Creamy Beetroot Beans

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This creamy beetroot beans recipe gives red kidney beans glow up treatment they deserve. Smothered in delicious sauce made with pureed beetroot, roasted garlic, creamy tahini, to name but a few simple ingredients, finished under the grill with some feta or plant based equivalent and sprinkled with toasted walnuts. All in 30 minutes. Quick, comforting and delicious - perfect midweek meal.

Course Beans, Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine British, International

Keyword creamy beetroot beans

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Total Time 30

Servings servings

Calories 341kcal

Author Jo Allison

Equipment

Ingredients

500 g cooked beetroot peeled and divided; see tip below
4 big roasted garlic cloves flesh squeezed out of the skins; see tip below
2 tablespoon lemon juice and more to taste
50 g tahini
50 g thick Greek yogurt or plant Greek style yogurt see notes
570 g jar of red kidney beans or use 2 x 400g(14-15oz) cans instead; other types of beans can be used instead
150 ml water or stock or more; see tip below
30 g fresh dill leaves only
50 g feta or vegan feta see notes
50 g walnuts roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Take a look at my guide on How to Cook Beetroot if you'd like to cook your own beetroot. You can also use plain, cooked vacuum packed beets (not the ones packed in vinegar).

Only use roasted garlic here as raw garlic would be too harsh. Alternatively, if you don't want to roast the garlic, you could gently sauté couple of chopped cloves in some olive oil and add those instead. 2 cloves would be sufficient in such instance.

Put about 300-350g of cooked beetroot in a food processor or a blender together with roasted garlic, lemon juice, tahini and yogurt. Blend until completely smooth.
Taste and season with salt and pepper. Adjust the amount of lemon juice to taste.
500 g cooked beetroot, 4 big roasted garlic cloves, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 50 g tahini, 50 g thick Greek yogurt or plant Greek style yogurt, salt and pepper

I like to keep some beetroot aside and chop it up instead of pureeing to add a bit of texture. Feel free to puree it all.

Roughly chop remaining beetroot (if any) into small chunks.
Finely chopped all the dill.
500 g cooked beetroot, 30 g fresh dill
Next pour beetroot pure into a sauté style pan together with the beans (including liquid) and give it all a good mix.
Pop the pan on a low to medium heat to gently heat up the mixture stirring often (5-10 minutes).
570 g jar of red kidney beans

Don't walk away from the pan, it requires constant supervision and frequent stirring.

Pour about 150ml water/stock into the bean jar, pop the top on and give it a good shake. Use that water to adjust consistency of your beetroot beans. If you find you'd prefer it less thick add even more water/stock.
Preheat the grill (if necessary).
150 ml water or stock

If you're using tinned beans and don't want to use the liquid from the tins, simply drain and rinse the beans and add them to the pan like that. You will however need to add some extra water or preferably stock (for flavour) to make up for the bean liquid so instead of 150ml as per above step you might need to add 300ml (or to get the consistency you want).

Take the pan off the heat. Stir in ¾ of the chopped dill saving the rest for garnish at the end.
30 g fresh dill
Crumble some feta or vegan feta on top of the beans and pop the pan under the grill to brown it off slightly.
50 g feta or vegan feta

If you don't have a separate grill you can pop the pan in a preheated oven or simply leave it as is. Even without browning feta will add a little bit of saltiness and creaminess to the dish.

Put walnuts in a dry frying pan and toast them on a low heat, giving pan a shake regularly so that they don't burn. Couple of minutes should be enough.
50 g walnuts
Take the pan from under the grill, sprinkle over toasted walnuts and the rest of the chopped dill.
Serve with some quinoa, steamed greens and plenty of good bread.
Enjoy!

Notes

Nutritional information is approximate, per serving (based on 4 servings) and should be treated as a rough guideline only. It will differ depending on ingredients used.
Yogurt can be substituted with cream of your choice or coconut milk.
I love feta as a topping but you could use mozzarella or halloumi slices too.
For more information on ingredients and possible substitutions see 🛒 Ingredients.
Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for 3-5 days. Freezer friendly. For storage and freezing details see 🥡 Storage.

Feel free to puree/blend all of the beetroot if you prefer. I usually chop some up for some extra texture but to be honest my kids prefer it when it's all pureed.

Adjust the amount of liquid to how saucy you'd like your beans to be. Bean liquid from the jarred beans is seasoned and really tasty so I always add it in. If using tinned beans and not wanting to add their liquid, simply drain and rinse the beans and top up the liquid with stock or water. I would recommend stock for more flavour.

Always adjust seasoning to your taste, lemon juice, salt pepper, you know your taste.

Nutrition