Butter beans with saffron and spicy sausages recipe
These beans feel luxurious enough to work for a Friday night, particularly if you get the slightly more expensive jarred kind (they’re much softer than the tins) and serve them with some good sausages.
Prep time: 10 minutes | Cooking time: 50 minutes
SERVES
3
INGREDIENTS
Olive oil, for frying
1 onion, sliced
250g jarred roasted red peppers, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp hot smoked paprika
200ml white wine
1 good pinch of saffron
700g jar of butter beans with their liquid
6 sausages (use whatever you like but cooking chorizo or spicy Italian would be good)
1 lemon, juiced
To serve
3 tbsp sour cream, crème fraîche or thick yoghurt
A small bunch of parsley, torn roughly
METHOD
Once made, the beans will sit happily on the hob with the heat off while you cook the sausages (do this however you prefer, in a frying pan or in the oven). It’s up to you whether to put the sausages on to cook before you start the beans, or cook them once the beans are blipping away.
To cook the beans, set a casserole pan with a lid over a low to medium heat with a good glug of oil. Fry the onion with a pinch of salt for about eight minutes, or until starting to soften. Add the peppers and cook for another five minutes, then add the garlic and cook for another two minutes.
Add the fennel seeds and paprika, stir well and fry for a couple of minutes. Then pour in the wine and saffron, scrunching it a little as you add it to the pan, and let the liquid come up to a simmer.
Add the beans along with their liquid. Fill the jar up by a third with water and pour that in too. Season with salt and pepper and simmer over a low heat with the lid on for about 20 minutes. Then add the lemon juice and cook for another few minutes. If you prefer your beans with a little less liquid, take the lid off at this point to let it reduce.
To serve, ladle the beans into a deep bowl and top with the sausages, a dollop of something creamy and a few sprigs of parsley.
