I’m a huge fan of canned beans. Yes, even baked beans - although I have a recipe for home-made Heinz-style beans which is even better. But the fact you can just crack open a can, use the brine to thicken and flavour, in the place of stock, and create something , well, creative, I find that… yes… empowering. YES: canned beans are an empowering. You heard it here first.
This is good for that time in Spring when it’s too cold to sit out, but you want something that reminds you of summer. That is the most cookbook bollocks I have ever written. Sorry. I sound like Nigella; like I’ve just done 4 lines of coke and motor-boated a raspberry pavlova before moaning unwholesomely, covered in cream. I bet she does that, like, all the time.
But it has all the flavours of spring - green, herby, lemony, creamy (but vegan). The beans create acreamy, silky, buttery consistency almost as unctuous as Nigella. The lemon is powerfully fragrant, especially with the mint.
Oh, and it was born because I wanted to use up the fresh herbs, half a lemon, and a rubbery white cabbage before they were past it. I’m sure you could sub pretty much everything in it and still have something very good. But it needs beans, green herbs, and lemon.
Italian Spring Minestrone with Lemon and Cannelini Beans
A bunch of spring onions chopped
Half a small white cabbage chopped
A handful of another green leaf vegetable (I used cavolo nero)
2-3 of pieces of lemon peel, sliced in very thin slivers
Can of cannellini beans in brine (not water, if possible)
Big cloves of fresh garlic
Fresh mint, parsley, big handful of each - or whatever leafy green herbs you have
Vegetable stock
Black pepper
Fry the spring onions, lemon peel and cabbage, and garlic in olive oil until slightly softened. Add half the herbs. Add the can of cannellini beans, including liquid. Add stock. Simmer until it goes creamy and soft (about 20 mins). Serve with black pepper, more lemon zest, the rest of the herbs, and a squeeze of lemon.
I think you deserve a shot of limoncello after that, don’t you? Which you will already have in the freezer, naturally. And perhaps a few lines of coke. Go with Nigella.