Vegetarian

Veggie beans on grilled mushrooms recipe

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This delicious veggie dish of beans on grilled mushrooms works perfectly for a midweek meal or as a lazy weekend brunch recipe. The aroma from cooking is rather incredible too!

Mushrooms are a valuable plant-based source of vitamin D. Mushrooms, just like human skin, produce this vital vitamin when exposed to sunshine. Placing your mushrooms on a windowsill to ripen for an hour will add significantly to their vitamin D content. Vitamin D is essential for maintaining bone density, reducing the risk of fracture, arthritis and osteoporosis. It also plays a key role in strengthening the immune system and has been associated with reduced risks of a variety of common diseases, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and depression.

We use cannellini beans to top the grilled mushrooms in this recipe. You’ll find these beans in cans of baked beans. They’re a great source of protein and fibre, but here they are without sugar and additives. If you haven’t got any to hand, swap for red kidney beans.

Plus, we never like to miss a trick to boost metabolism! Add cayenne pepper or cinnamon to your dish to give metabolism a boost – it may also help to curb sugar cravings too.

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Ingredients

  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 2 spring onions, finely chopped
  • 10 cherry tomatoes, quartered
  • 1/2 red pepper, de-seeded and chopped
  • Good pinch ground cinnamon (or more to taste)
  • Good pinch cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
  • 1/2 x 400g can cannellini beans, drained
  • 1 tbsp tomato purée
  • 4 large portobello/field mushrooms
  • 1 tsp fresh or dried thyme
  • 100g baby spinach leaves
  • Sea salt and black pepper

Method

  1. Preheat the grill. Heat half of the oil in a pan and sauté the spring onions, tomatoes and red pepper for five minutes until softened, tossing the pan every now and then.
  2. Stir in the cinnamon and cayenne and season well. Cook for one minute. Stir in the beans, tomato purée and 75ml water. Cover and simmer over a low heat for five minutes.
  3. Put the mushrooms on a baking sheet with the stalks up. Mix together the remaining oil and thyme, and season well. Brush all over the mushrooms and grill them for five minutes. Turn off the grill.
  4. Stir the spinach into the pan with the beans and cook until just wilted.
  5. Divide the mushrooms between two plates, spoon the beans evenly over the top and serve.