Creamy pesto butter beans
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 10 to 30 mins
- Serve
- Serves 2
A quick homemade pesto is served with butter beans and crusty bread for mopping up all the creamy sauce. The pesto is vegan as it's made with silken tofu (instead of hard cheese), which also gives it an extra boost of protein.
For this recipe you will need a blender or food processor.
Each serving provides 562 kcal, 31.1g protein, 40.7g carbohydrate (of which 6.5g sugars), 26.8g fat (of which 3.5g saturates), 17.8g fibre and 0.02g salt.
By Rhian Melvin
Ingredients
- 200g/7oz cherry tomatoes
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 30g/1oz fresh basil, plus extra leaves to garnish
- 300g/10½oz silken tofu
- 20g/¾oz pine nuts, toasted
- 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
- 1 lemon, juice only
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 x 400g tins butter beans, drained and rinsed
- salt
- crusty bread, to serve (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7.
Place the tomatoes on a baking tray. Drizzle with the oil and season with a pinch of salt. Roast for 20–25 minutes until jammy and blistered.
Meanwhile, prepare one bowl of boiling water and one bowl of iced water. Use tongs to carefully dunk the basil in the boiling water for 5–15 seconds until it turns bright green. Immediately transfer the basil to the iced water to retain its colour.
Blend the basil, tofu, two thirds of the pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice and nutritional yeast in a blender or food processor until completely smooth.
Pour the pesto mixture into a large frying pan or saucepan. Add the butter beans and gently cook over a medium heat for about 3–5 minutes, or until warmed through. Be careful not to let it boil as this will dull the colour of the sauce.
To serve, spoon the pesto beans into bowls and top with the tomatoes. Sprinkle over the remaining pine nuts and garnish with the extra basil leaves. Serve with the crusty bread, if preferred.
