CONTENTS

Foreword: Good Food For All – Beans is How

Introduction

1 Speedy Beans

2 Bean Snacks + Share Plates

3 Brothy Beans

4 Bean Bowls

5 Hearty Salads

6 Bean Feasts

All About the Base

Contributors

The Bold Bean Team

Index

Glossary

HOW TO USE THIS EBOOK

Select one of the chapters from the main contents list and you will be taken to a list of all the recipes covered in that chapter.

Alternatively, jump to the index to browse recipes by ingredient.

Look out for linked text (which is in blue) throughout the ebook that you can select to help you navigate between related recipes.

You can double tap images and tables to increase their size. To return to the original view, just tap the cross in the top left-hand corner of the screen.

FOREWORD: GOOD FOOD FOR ALL – BEANS IS HOW

Beans: tiny but mighty, affordable and delicious (as this book demonstrates); charming but disruptive. Beans are the future we are hungry for.

We live in a world facing many problems: poverty, food insecurity, fragile food systems and a CO₂ level at its highest in over 2 million years. At the SDG2 Advocacy Hub, we work to achieve 'Good Food For All'. While there is no singular way to solve our complex challenges, there is a powerful ingredient: beans.

Beans are a sustainable and nutritious climate-positive solution that help tackle the global food, climate and cost of living crises while also being delicious. They are a nutrient-dense protein source that feed the soil with nitrogen, fertilising it naturally, making them a farmer’s best friend. They are an affordable food group whose versatility and variety make them suitable for every meal, occasion and cuisine. With thousands of varieties, beans can grow anywhere from sea level to over 3,000 metres, in poor soil and harsh conditions. They are vital in nourishing both people and planet in a world where climate change is already happening.

While discussing these attributes with a good friend of mine, Sam Kass – who served as chef and policy advisor to President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama – we saw that we were far from realising the full potential of beans in terms of global nutrition, employment prospects and the future of the planet. The more we have learned about this food group, the more excited we are about the opportunities that they offer us.

'Beans is How' is a new campaign that aims to double the global consumption of beans by 2028. To achieve this bold goal, we need to change the perception of beans – making them aspirational to consumers, favourable for investors, profitable for farmers and a priority for policymakers. We also need to help more people have better knowledge about how to cook tasty beans in energy-efficient ways.

When I first came across Bold Bean Co, I was struck by the energy and excitement their team injected into the consumption of beans. They are showing people just how elevated this humble ingredient can be, with recipes to delight, nourish and satisfy.

This book exemplifies everything our campaign stands for, and by being a Bold Bean cookbook holder, you too are joining the fight for a better future for people and planet.

Paul Newnham

Executive Director of SDG2 Advocacy Hub

INTRODUCTION

Beans have had it tough. They’ve been boiled soft and hard done by; unloved and side-dished. Confined to the back of the cupboard and synonymous with tasteless hippy fodder. But a new era has come, and you’ve just bought the Bold Bean cookbook: get ready to have your opinion on beans changed forever.

I started my life hating beans. They were dusty, dull things I avoided with a vengeance. Cold, tasteless three-bean salads, sickly baked beans from a tin, and bullet-like chickpeas floating in a curry – no thank you. Fast-forward twenty years and I’m running a bean brand and about to persuade you that they’re the world’s best food.

So, where did this journey begin? Like most interesting stories, it began with a hangover. I was living in Madrid on a foreign exchange programme and, after another night filled with broken Spanish, I found myself hungry and lazy. I’d bought some Judión beans – specified by Nigel Slater for a recipe – and they were all I had in the house. I opened the jar and spooned one into my mouth. I distinctly remember closing my eyes to properly immerse myself in that moment; it was incredible. It was the taste of natural, creamy sumptuousness. It was the taste of a BOLDLY BRILLIANT bean. At that moment, I realised beans didn’t have to be sad and soulless. A seed was planted.

My favourite childhood books were Chocolate Island and The Magic Porridge Pot, so, yes, the food obsession started young. It led me to a career in food, first as a private chef and then in the food-sustainability space, working in food tech. My latter role was working amongst the most innovative suppliers to London’s top restaurants. I was surrounded not only by the leading chefs of London’s food scene, but also by producers who spoke about regenerative agriculture, biodiversity and crop resilience. I became addicted to understanding more; the more you love food, the more you understand the fragile nature of our food system and want to protect it.

