Mean Beanz, Courgette Pasta and Egg
I recently received a new kitchen gizmo, purchased at our local SuperValu store. It cost €10. With its simplistic design, will reshape various vegetables into long strips, like spaghetti. A temporary moratorium on bread and pasta consumption within this household, proves it to be a handy device indeed. In this recipe, I used it to create courgette ribbons, adding some salt and pepper, with a hint of fresh lemon juice and dried oregano. Yummy! It seems to also work well with carrots, and potato, for creating Rosti’s.
Gourmet beans seem to be on trend at the moment. The Irish food company “Cool Beans” currently have a few great products out and about within this space. Heinz baked beans seemed to have market share on this type of food product for a long time, so its good that the humble bean is getting a face lift. The haricot bean variety are the most popular for mass production.
In the quest to create a healthy breakfast this morning, I created this dish. Using mainly butter beans with some chorizo, onions and smoked paprika, my “Mean Beanz” imparted a glorious smokey flavour. Served with the courgette spaghetti, pickled onions and a fried egg, it was a breakfast fit for a king.
Having recently heard the song “You Don’t Own Me” by Grace, all over the radio, I was really impressed by the song itself, and how it sounded so…vintage! After digging a little deeper, I found out it was actually a cover of the song previously released by Lesley Gore. I much prefer the original now. Todays culinary adventures are soundtracked by…
Fry the onion, garlic and chorizo for a few minutes until golden brown. Add in the beans, tomato sauce, mustard, smoked paprika, Worcester sauce, and simmer on a low heat for ten minutes. Finally, stir in the sugar, salt and pepper. If the mixture is too dry, add a little water. This can be consumed straight away, or if you have time, gently simmer for a longer period and a deeper flavour will form.
Ingredients
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped or grated
- 1 inch piece of chorizo, finely chopped
- 1 tin of butter beans
- 1/2 tin of red kidney beans
- 1 tsp of mustard
- 400g of passata or other tomato sauce
- 1 tsp of smoked paprika
- 1 dash of Worcester sauce
- 1 tsp of sugar
- Salt and pepper
- 1 courgette
- 1 egg
- A few pickled onions
