How did beans get so glam?

Creamy, crispy, brothy or impersonating pasta: beans are a newly fashionable ingredient being served all the delicious ways. PLUS an exclusive bean-related discount offer for all subscribers.

Welcome to Pen and Spoon! I can’t believe this is my 49th Substack. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing each and every one, but I need to shake things up a bit. From next week - my 50th newsletter - my recipes will be for paid subscribers only. I’ve thought long and hard about this, but every newsletter takes a great deal of time to research, write, test and buy ingredients for - and paid subscribers enable me to do this. I hope you understand.

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Baked beans on toast: it’s a great British tradition (albeit an American creation) I’ve embraced since I was old enough to get a spoon to my mouth. Ladled over good buttered toast with grated Cheddar on top, loads of salt and pepper and (controversially?) an egg, what’s not to love? But in modern times, Britain’s taste for legumes beyond the blue tin has been less than enthusiastic.

Of course, beans have long been a staple in many parts of the world and in Britain, too, since medieval times, when they were eaten like bread, says food historian Pen Vogler in her award-winning book Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain. But in recent decades they’ve suffered an image problem: more virtuous than tasty, worthy but never glam, a bit dull, mealy and often tough. Until now.

There’s a bean bonanza going on. Beans - especially the white ones (cannellini, haricot or butter are common) - are front and centre on restaurant menus these days. You often find them mixed with greens, anointed with broth and served as a base for fish; or scented with rosemary and dished up with lamb or sausages, classic French style. Instagram, meanwhile, is a vast creamy vat of bean goodness in the form stews, soups and braises, that are often presented being scooped up with chunks of bread in a way that makes you want to devour BEANS.

Maybe it’s our collective search for more plant-based sources of protein that’s helped lead us back to the joy of beans (they are, in fact, pretty nourishing all round). And in Britain we’ve finally cottoned on to what to do with them, taking our cue from cooks in Greece, Turkey, France, Spain, Italy, African nations and other places where beans have always been prized for being inexpensive, filling and tasty. They really are flavour vehicles that can carry you down whatever herb or spice route you fancy.

The thing is, dried beans need care and attention, and many a bag has gathered dust in my pantry because I can't be bothered to cook them, or because I forget to put them under cold water to soak. Rachel Roddy suggests leaving bags of beans out on your worktop as a visual reminder in this lovely piece about preparing and cooking beans to plump and creamy perfection, as they do in Tuscany.

In terms of canned versions, I always have some in the cupboard, but they generally need quite a bit of zhuzhing up to be really tasty, and the skins are invariably tough. Whenever I’ve included white bean recipes in my cookbooks, I’ve recommended using big jars of high-quality Spanish beans, or those luscious Greek ‘gigantes’. Problem is, they’re pricey and can be hard to get hold of. Or they used to be.

Step forward Bold Bean Co beans, founded by Amelia Christie-Miller. I first got to know Amelia when she worked for the sustainable food business Foodchain, which connects chefs with food producers. She knew there was a gap in the UK market for the kind of tender truly delicious beans she’d enjoyed in Europe. And she was also inspired to set up her business by the fact that eating more beans can help tackle climate change. (Beans produce 90% fewer greenhouse gases than some animal products, according to the journal Nature Food, and they improve soil health by pulling nitrogen out of the air and locking it into the soil).

“Working at Foodchain, I learned a lot about soil health, food security, the need to reduce meat consumption and how to do that in a delicious way,” Amelia tells me. “And the chefs I was working with were really doing a good job at making plant-forward cooking really delicious. And I noticed that a lot of these top chefs were using beans.”

Bold Beans beans are exceptional - if you’ve only ever eaten the ones stored in water in tins, you might be astonished at how different these ones taste: they’re creamy, tender and full of flavour. Admittedly they are significantly more expensive than the tinned stuff, but for good reasons.