The rocket ship of bean obsession took off when I discovered just how crucial beans are to our food future. I learned about how our topsoils are depleting rapidly through industrial farming, and how legume crops could be the naturally fertilising saviours we need. Beans were the crop that our ancestors survived on for years when meat was harder to come by, helping civilisation get to where it is today. Rich in natural protein, they’re the food group that will enable global meat reduction and help fight climate change. But mostly, as a cook and a food lover, I found them to be the ideal ingredient in taking plant-based cooking to the next level.

While the laboratories are coming up with processed, hydrolysed and emulsified solutions to sustainable diets, chefs and foodies are choosing beans. Alison Roman is selling a T-shirt with ‘White Beans’ on the front and The River Café is selling a jar of coco bianco beans for £18. I spent my career supplying London's top chefs and restaurants. It was here, working with those at the forefront of our food culture, where I saw beans done differently; I saw them as something delicious and aspirational, and the obsession deepened. But I also realised something else: I was very alone among my peers in this bean obsession. I started to unpick why I was so alone. It came down to two things: the quality of the beans I was eating, and the #beanspo I was seeing from the chefs I was working with.

So when COVID hit and I was made redundant from my hospitality role, I decided to turn this fire of fear, fury and excitement into something that would make beans cool. I decided to launch a brand that would make people obsessed with beans.

Quality

Rebranding this food group isn’t easy, given that – for a multitude of reasons – the poor reputation of beans has been established in people’s minds for centuries. In the days before factory farming, meat was a treat, a luxury reserved only for those who could afford it. The poorest in society would rely on beans as a source of protein, leaving them with a lingering association with poverty. As soon as people had made a few bucks, they’d ditch the pulses for poussin – and when the cheap chicken years came in, made possible by industrial farming, most people did exactly that. This lack of love for the bean has seeped into every part of our bean culture, from production to food writing. For over 50 years, beans have been commodified: adapted and crossbred to make the cheapest product possible. This has led to the perception of beans as the kind of tasteless, watery fodder you should leave behind at Glastonbury. But as the coffee, gin and chocolate industries have shown us, no food category should be stereotyped.

I searched high and low for the best-tasting beans I could find: sourced for quality, cooked in a way that preserves flavour, and delicious enough to eat straight from the jar. After navigating the world of brand building, we finally had a product on a shelf, and then in people’s hands. I’m extremely proud of the reactions we’ve sparked in ex-beanhaters. They try our beans and have the same moment I had all those years ago in Madrid. A bean epiphany.

Because when beans are higher quality, their versatility in the kitchen is transformed. They’re a dish in itself when served with good olive oil and lemon zest; they become the centrepiece of the salad rather than the avoided afterthought. Availability and budget can limit the quality of the beans you can get your hands on, but we want to bring down every barrier there is to a life of loving beans, so we’ve broken down a few ‘cheat’ methods for getting canned or dried closer to the incredible flavour and texture of our beans.

Beanspo

While our product speaks volumes on behalf of all beans, there are a few other barriers to bean loving. Years of commodification have led to them rarely showing up in any recipes other than a veggie curry; it means beans are unsexy, uncool, and no one knows what to do with them. But chickpeas aren’t just for hummus; white beans aren’t just for a Tuscan bean stew. We need to begin seeing beans outside of this context and instead recognise them for what they really can be: the protein-rich, sumptuous and satisfying marvels that can sneak into almost any flavour combination, offering texture and heartiness – which is everything we’re craving as we reduce meat and stay away from too many refined carbs.

I realised that for beans to be included more seamlessly in people’s lives, we needed to inspire them to be creative. So, a year before our jarred bean range was launched, I started an Instagram account, sharing recipes that made you excited, hungry and curious about cooking with beans. That’s where #beanspo came in – ‘bean inspiration’. This book contains the very best of it, along with contributions from some of the people (we call them ‘bean champs’) that are pushing this movement forward. This book will take away the fear that comes with cooking beans. Every dish is uncompromising in its deliciousness, and after cooking from it, we challenge you not to be obsessed with beans.

Beans for everyone

So, you may be thinking, for a brand rooted in the sustainable benefits of beans, why all the CHEESE!? Well, beans are not just for vegans – they’re a phenomenal, delicious food group that everyone should be embracing in their diet. There are so many endless opportunities with beans. We could have made this book entirely plant-based, but the purpose of this book is to get you excited about the potential of beans, and so ignoring their exceptional ability to soak up the flavours of a lamb shoulder or be served in a cacio e pepe sauce would be negligent. With this book in your kitchen, you’ll be able to convert a bean-hater – and that is the first step in creating a bean-obsessive.

LIVE A LIFE FULL OF BEANS

First and foremost, we love beans because they're delicious. But it's impossible not to delve into the numerous benefits that these beauties have on our health. It's simple: a life with more beans is a better one.