Red Pepper and Butter bean dip/spread

Red Pepper and Butter bean dip/spread

3pts for the whole recipe

125g butter beans dried - soaked overnight (or 400g canned)
1 carrot
1 stick celery
1 onion
1 bay leaf
2 red peppers ,
1 clove garlic
Pinch of Smoked paprika (or a few drops of Tabasco if you want hot )
Juice of half a lemon (or 1 lime)

(I usually cook the beans from raw as I haven't found any canned butter beans without sugar in. If you are using canned then you'll lose the flavours of carrot, onion, celery and bay leaf, but could compromise by adding some herbs to the paste or give it a rougher texture by adding some finely grated carrot)


Place beans in pressure cooker with whole onion (peeled) celery stick ,bay leaf and carrot (I usually do double amount of beans and freeze half to save time next time)and enough water to cover beans (don’t worry about covering all the veg)
Cook. on high pressure for about 25/30mins

Drain thoroughly reserving carrot onion and celery (you could also reserve some of the cooking water in case the final paste is dry ,though I havent needed to use it yet).

Whilst beans are cooking cut pepper into strips and grill skin side up until skin is blackened. Set aside to cool, when cool skin peppers

Put well- drained beans, carrot, celery and onion in processor and add skinned peppers and a clove of crushed garlic. Whizz until smooth..(if it looks liquidy here, then don’t panic yet, but its best to get the beans and veg as dry as poss first).

Add flavourings and s/p to taste
Voila! Great for dipping and spreading and the only points are for the beans (about 3max)………