If you’ve been following my blog for a while now, you’ll know that I LOVE butter beans. Almost as much as I love chickpeas – not quite, but close! Recently, I wanted to whip up a super quick but tasty and nourishing spicy dish, and I had a handy tin of butter beans in my cupboard. I picked out some of my favourite Mexian-style spices and hey presto, we have ourselves a Mexican-style ‘Butter Beans and Greens’! This dish is great for make-ahead lunches, or a plant-based dinner to jazz up your mid-week meals or a Meatfree Monday!

Recipe (Serves 3)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 red onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp mild chili powder
• 1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 400g tin of butter beans
• 1 400ml tin of chopped tomatoes
• 200ml of water (use water from rinsing the tomatoes tin!)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 handfuls of spinach leaves
• A twist of black pepper (to season)
• To Serve: Brown Rice, or Quinoa (or your favourite wholegrain!) or cooked sweet potato is another favourite of mine

Method

1. Prepare your veggies and garlic by peeling and mincing the garlic, and then peeling and dicing the onion, de-seeding the pepper and dicing it into chunks, and washing the spinach leaves.
2. Heat the olive oil in a medium size pot on medium heat, then add the garlic and onions. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the onions are translucent.
3. Add the spices and cook for another 3-4 minutes until the onions are coated.
4. Add the chopped tomatoes, water, soy sauce/tamari and maple syrup, and mix everything together.
5. Add the butter beans, red pepper and spinach leaves, and stir everything up again.
6. Season, bring to the boil, stir and again and then turn down the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
7. You’re good to go! Serve with your side of choice as I’ve suggested above!

Enjoy guys! Tag me if you try this recipe out – @theirishbalance on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook!

Ciara 🙂 x