Pesto Butter Bean Salad – one of Anna’s favourite recipes when gathering friends, sharing food.

On the whole I try to eat healthy, wholesome food and I love to cook. When gathering friends, sharing food, I love nothing more than cooking up a healthy feast. However during the week I don’t have much time to cook and I’m always looking for recipes that are quick but still healthy. So when I stumbled on this recipe, it became a weekly staple.

A favourite mid week supper recipe that I love is my ‘Pesto Butter Bean Salad’ inspired by one I have cooked by Deliciously Ella. I have shared my recipe below, but you can find her original recipe on her website too.

It’s a really simple salad and only takes around 10 minutes to make but it’s so filling and nutritious. In the original recipe from Deliciously Ella she uses Basil leaves for her Pesto, but I love adding some extra punch and use Kale instead. So my recipe below is for Kale Pesto for extra goodness and vitamins. I love the colour of the pomegranate seeds and the crunch of the pumpkin seeds.

I think this recipe would be perfect for gathering friends sharing food and you could add some grilled salmon or chicken very easily to this dish so that it was suitable for a dinner party. Put a lovely linen tablecloth on the table, add knotted linen napkins and treat your friends to a feast.

Recipe

Serves 2

For the pesto:

– 1/2 a cup of pine nuts toasted (100g)

– 4 big handfuls of kale

– 1/2 cup of grated parmesan

– 4 -5 tablespoons of olive oil

– juice of 1 lemon

– salt and pepper

 

For the salad:

– a handful of pumpkin seeds

– Two 400g tins of butter beans

– 1 small bag of spinach

– two handfuls of pomegranates (60g)

– olive oil

– 1 lemon

Start by making the pesto. Toast the pine nuts and put all the required ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth, then leave to one side.

Drain and rinse the beans and then place them in a frying pan with the pesto and sauté the two together for two-three minutes until warm. While they cook squeeze the lemon for the salad over the beans and add more black pepper. Add the spinach and allow it to wilt in the pan.

Serve the bean salad straight from the pan onto one large serving plate or individual hand painted plates. Sprinkle pumpkin seeds and pomegranates on top and drizzle them with olive oil. I like to add an extra sprinkle of pomegranates at the last minute because I love their bright colour.

I think this dish is best served straight from the pan nice and hot, but it still tastes delicious the next day for lunch.