As you might imagine, with a little restaurant to open next month, our evening suppers need to be fast but not at the cost of nutrition. This über simple dish of white beans and spinach gently sautéed together with a quick basil and pistachio pesto and garnished with toasted pumpkin seeds and pomegranate arils delivers everything I need it to. It’s inspired by a dish I ate in a tiny taverna in Corfu which was actually made with a tangy fresh vine leaf pesto. As we’re not exactly blessed with those, I’ve given you a quick recipe for my gorgeous basil and pistachio pesto. The taste and the textures in this dish are lovely and it’s on the table in less than 15 minutes. What’s not to love!

Ingredients

400g can of butter beans, drained and rinsed
100g baby spinach
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
A handful of pumpkin seeds, toasted, to garnish
A handful of pomegranate arils, to garnish

For the pesto:
30g fresh basil, leaves picked
30g flat leaf parsley
1 garlic clove, peeled
3 tbsp shelled pistachios (you can also use blanched almonds)
1 lime, zested and juiced
100ml extra-virgin olive oil

How I make it

First make the pesto by placing all the ingredients into a small food processor and blending together. Pour into a bowl, season to your taste and set aside.

Heat a large frying pan and, when it’s up to temperature, add a generous glug of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the beans, the spinach and the pesto to the pan and stir around for a couple of minutes until the spinach is just wilted. Add the lemon juice and season to your taste.

Tumble into a pretty dish and garnish with the pumpkin seeds and pomegranate arils. Serve with warmed pittas (I like the larger Arabic-style ones). This goes perfectly with my my coriander and lemon-baked feta, an absolute staple at our place. You can find the recipe here.

Please check out my Pantry and Source pages to discover more about the ingredients I use, the brands I love and the places I source them from.