Besotted with beans

Make sure to brown your sudžuk first…

I’m not sure how it happened. When I was pregnant, I had a legume revival. Or perhaps it was more of a re-birth.

I found myself cooking with some kind of pulse at least twice a week. Dried then soaked chickpeas, rinsed then simmered lentils or tinned then pressed butter beans or trusty buttered peas; there were so many options, but they always began with diced brown onion and sudžuk (sujuk/sucuk) - a smoked and dry-cured beef sausage that is garlicky, tickled with spice and yielding the right amount of beef and fat combined.

My first recollection of eating this almighty cure was for breakfast before school. Thick slices of cheese, fried eggs, tomato covered in olive oil, salt, pepper and peeled sudžuk with a side of kajmak and honey would land on the plate and we would pick at it with bread (absolutely!), sometimes fried dough (a recipe for that is coming to your screens very soon) or alongside pita (our trusty filled savoury pastries brimming with potato, spinach, cheese or simple butter and cream) as the vehicle. Very similar to a Turkish breakfast (thanks to the Ottoman Empire rule), a Bosnian breakfast knows no bounds - except cereal, there was never cereal. Maybe there actually was a bound, ha!

I was cooking so many bean-me-up dishes and what I didn’t intentionally realise was that all of them featured sudžuk. This meant that I had to find avenues, sauces, condiments, spices and vegetables to play around with so that I could effortlessly share what felt like the same dish, but in its many iterations and guises. Lucky for me, I love doing that in the kitchen already and lucky for my partner, he now appreciates the beauty of a bay leaf and the power of a Baharat spice mix all the more because of it.

Beans have a lot of soul. They release their sugars slowly because of their fibre content, so you can always expect something nourishing when using them because they will ultimately absorb and work with the flavours around them, and they also can be pretty forgiving during the cooking process - unless, you overdo it and then you might just need to blitz them and eat.

It should now come as no surprise that one of my favourite weekly bean recipes is the theme of this week’s write-up.

Large Lima beans have now affectionately become known as ‘butter beans’ and they have been a sun-drenched staple of Peru for thousands of years and they yield that creamy, almost-churned-butter-like consistency. If you’ve had a slow simmering bean stew, chances are these beans have been used. If you’re time-poor then tinned butter beans that have been rinsed and drained still hold their form and also easily cross over into a balmy dip or a flavourful vehicle for whatever your spice rack or pantry desires. This quick recipe has bite, it’s comforting, it yields creaminess and is interchangeable with your favourite seasonal veg. It now doubles-up as a great activity I do with my son - I dance, I chop, I chat, we snack, we all score and maybe one day this might just make my my Play School audition tape.

But for now, be sure to remember you can easily lean into heart-warming beans and good-quality sudžuk. Don’t be afraid to slice and fry without any oil - it yields enough natural fat so that you can quickly toss and enjoy a few slices on their own first.

Farah xx

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BUTTER BEAN FRY-UP

^{Play with your bean selection - you won’t be sorry.}

^{Prep: 5 mins}

^{Cook: 10-15 mins}

^{Serves 4}

Ingredients

• ^{1 onion, diced}

• ^{200g sudžuk (cured beef sausage), peeled and sliced}

• ^{Green veggies of your choosing or ones that need some attenzione. I often lean into Brussels sprouts, broccoli & peas.}

• ^{2 garlic cloves, grated}

• ^{1 tsp sweet paprika}

• ^{1 large tomato, grated}

• ^{Handful of bay leaves}

• ^{A heaped scoop of salted butter}

• ^{A couple of glugs of olive oil}

• ^{2 tins of butter beans, rinsed and drained}

• ^{Grated cheese - manchego or cheddar (optional)}

• ^{Dollop of kaymak, sour cream or Greek yoghurt, to serve}

Method

1. ^{In a frypan over medium heat, brown the onion and the sudžuk for a few mins.}

2. ^{Toss in your green veggies, garlic, paprika, tomato and stir for a couple of mins.}

3. ^{Add the bay leaves, butter and a glug of olive oil. Once combined add the beans and the extra glug of olive oil and optional cheese and simmer for 2-3 mins.}

4. ^{Great for spooning as is or over some buttery orzo, steamed rice or with a chunk of toasted bread.}