Green Brothy Beans

You’ll need

1 cup dried cannellini beans (soaked in water overnight)
1 litre of veggie or chicken stock (make some with veg scraps, peppercorns, onions and parmesan rinds)
1 lemon peel
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepp
1 garlic clove (crushed)
1 lemon (juice and rind)
½ cup basil
1 cup kale
¼ cup pine nuts
¼ cup olive oil

Make it

Pop the drained beans, stock, lemon peel, salt, pepp and bay leaf in a large saucepan on medium heat. Allow this to all simmer for a few hours till the beans are soft, no longer chalky but not falling to bits. This can take anywhere between 2-4 hours so give yourself some time. You’ll need to keep topping up the liquid with extra water as you go and skim off any white foam that appears on the top so keep an eye on it as it simmers away and makes your house smell excellent.

Make the green pesto by blanching the basil in boiling water for about 30s and the kale for a couple of minutes. Then blitz in a processor with the olive oil, pine nuts and lemon zest. You can also add some extra garlic, Parmesan, chilli flakes, anchovies or any other things you like here.

Once the beans are ready stir in the crushed garlic. Taste and season with the lemon juice, some extra salt and pepp — you can add some extra veg here too (broccoli, cavolo nero, green beans). Ladle in the beans with their brothy soup and top with the blitzed pesto. Serve it with a drizz of olive oil, a grating of Parmesan, a handful of pangrattato or a big slab of toasted sourdough.

You can make this with canned beans if you want, just rinse them well and cook for 15-20 mins till they are warmed through and take on the flavour of the stock.