Butter Beans And Beets (S)mush

Call this butter beans dip, spread or pate, whatever you like, I did call it a s(mush) not sure why but I like that. It is a delicious full of flavour, protein-packed side dish or snack that goes superbly well with some nice crusty bread, veg sticks, tortillas, wraps, you name it.

I was telling you that I love beans and I wasn’t joking. I will put up every single bean recipe that I could possibly think of.

Come on, let’s just face it! Beans are such a fab ingredient, especially for the cold winter period, because they're nutritious, pretty filling and with a low GI, which means they are very safe and truly healthy to eat.

My mum prepares a very similar butter beans and beets smush recipe, but she does complicate it a little bit (still delicious!). She does extra (see the recipe notes), but I have decided to implement a few changes to it, making it a lot healthier but still amazing.

If you ask me, this butter beans pate is a lazy recipe... but nonetheless, some days we just want to be lazy, eat well, be healthy and stay as long out of the kitchen as possible or not at all when preparing this in advance. This takes minutes to make, it's that easy!

This dish can be a prepared in advance and could be a really nice spread, as a side, a snack or a small main dish served with a really beautiful homemade flatbread or a crusty sourdough. 

Making our own dip/spread/pate might take just a few steps more than rolling by the grocery's store pre-made section.

Dip it, dunk it, scoop it, spread it — bean dips are packed with flavour, as well as:

• fibre
• protein
• other essential nutrients

Tips: 

• If you do not plan or fancy cooking the beans from scratch, you can use canned beans. They are as good. Use any beans type: if you don’t have butter beans, then use cannellini beans, or borlotti beans or any other beans ( black beans, turtle beans will be as good. I prefer white beans like butter (my faves) or cannellini.
• I was telling you about what my mum always used to do (still does) do extra, which is absolutely delicious - she caramelizes some onion in a generous quantity of olive oil and puts it on top to serve with - oh, I cannot tell you how delish that is, so if you like caramelized onion just go for it - yummy! Feel free to just throw those in too if you fancy. 
• I sometimes use this beans (s)mush as a base for a nice steak instead of mashed potatoes or chips/rice and add some truffled mushrooms over - OMG it’s divine! Or, as seen in the picture aside to a nice panfried or baked fish (any fish will do) with some pickles or a nice salad. Oh, I am terribly hungry now.

What do I mean by truffled mushrooms? I simply use truffles or truffle oil - amazing stuff (also a future recipe).

Nothing better than truffles and steak!

Enjoy folks!!

Let’s just get busy for a few minutes preparing this beautiful beans and beets (s)mush ;-))

Butter beans and beets (s)mush

This is a healthy butter bean spread with beets (vegan pate) perfect as an appetiser, to start your day, or to snack on or take to a party. A superb and fast recipe to surprise your family or guests!

5 from 3 votes

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Course: Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine: European Cuisine

Keyword: beans and beets spread, beans pate, butter beans spread, vegan pate, vegan starter

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

0 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 256kcal

Author: Ramona Sebastian

Cost: £2.50

Cook Mode

Equipment

• chopping board
• knife
• glass bowl
• food processor

Ingredients

• 500 g butter beans (cooked)
• 150 g beetroot (cooked - ideally baked)
• 1 onion (finely chopped)
• 1 leek (finely chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped or grated)
• 250 ml vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (if necessary)
• 1 sprig rosemary or thyme (optional)
• salt (to taste)
• pepper (to taste)
• 5-6 sprigs chives or parsley to garnish

Metric - US Imperial

Instructions

• Start by cooking the beans according to the packet instructions ( I will tell you a secret - 50% of the time I use canned beans for this recipe as it is supposed to be a quick recipe. At times it happens that I have kept aside on purpose some beans cooked for cassoulet or a beans soup.
• Chop the cooked beetroots and set aside. I normally buy the ones that are baked and are slightly marinated in vinegar or I just bake my own and add tiny little balsamic vinegar to the whole thing.
• Wash peel and chop the onion and the leek. Peel, crush and chop the garlic.
• Heat the olive oil in a skillet using medium heat and when this is hot (not fuming please) put in the chopped onion, garlic and the leek and sauté until they become slightly translucent, I would say 2-3 minutes not longer. Add the rosemary or the thyme sprig and allow it to infuse for another 1-2 minutes and then remove.
• Add in the cooked butter beans, garlic, and vegetable stock. Cover and reduce heat to low, simmer for about 7-10 minutes until the liquid reduces considerably. When beans are done with the cooking, turn the heat off and set aside for a good few minutes to cool slightly.
• When beans have cooled a little, transfer them together with the roughly chopped beets, salt and pepper to a food processor and blend until they smushed but not become a totally smooth paste. You choose the texture you would like these to be, as smooth or lumpy as you want these to be. For smoother texture do not reduce the juices totally when cooking.
• Spoon beans into your desired dish and serve. I do prefer this cold as a spread but I do sometimes have it with a steak and mushrooms - see suggestion in tips.

Nutrition

Calories: 256kcal | Carbohydrates: 37g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 289mg | Potassium: 837mg | Fiber: 11g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 558IU | Vitamin C: 8mg | Calcium: 49mg | Iron: 4mg

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