Wow, 2015 seems to be disappearing in a flash. November is nearly here and with it comes NaNoWriMo, the challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I have participated in NaNo every year since 2009 although I have only ‘won’ twice. Mostly I do it for fun and I have made many great friends in this madcap writing community. It’s a great chance to stretch my creativity muscle and really focus on one project for a month.
That said, November is a particularly busy time of year for me and I always fall a little off the rails with basically everything that is not writing. I will have to rely more than usual on my seven minute recipe collection. I hope I can continue to add more recipes to this blog over November and share them with others who will be similarly strapped for time as the end of the year approaches.
I am about 80% settled into the new house, there are a few boxes of books and other odds and ends that remain packed in boxes, but everything I need day-to-day is now accessible. I also found a beautiful fresh organic produce shop just 10 minutes walk away, which is where I bought the asparagus for this recipe. Asparagus is really in season here at the moment and beautifully flavorful. The creamy butter bean mash is a great complement and I’ve added tomatoes to round out the fruit/veggie servings. Butter-bean mash is one of my go-to sources of protein and because it can be made without the butter or milk you would add to mashed potatoes, this meal is vegan friendly.
Mashed butter beans with asparagus and tomato salad
Ingredients
- 1/2 can butter beans
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 desert spoon olive oil
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 1 tomato
- 1 chilli
- salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Drain the can of butter beans, rinse under the sink and add to a small frypan with the olive oil
- Crush the clove of garlic into the fry pan and stir into the beans
- Chop the asparagus lengths in half and put on the sandwich press to grill
- Remove the seeds from the chilli and chop
- Dice the tomato, then pop into a bowl with the chilli and a sprinkle of salt
- With a potato masher, mash the butter beans ( I like to leave mine a little rough and ‘country style’ but you can mash as smooth as you like)
- Spoon the mash into a bowl and top with the grilled asparagus and the tomato salad, add salt and pepper to taste.
Seven Minute Vegetarian 
Yum, I love the idea of butter bean mash. Why have I never thought of that? Thanks for the inspiration 🙂
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Butter beans are so creamy they mash perfectly. I got this idea from a Nigella Lawson recipe, who adds preserved lemon to her mash, but I prefer just adding garlic.
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