Lemony beans with green herb swirl

Comfort and hope in a bowl

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If there was ever a week for comfort food, this seems like it. 

I am very sure I am not alone in craving comfort but also craving hope. And these lemony bright beans are the food equivalent of those feelings. 

So this week it’s lemony beans. They have a creamy, cacio i pepe feeling and include a smart lemon trick I now use almost always for beans. Then there’s a whizz of bright, hopeful green to swirl into your comfort. 

I’m just back from a week in Barcelona which in no particular order included; artichoke rice, heavy rain, lots of patatas fritas, sea swims (surprisingly warm), a lot of Picasso, some very good wine and some dear, dear friends. 

As is often the case as a vegetarian in mainland Europe, I have come back with a deep craving for both protein and green vegetables. This meets me where I am and frankly where I think most of us are. 

It’s simple. It’s weeknight. It’s a meal in a pan with bread or greens/salad (or both). These beans have a deep lemoniness which then gets punch from black pepper and depth from a lot of parmesan. 

The green swirl makes use of the ends of bunches of herbs in my fridge and brings brightness and greenness to the pan of lemony beans. 

As I pulled my herbs from my fridge today they were wilted, frankly pathetic looking, the definition of sad, but with a little care they became a flavourful, pleasingly deep green swirl which added so much to my dinner. Perhaps a little metaphor for life. Certainly a small personal moment of triumph to have not thrown the herbs in the compost bin but to have made something (to me) beautiful from them. 

So warm your beans, whiz your greens and scoop them up with a hunk of bread. A satisfying swish of green against a backdrop of butterbean. It’s the small things that keep us going. 

AJ x

Lemony beans with green herb swirl

Full recipe and my very favourite links below (including the best vegetarian alternative to Parmesan)