Ingredients

The following ingredients have 4 Servings
  • 250 g / 2 cups dry giant / butter beans, soaked overnight
  • 45 ml / 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 x 400 g / 14 oz tins of chopped tomatoes*
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 small red onion, finely diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely diced
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp brown sugar or maple syrup (optional)
  • a good pinch of chilli powder (optional)
  • approx. 1 generous tsp fine sea salt
  • few grinds of black pepper
  • handful of parsley, finely chopped

Instruction

  • Discard soaking water and rinse the beans well. Put them into a medium pot and cover with plenty of water. Bring to the boil and then simmer (with a lid mostly covering the pot) for about 45 minutes (make sure you gather the foam that has come to the surface and discard it). At this stage, the beans need to be cooked 'al dente' as they will finish off cooking in the oven.
  • In a frying pan, fry the onion until translucent, add in garlic and fry for another minute or two.
  • Decrease the heat to low and add in cinnamon and chilli (if using) to the onion and garlic mixture. Fry for another minute, coating the onion and garlic in the spices. Stir often as spices are dry spices and burn easily.
  • Pre-heat the oven to 180° C / 355° F.
  • Add in tomato paste, diced tomatoes, oregano, salt, sugar (if your tomatoes are a bit too tangy) and pepper. Simmer for about 30 minutes - until tomatoes are starting to thicken. Add in drained beans and mix everything together.
  • Transfer the mixture to an oven safe dish adding about ½ cup of bean cooking water. Stir through well.
  • Bake for about 1 hr, until the sauce has thickened nicely and the beans are soft and creamy.