Winter Main Meal Idea- Tuscan White Bean Bake

Warming, hearty, vegetarian, tomato based soupy bake- yum! Easily sub out the vegetables for ones you have, add some tomato paste for an extra rich base, add an extra tin of beans or maybe a tin of butter beans to add more volume and serve more people!

  • Vegetarian

  • Optional leave off the goats cheese for DF

  • Leave off the breadcrumbs of use a GF breadcrumb for GF/Coeliac friendly

Serves 4/5 people as is.

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INGREDIENTS

1 onion

1 leek 

Couple of garlic cloves

1-2 carrots

A few celery stalks 

Can add a zucchini too!

1/2 a cauliflower

Any greens like silverbeet/rainbow chard/cavolo nero 

A tin of diced tomatoes

1 cup water (I do hot water and dissolve 1 tsp San Elk stock powder and add the porcini mushrooms in to soften them) 

1 can of BPA-free cannellini beans 

Dried porcini mushrooms 

A few sprigs of thyme & some oregano 

Salt n pepper

Goats cheese and optional breadcrumbs or old bread blitzed for topping

*Sometimes I’ll do two tins of beans if it is serving more people, or can do a tin of butter beans too!

*Adjust the veg to what you have!

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METHOD

~Preheat oven to 180 degrees

  1. Heat olive oil in pan and cook onion, leek and garlic off

  2. Add in diced carrot, celery, zucchini (if using) and cook down to soften

  3. Add the roughly chopped up cauliflower to cook down/soften too (to speed things up you can pre-steam cauli)

  4. Add in water/stock and porcini mushrooms (if using them)

  5. Add greens, tinned beans, the tin of tomatoes, herbs and salt n pepper

  6. Bring to simmer and then wait til everything softens and cooks together

  7. Then, add the mix to an oiled baking dish, top with your goats cheese and breadcrumbs

  8. Cook for 15-20 mins or so (when top looks like it has browned a bit)

Annabel