Usually when The Meat Eater’s out, I phone Papa John’s and order a pizza (hot pepper passion, swapping the green peppers for mushrooms, to be specific) but, tonight, I needed an excuse to stop editing an article I was working on and decided to cook myself something.
This recipe was taken from The Vegetarian Society’s magazine, ‘The Vegetarian’ and was sent in by Gail Crawford from Taunton.
Don’t be put off by the cottage cheese, it gave it a beautiful tanginess. When The Meat Eater came in, the first thing he said was ‘what have you been cooking? Smells nice!’ and helped himself to some instead of going out to the chippy. High praise indeed.
Butter bean bake (serves 4)
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
1 medium sized onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 400g can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 large can butter beans
110g cheddar cheese
300g cottage cheese
1 egg, beaten
Salt and black pepper
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and the tomato puree and simmer over a medium heat for about 2 minutes.
- Drain the butter beans and add to the tomato mix. Season to taste.
- Transfer the mixture to an ovenproof dish.
- To prepare the topping, grate the cheddar cheese, place in a mixing bowl, add the cottage cheese and mix in the beaten egg.
- Spread the topping over the beans and bake for about 30 minutes, until the topping is set and golden brown.