The bean conversation I’ve been waiting to have.

Rebel Bites | Friday 10th July

The bean conversation I’ve been waiting to have.

Yesterday I sat around a table with Veg Power and the Food Foundation for their Bang In Some Beans campaign - retailers, charities, nutritionists, food educators, caterers and creators, all working towards getting more people eating beans.

We spent the morning in Bettina Campolucci Bordi’s beautiful new kitchen studio in London. Warm, inspiring, full of the kind of energy you get when passionate people who genuinely care about food get together in a room. I left feeling genuinely fired up.

I was, as you can probably imagine, very much in my element.

Here’s the thing though. In the food world - especially on social media - it can feel like everyone is already cooking with beans. But that’s a bit of a bubble. In reality, lots of people still find them intimidating, unfamiliar or just don’t know where to start. And that’s exactly why this campaign matters.

What really stayed with me from the conversation was this: the challenge isn’t about nutrition. Everyone knows beans are good for us. The challenge is perception. It’s finding that one spark - that hook - that changes how people feel about beans and inspires them to put them at the centre of the plate more often.

For me, that hook has always been flavour.

Give someone a really delicious bean recipe and they’ll come back for seconds without even thinking about the health benefits. A fragrant curry, a smoky chilli, a vibrant salad, a creamy dip - suddenly beans stop being something people feel they should eat and become something they genuinely choose.

I’ve been eating beans every single day for nearly thirty years. Not because I’m being virtuous. Not because I’ve calculated my macros. Because I genuinely, deeply love them.

I love baked beans on toast in all their guises - it’s one of my favourite comfort foods. I love gigantes beans from Odyssey, straight from the jar, eaten standing at the kitchen counter.

I love a pot of homemade white beans with garlic and thyme. I love a black bean taco piled with all the things. And I will go to my grave insisting that a spoonful of curry paste stirred into your baked beans is one of the most underrated moves in the kitchen. I know. Just trust me.

Beans are the foundation of almost everything I cook. Incredibly nutritious, endlessly versatile - and when you treat them properly, genuinely one of the most delicious things you can eat.

Which brings me to this salad.

It’s everything I want to eat right now. Beautifully sweet roasted peppers, silky aubergine, chunky creamy butter beans tossed in the most vibrant basil pesto. Punchy capers. Toasted pine nuts for crunch. The kind of thing that looks impressive and comes together without much fuss at all.

This is exactly what I mean about flavour being the hook. Nobody looks at this salad and thinks about fibre. They think: I want that.

Chunky Roast Pepper, Aubergine & Butter Bean Salad with Basil Pesto & Capers

Serves 4

For the roast veg:

• 3 red/yellow/orange peppers, halved and deseeded

• 2 aubergines, cut into long strips

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• Big pinch sea salt

For the pesto:

• 30g fresh basil

• 50g pine nuts

• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• Juice of ½ lemon

• Pinch sea salt

• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast

• 50ml water

For the salad:

• 1 can/1/2 jar butter beans, drained

• 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

• 2 tbsp capers (I used large)

• Handful pea shoots or rocket

• Fresh herbs — mint, thyme, basil

• Pinch sea salt flakes

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Add the peppers and aubergine to a baking tray with the olive oil and salt. Roast for 30–35 minutes until soft and a little charred. Set aside.

For the pesto, add all the ingredients to a mini chopper or food processor and blitz to a chunky paste.

To serve, add the roast veg and butter beans to a large bowl. Add a few tablespoons of pesto and toss to combine. Top with handfuls of leaves and fresh herbs. Sprinkle over the capers and toasted pine nuts. Add more pesto and a pinch of sea salt flakes if you want to.