This is one of those “life is about balance” dishes. Meaning, I had a couple of drunken events at the weekend and needed all the greens to assist my liver in clearing itself out.
Yes, I’m a nutritionist, and yes I do enjoy fermented grape juice in all its varieties because life is too short to not part-take in fun activities. At the same time, there is only so much the body can put up with, so learning to compensate is a good measure.
Alcohol = the liver had to work hard whilst you had fun
Greens = a hug for the liver
This dish combines greens (lots of them) with butterbeans and puy lentils. Of course, this wouldn’t taste of a great deal so there is lots of garlic, lemon, thyme, parsley and creme fraiche to make the whole thing delicious.
Top it with some chicken for the extra protein (as per the image) or leave the chicken off and keep it veggie.
Ingredients (feeds 2 generously)
1 tin of butterbeans, drained
125g cooked puy lentils (I used half a Merchant Gourmet pouch)
4x spring onions, trimmed and cut into 3 portions length-ways
100g spinach, rinsed and roughly chopped
50g kale, washed and roughly chopped
150g broccoli, finely sliced
200g creme fraiche (I used Yeo Valley)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme
zest and juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon of tamari or soy sauce (I used Kikkoman’s tamari which is a gluten-free soy sauce)
large handful of parsley leaves (approx 10-15g), roughly chopped
sea salt and black pepper to season
rapeseed oil to cook
Method:
Put a frying pan on a medium-high heat.
Add a tablespoon of rapeseed oil, the spring onion and sliced broccoli, season with some freshly ground black pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add a splash of water to the pan (this will stop the veg from burning and instead just steam them through), tip in the butterbeans, crushed garlic, thyme leaves and lemon zest and season well with sea salt and black pepper. Cook for a couple of minutes.
Add the tamari or soy sauce, stir then tip in the kale & spinach. Season again with sea salt and black pepper.
Cook until the greens have wilted, 2-3 minutes, then squeeze in the lemon juice.
Finally, add the puy lentils, parsley and creme fraiche alongside a splash of water (to thin the sauce), turn the heat to low and heat through gently. This shouldn’t take longer than a couple of minutes.
Season with a little bit more salt and pepper if required.
Divide the greens and beans mix between two bowls and top with chicken.