The quality of Bold Beans Co beans, which are sourced from Spain, Poland, Canada and the UK (the carlin peas from award-winning Hodmedods are a standout, too) obviously has much to do with it. “We have very high standards in terms of sizing, how thick the skins are and the variety, and we always choose the most delicious ones,” Amelia says.

But a lot of the difference boils down to the way her beans are prepared. Unlike most brands of tinned beans, Bold Beans beans are soaked in water for more than 12 hours before cooking, and then scalded. “That’s to get rid of those tough outer skins where possible, which is a really key part of the process,” she explains. After that, the beans are cooked low and slow to preserve the flavour and texture, and to create the famously tasty, rich cooking liquid - bean stock, essentially - that goes into the jar.

“I think that time is really key to bring out the starches to make that bean stock really delicious,” she says.

Some (not all) tinned versions contain an additive known as sodium metabisulphate (E223) - that gives the beans a brighter, paler colour. “Ours by comparison are really quite dull,” Amelia says. ”But it does impact flavour I think.”

The success of Bold Beans has also been driven by its drool-inducing Insta account that features delicious ideas for cooking beans, as well as recipes. (There’s also a Bold Beans cookbook - Amelia has worked as a private chef.)

There are so many lovely ways to use beans, regardless of the form you buy them in. I’d also highly recommend Pulse, by Jenny Chandler, which contains 180 gorgeous modern recipes for beans, chickpeas and lentils plus exhaustive advice on how to store, prepare and cook them.

To my mind, beans make a brilliant substitute for potatoes: whiz them up in a food processor with generous splashes of olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning to make mash. (Relax and accept the fact that beans need LOADS of salt, unless you’re using ready cooked ones that come in a well-seasoned broth). They also crisp up well in a frying pan if you pat them dry first.

I love the idea of using beans as a substitute for pasta – the Bold Beans website has a brilliant recipe for Butter Bean Puttanesca and I’ve been eyeing this recipe from Delicious magazine: Marmite chicken wit cacio e pepe butter beans.

The one I offer you here is simple. I do recommend you use Bold Bean Queen beans for this, or other large white beans if you can find them, as they hold their shape beautifully. But tinned white beans will still be lovely in this dish

Don’t forget, if you haven’t subscribed to my newsletter yet, click below, and you’ll receive a discount code into your email inbox giving you 20% off Bold Beans products.

Creamy garlicky chicken with leeks and beans

Serves 4

• 4 chicken legs (thigh and drumstick)

• 2 Tbsp olive oil, plus more if needed

• 2 Tbsp butter, plus more if needed

• 1 white onion, finely chopped

• 1 leek, trimmed and finely sliced

• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 80ml white wine

• 1 x 700g jar white beans, such as Bold Beans Co Queen beans plus the jar liquid or 2 x 400g tins butter beans, drained, plus 200ml veg stock

• 180g creme fraiche

• Juice of 1/2 lemon, or more to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Heat the oil and butter in an ovenproof frying pan or wide and shallow casserole. Brown the chicken legs all over until they have good colour, especially on the skin. Remove to a plate.

2. If the pan has dried out, add more butter and oil. Add the onions, leeks, thyme and a pinch of salt and fry over low heat for 10 minutes until the vegetables are very soft. Add the garlic and gently fry for 3 minutes more.

3. Pour the wine into the pan and stir, scraping up any caramelised bits on the bottom. Let it bubble up and when almost entirely reduced, tip in the beans, the liquid from the jar (or the stock if using canned drained beans) and the creme fraiche. Stir gently so everything is combined.

4. Nestle the chicken legs on top, skin side up. Roast uncovered for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through (the juices run clear or the internal temperature reaches 74C on a meat thermometer. The sauce should be slightly reduced and bubbling.

5. Remove the chicken to a plate. Add the spinach to the beans and use tongs to combine the greens with the creamy bean sauce, so it wilts in the residual heat. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and taste for seasoning. Serve with the chicken immediately.