This is lunch on Day 1 of Meal Plan 4.
150g onion, Asda 2kg/£1.08, 8p
200g carrots, Asda 1kg/ 57p, 11p
300g potatoes Asda 2.5kg/£1.69, 20p
150g peas Asda 1kg/98p,15p
75g dried butter beans Asda 500g/£1.09, 16p
30g veg oil £1.25/litre, 4p
Total cost 74p, serves 2, 37p a serving
I have costed this using mySupermarket at todays prices at Asda
per serving – 462 calories, 16g fat, 15g protein, 66g carb
If you haven’t already, soak the butter beans, preferably overnight. Then simmer gently until very soft, this could be done in a slow cooker. If you are following meal plan 4, it will save you a lot of time if you cook all the beans for the week together and keep them, covered, in the fridge
Peel and chop all the veg. Now heat the oil in a large pan and saute the onion until translucent, add the carrots and potatoes and continue until they are soft and well cooked. Add the peas and well drained butter beans and cook for a couple of minutes. Season well and serve.
If you need to take this to work as a packed lunch, you may prefer to make soup with the ingredients. I would cook all the veg as above, whizz the soup smooth, season well and add the whole butter beans.
The beans can be swapped out for any other pulse – chick peas, green or brown lentils, or if you are making the soup, good old red lentils. I enjoyed this when I tested it, it is a mild dish, so normally I would add grainy mustard, sweet chilli sauce, a few sun dried tomatoes, or olives, or capers, or some other extra like that. Failing that, I have soup for lunch most days in the winter, and I would almost certainly turn it into soup if I was following the plan.
The red on the top in the picture is a spoonful of red tomato pesto.
Hi Tami, thanks for your kind comments.
Butter beans are pretty amenable to all kinds of flavourings. You can pair them with curry spices and pastes; lemon zest and garlic; tahini; rosemary chopped very fine, or roasted with vegetables so it goes crispy; tins of tuna in oil or tomato sauce; fish sauce, soya sauce, garlic and chilli.
Or if you’re looking for a non-pork meat accompaniment, chicken (thighs for the best flavour) chick peas and smoked paprika; beef mince or stewing steak cubes, cooked long and slow, so they are very soft, then add BBQ sauce; turkey steaks or mince, flavoured with smoked paprika as you like that flavour and a good squirt of tomato puree
Hello, Lesley
Love this meal plan and all of the other meal plans.
What type of seasoning goes with butter beans?
I always used smoked turkey but the stores quit selling it and I do not eat pork.
Thanks !