Butter Beans with Red Clover and Wild Herbs

Trifolium butter beans Energya Ltd

If I called this recipe “trifolium beans” would you prefer it? While I think of a snazzy name for this dish, here it is in all its foraging glory. Annual honesty (Lunaria Annua) is similar to wild garlic mustard and has purple flowers but also very distinctive seed pods which look like coins or lenses, hence the common name “silver dollars” or “Chinese coins”. Red clover is best consumed in small quantities as it contains phytoestrogen.

INGREDIENTS

200 gr cooked butter beans (drained weight)

3 leaves wild garlic, chopped

20 gr wild garlic mustard, chopped

10 gr red clover

20 gr annual honesty, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pinch salt and pepper

3 teaspoons wild garlic pesto

METHOD

If you have any ready made wild garlic pesto, just use 3 teaspoons at the end of the cooking to flavour the dish, otherwise simply blitz together 2 wild garlic leaves with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

In a large frying pan gently cook the garlic, wild garlic, wild garlic mustard and annual honesty in olive oil on a medium heat for 3 minutes. Add seasoning, the red clover and the butter beans, cooking for a further 10 minutes. Take off the heat and add some wild garlic pesto.