Pulses are a brilliant and cost-effective way of adding one of your ‘5 a day’ into a dish. They’re a great base ingredient for lots of dishes including salads, curries and casseroles.
The Country Range Five Bean Salad is a mix of cannellini beans, red kidney beans, chick peas, borlotti beans and butter beans.
Darren Creed, lecturer at Loughborough College, has shared with us five innovative ways to utilise this versatile product and you can find the full recipes online at www.countryrange.co.uk/recipes.
About: Darren Creed
Darren Creed is a chef lecturer at Loughborough College, who has led several teams of students to the Grand Finals of the Country Range Student Chef Challenge in recent years.
He has been teaching at Loughborough College since 1998. Before that, Darren gained a wealth of catering experience working in 4 and 5 star hotels and Rosette restaurants since leaving college in 1990, and won his own rosette at the age of 24.
1. Five Bean and Black Olive Tapenade
Create a fresh tapenade to serve as a healthy, meat-free alternative to pâte with fresh bread or as a fantastic accompaniment to meat and fish. Simply take destoned black olives and blitz them together with the bean salad, garlic and anchovies. Season, add olive oil to loosen and lemon juice to taste.
2. Smoked Paprika Five Bean and Butternut Squash Soup
A homemade soup and sandwich is the perfect lunchtime meal deal, for dine in or on-the-go. The five bean salad here adds plenty of texture, flavour and substance to a hearty soup complemented by butternut squash and Country Range Smoked Paprika.
3. Aromatic Garden Burgers
Having an attractive, tasty plant-based option as part of your burger and sandwich offering is an essential part of your menu. Creating your own home-made version allows you to be able to easily customise your ingredients to suit different customer needs and regularly change up your menu. To create the garden burgers mix the 5 bean salad with diced potato, spinach, flour and a variety of spices and herbs including turmeric, coriander and red chilli. Shape the mix into rounds, chill and then coat in flour, beaten egg and oats. They can then be deep fried or baked in the oven to serve.
4. Five Bean Fritters
Make a batter of flour, salt, egg, milk and melted butter. Add chopped parsley and slowly fold the batter into the beans until you have a thick pancake mix, then season with salt and pepper. Fry until golden brown on both sides then served as a starter or side with a fresh yoghurt dip and a sprinkling of spring onion or stacked, topped with a poached egg as a delicious breakfast or brunch option.
5. Balsamic Beef with Courgette and Five Bean Salad
For the perfect brunch menu option, serve delicious marinated porterhouse steaks with a fresh salad of courgette ribbons, the five bean salad, walnuts, feta, mint and lemon juice.