THE CANNY COOK: Butter bean, tuna and cherry salad
- Serves 4, £1.51* per person
I’ve said it here before: beans are having a bit of a moment. I’m not talking about the fresh green ones that are in season, but the dried varieties such as cannellini, butter and black beans.
They’re sustainable, filling and a good source of plant-based protein boasting all sorts of nutritional benefits, plus they’re relatively inexpensive (especially if you’re swapping them for meat). Conveniently, they come ready to eat in jars and cans. So perhaps their skyrocketing popularity is of little surprise.
If there’s one type that’s in the limelight, it’s the butter bean.
The biggest and plumpest variety, it has a ‘buttery’ white centre and a mellow flavour that lends itself to being paired with pretty much anything. I like butter beans cooked with leeks, smoky bacon and crème fraiche to serve on toast for a quick meal, or in tomato-based sauces for shakshuka or a summery fish stew. You’ll find the internet littered with many more adventurous suggestions.
This week’s recipe was made for me by a friend in Spain who I visited recently. It was perfect on a warm day, full of soft beans, crunchy celery and zing from the lemon juice. In Spain, beans are a fundamental part of the diet, and most homes will have a few jars in the cupboard on standby. I certainly think it’s worth following their lead.
Method
220g jar tuna in olive oil (150g drained weight), £3.65; 4 celery stalks. 80p
1 small red onion, 17p; 2 x 400g butter beans (about 480g cooked beans), £1.40
Drain the oil from the tuna into a bowl. Whisk the juice of ½ lemon into the oil and add plenty of salt and pepper. Taste and add more lemon juice if it needs it (a little dijon mustard is nice, too, if you have it). Set aside.
Roughly flake the tuna into a large mixing bowl. Pick any leaves from the celery. Roughly chop them, as well as the stalks, and put everything in the bowl with the tuna. Add the drained and rinsed butter beans.
Finely dice the red onion and add to the bowl. Pour over half the dressing and toss everything together. Add more dressing and seasoning as needed.
Serve immediately – you can also leave it to stand for an hour or so to let the flavours mingle. You can add a couple of chopped hard-boiled eggs before serving, too.
Do you have a great recipe for eating well and cutting food bills? Email editor@you.co.uk. If we print it here, we’ll send you a bottle of champagne.
*This cost assumes you already have some basic store-cupboard ingredients. prices taken from Waitrose and correct at time of going to press. Illustrations: Ellie Allen-Eslor
