Butter beans in Creamy Tahini Sauce with Garlic Tomatoes

I made this last night after getting back from a short weekend away and it was so good I want to get it written down before I forgot what I had put in! We got back yesterday afternoon but rather than go do food shopping for the week we decided to go for a walk while it was still light. It was so worth it to find this amazing viewpoint, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. She’s so beautiful, I could watch the waves swell all day! Anywho, when it then came to making dinner my thought process was: what protein, veg, carb, and flavour bombs do we have? So we had lots of fab organic tomatoes, cheese and bread that we got at Bablonstoren on Saturday and in the cupboard/fridge: carrots, garlic, tahini,  dukkah , olives and zough. So this was born – warm creamy butter beans cooked in tahini topped with garlicky tomatoes. We had bread and cheese on the side plus grated carrot, olive and dukkah salad.

This was completely made up so the measurements aren’t exact, more of a guestimate.

Also, please excuse the not-so-great pics, I am trying to adopt the ‘ done is better than perfect’ mentality so perfectionism doesn’t paralyse me. I want to have as many legume/beans/lentils/pulses recipes on the blog so I can send clients here for ideas.  These are fantastic nutrient-rich, high-fibre plant proteins that often people don’t feel confident cooking so I want to help change that!    

Ingredients

Tomatoes :

·        Fresh baby plum/cherry/ heirloom tomatoes – one punnet, left whole unless they are very big then chop into quarters

·        Garlic 1.5 cloves chopped

·        Olive oil 1- 2 Tbs  

·        Black pepper and salt

·        One tin of butter beans NOT drained

·        Garlic 0.5 clove chopped

·        Apple cider vinegar –  1.5 Tbs could sub with  lemon juice

·        Tahini – approx. 1/3 cup.  We had a 250g jar and I used about a ¼  

·        Black pepper

Method

Tomatoes

1.      Heat the olive oil on low heat, add the garlic and the tomatoes. Keep the heat nice and low and let them cook away for about 25 -30 min. You want them to stay nice and juicy, give them a gentle fold with a spatula occasionally but as long as the heat is low they will take care of themselves.

2.      Near the end of cooking give them lots of fresh black pepper and a dash of salt

Butter beans

3. Once the tomatoes are on, empty the can of butter beans into a small deep frying pan with the chopped garlic. Cook on a low heat until most of the fluid is evaporated and the beans are softening. You can add a splash of water if it’s getting sticky.

4.      Add the apple cider vinegar and give a good stir, then the tahini and stir again. Keep on a low heat to allow the tahini to warm up and give a few gentle stirs to ensure the butter beans are fully coated. Add back pepper.

Plate up

5.      Spread the butter beans out on a nice plate, and top with the warm tomatoes and any pan juices.

6.      I topped mine with zhoug but it really didn’t need it, you could throw any fresh herbs that you have or pesto or just leave it as it is! You could also start with a bed of rockets and build up.

Bone Apple Teeth!