhony on Tue 21 Feb 2012 @ 19:25

I am currently in Kigali, Rwanda, where we get amazingly nice fresh beans. Tried it, it was really yum. I did the cooking in two times, with a little rest time in between. It took about 30 mins cooking time. The rest allows the beans to continue cooking in the heat of the pot. The other thing I did was to put the tomato, garlic, and herbs in the mixer. It gives a smoother texture to the preparation. We made fresh bread. That was a good combination with the beans. Thanks Jamie for this very good recipe.

3. by Ally on Sat 18 Feb 2012 @ 15:32

beans soaked for 16 hours and simmered for 2 and they're still half-raw - what am I doing wrong?

4. by jamie on Fri 25 Nov 2011 @ 07:55

Can you use pinto beans with this dish??<br /> <br />

5. by Rachael on Tue 05 Jul 2011 @ 16:22

made this many times and it was definitely a winner! so yum!!!

6. by Fiona on Thu 26 May 2011 @ 07:33

So good I get cravings - and I never thought I'd say that about beans!<br /> <br /> Really easy, cheap and tasty. Should be the staple of every student!

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