The base of the leek and butterbean puree can be made ahead and reheated, it also freezes really well, so it’s an excellent make ahead vegetable dish. I’ve topped it with cumin roasted carrots, but you could use roasted, sprouting broccoli or cauliflower as an alternative.
4 x good sized leeks
1 x large jar of butter eans - preferably Bold Bean Co. Queen Butter Beans
1 x bunch of carrots
1 x tablespoon of hazelnuts
3 cloves of roasted garlic (preferably roast a whole garlic bulb)
Olive Oil
Butter
Sea Salt Flakes (regular or smoked flakes work really well)
Ground black pepper
Firstly, slow roast the garlic bulb, drizzle over a good glug of olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt flakes, I used smoked salt as it gives the finished dish extra depth of flavour. Make sure you trim off the top of the bulb, exposing each clove, this allows the oil and salt in and also makes squeezing out the roasted cloves much easier. Loosely wrap in foil and roast in a low oven until soft. This can be done ahead of time.
Trim and wash the carrots, cut them in half lengthways, coat in a little olive oil and sprinkle on cumin seeds. Roast until just tender.
Wash and trim off the base of the leeks, the rest of the leek can be used, no need to waste any. Finely chop the darker green, tougher ends, slice the rest of the leek in about 1cm rounds.
Gently fry the darker green leaves in olive oil and a good knob of butter, do this gently as you don’t want the leek to colour. Once the green leaves are soft, separate two tablespoons and put them to one side. Add the chopped white part of the leek and continue to cook until it is soft and tender.
Mash 3 x of the roasted garlic cloves (more if you like it really garlicky) add to the leeks. Drain the jar of butter beans, retaining a little of the bean water, add this to the leek mixture along with the beans. Continue to cook for a few minutes more, for the beans to absorb the flavours.
Season well. Let it cool a little and then puree in a food processor. It’s up to you how smooth you’d like it. If you don’t have a food processor just mash the leeks and butter beans together until they are a rustic puree!
Roast the hazelnuts until gently browning, roughly chop.
Assemble the dish, puree on the bottom, top with the carrots and reserved dark green leeks, sprinkle the hazelnuts on the top.
Tips/Notes
Add butter and olive oil to the pan for sauteing the leeks, adding the olive oil stops the butter burning. Adding some salt at this stage releases some of the water in the leeks, helping them to cook evenly and not take on any colour.
You will only use 3 of the garlic cloves, store the rest in a small jar, top up with olive oil, both cloves and oil can be used over the next few weeks in other dishes. Make sure the cloves are submerged in the oil.
I used bunched carrots and left some of the green stalks on, it looks great on the dish, and they taste great too. Don’t waste the carrot tops, make pesto with hazelnuts or cashews – any pesto recipe will do, just replace the basil, and pine nuts, or add the tops to soup. The pesto would be great drizzled over the dish.
I’d recommend Bold Bean Co Queen Butter Benas, they are excellent, bigger than normal butterbeans and really soft and creamy. They are a little more expensive, but 100% worth it. Not an ad – I just think they’re great!!
Comments