Kitchen · 10 min
A lemon and white bean bowl
A tin of beans, a lemon and good oil make a bowl in ten minutes, with nothing to cook.
This is the meal for the evening when you cannot face the stove. It keeps in the fridge until tomorrow, and it tastes like you meant it.
The steps
Four small steps,in your own time.
Drain and rinse a tin of white beans and tip them into a bowl.
Grate in the zest of half a lemon, then squeeze in the juice. Add a good spoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt and some black pepper.
Add something green if you have it: chopped parsley, a handful of spinach, a few leaves torn small, a sliced spring onion.
Stir, taste, and add more lemon or salt until it tastes bright. Eat it with bread, or over toast.
The reason
Why it helps
A meal with no cooking removes the biggest hurdle on a tired evening, which is starting. The lemon does a lot of work: it makes plain things taste finished. And there is something steadying about a bowl you can make with your eyes half shut, from things that sit in the cupboard for months.
A gentle variation
Swap the beans for chickpeas or a tin of lentils. Add a little crumbled cheese or a spoon of yoghurt. If chopping is too much tonight, skip the green and add it tomorrow.
WE · TRIBE
Try itwith someone.
Make a double bowl and put half in a jar for someone who is having a hard week. Leave it on their step with a note that says it needs nothing but a spoon.
Try it today
Tonight, rinse a tin of white beans, add lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper and anything green you have, and eat it with bread.
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