Bloem - April 24

CREAMY LEEK, SPINACH & BUTTER BEAN BOWLS
I’m always thinking about different ways to get more veggies
into my meals and this recipe is such a great way of upping
your greens, with spinach in both the sauce and the broth. It’s
delicious as a light supper and feels like a mix between a soup,
broth and a stew; equally serve it with brown rice or another
grain, a toasted piece of sourdough, a jacket potato, roasted
veggies or pan-fried greens. Serves 4. 20 minutes
You’ll need: 1 Tbsp olive oil; 2 shallots, thinly sliced; 2 leeks, cut
into 1cm slices; 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped; 1 vegetable
stock cube; 2 × 400g tins of butter beans; 4 large handfuls of
spinach (about 200g) roughly chopped; grated zest and juice of
1 lemon; sea salt and black pepper
For the sauce: 100ml oat milk; ½ tsp brown rice miso paste;
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast; large handful of baby spinach
(about 50g)
To make: Set a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat
and add the olive oil. Once the oil is warm, add the shallots,
leeks and a pinch of salt. Cook for 8–10 minutes, stirring
occasionally, until they soften. Add the garlic and cook for a
further 2 minutes, until it’s golden and fragrant.
Next, add the stock cube and butter beans, along with the
liquid from each of the tins. Bring to the boil, then cover with a
lid and simmer for 10 minutes, until thickened.
While the beans are cooking, make the sauce. Simply put the
oat milk, miso, nutritional yeast and the baby spinach into a
high-speed blender and blitz until perfectly smooth.
Once the beans are ready, pour in the sauce and add the
spinach, stirring until it’s wilted. Stir in the lemon juice and
season to taste with salt and pepper. Scatter over the lemon
zest before serving.
LEMONY PEA AND BROCCOLI PASTA
I make a variation of this for my kids a lot, using whatever greens I have in
the fridge – green beans, asparagus, spinach etc. It’s exceptionally simple
yet super satisfying. Serves 2. Time 15 minutes
You’ll need: 2 servings of pasta - I like orecchiette in this dish (about 75g
per person); 1 small head broccoli (about 300g) cut into small florets; 100g
frozen peas; large handful of cashews (about 50g, see notes below); 1
vegetable stock cube; 1 tsp Dijon mustard; 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast; grated
zest and juice of 2 lemons; 1 × 400g tin of butter beans, drained and
rinsed; sea salt and black pepper
To make: Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and add
the pasta. Cook according to the instructions on the pack, adding the
broccoli and frozen peas for the last 3 minutes of the cooking time.
Cook until the pasta is al dente, the broccoli is tender, and the peas are
defrosted, then drain and return to the pan.
Meanwhile put the cashews and stock cube into a bowl with 100ml
boiling water, let the stock cube dissolve and the cashews soak for
5 minutes.
Put the mustard, nutritional yeast, the juice of both lemons and half the
zest, and half the tin of butter beans into a high-speed blender along
with the cashews and their soaking liquid. Blend until you have a smooth,
creamy sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Pour the sauce over the drained pasta and veg, adding the last half of the
butter beans. Stir to combine and top with a little extra lemon zest.
Note: To make this nut-free, swap the cashews for sunflower seeds.
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April 2024 Get It Bloemfontein 23