Butter beans with roasted cherry tomatoes
This simple dish from Ottolenghi Comfort is all about the beans, so source the biggest, butteriest ones you can find. While butter beans and tomatoes is a classic combination, this recipe has an unusual twist – crispy roasted tomato skins, dried in the oven until crunchy and savoury. This dish is delicious on its own, or as part of a spread.
Extracted from Ottolenghi COMFORT by Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller and Tara Wigley (Ebury Press, £30). All photography by Jonathan Lovekin.
Source the larger butter beans, or judiones, for this, if you can. They’re softer, more buttery and much creamier than the smaller ones (which come in a tin). This dish works well as part of a mezze spread, or can be eaten as it is, with something like crumbled feta or olives on top.
Keeping notes: Once made, the beans keep for up to 3 days in the fridge – just bring them back to room temperature before serving. The crispy tomato skins are a great thing to have around as well, to add to salads and pasta dishes. The recipe comes from a restaurant called Bar Rochford in Canberra, Australia, where they’re served with fresh green beans. They keep for a week in a sealed jar.
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
- 500g of cherry tomatoes
- 85ml of olive oil
- 1 onion, finely diced (150g)
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp thyme leaves, roughly chopped, plus a few whole thyme leaves to garnish
- 1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
- 1 fresh bay leaf
- 80ml of dry white wine
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 700g of jar of good-quality butter beans, drained and rinsed
- salt and pepper
To serve
- 75g of Greek-style yoghurt
Method
Preheat the oven to 210°C fan
Toss the tomatoes with 2 teaspoons of the oil and spread them on a parchment-lined baking tray. Roast for 20 minutes, until the skins have loosened and the tomatoes are soft and have shrunk a little. Remove from the oven and transfer the tomatoes, along with all their juices, to a shallow bowl to cool
- 500g of cherry tomatoes
- 2 tsp olive oil
Re-line the baking tray with a fresh sheet of baking parchment and reduce the oven temperature to 100°C fan
Once cool enough to handle, pinch the skins off the tomatoes and place the skins on the lined baking tray. Return the tray to the oven for about 45 minutes, until the skins are dry and crisp, giving them a good stir a couple of times during baking. Set the skinless tomatoes aside
Put the remaining 75ml of oil into a medium saucepan and place on a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, oregano, thyme, fennel seeds and bay leaf and cook for 10–12 minutes, until the onion has softened but has not taken on too much colour
- 75ml of olive oil
- 1 onion, finely diced (150g)
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp thyme leaves, roughly chopped, plus a few whole thyme leaves to garnish
- 1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
- 1 fresh bay leaf
Add the wine, simmer for 2 minutes to reduce, then add the paprika. Cook for another minute, then add the reserved tomato flesh, along with 1 teaspoon of salt. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes, stirring often so that the tomatoes break down
- 80ml of dry white wine
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
Add the beans and a good grind of pepper and stir to combine
- 700g of jar of good-quality butter beans, drained and rinsed
Cook for a couple of minutes, just to warm through, then remove from the heat
Spread the yoghurt over a serving plate and then pile the beans on top. Crumble over the dried tomato skins, finish with a sprinkling of thyme leaves and serve
- 75g of Greek-style yoghurt
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