The Weeknight Kitchen · A Bed for Scallops & More · Serves 4

White Bean Purée

Name: White Bean Purée
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 480 g canned cannellini beans; 45 ml extra-virgin olive oil; 10 g garlic; 80 ml water or vegetable stock; 15 ml fresh lemon juice; 4 g Diamond Crystal kosher salt; 1 g black pepper; 2 g fresh rosemary

Two cans of beans, good olive oil, and gently warmed garlic blended into a savory, silky bed — the lighter cousin of mashed potatoes, in ten minutes.

~10 min total 3 min prep Blender method

Spoon cost

Time ●○○○○ Anytime

VeganGluten-Free

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Warm the garlic in the oil gently — do not brown it — and blend everything hot. Garlic dropped into hot oil and taken to gold turns bitter in a purée this plain, and the bitterness has nowhere to hide. Slide the slices into barely-warm oil over low heat and let them go soft and fragrant without coloring. Then blend while everything is hot; a cold bean purée never gets properly smooth.

Method

Cook's notes

Rinse the beans. The starchy liquid in the can tastes metallic and makes the purée gluey. Rinse until the water runs clear.

Salt harder than feels right. Canned beans are bland at their core, and a bed that sits under something seasoned has to hold its own. Taste, salt, taste again.

Bean choice: cannellini give the silkiest result. Great Northern beans are a close second; butter beans are richer and a little sweeter; chickpeas make a grainier purée that is closer to hummus.

From dried: cooked-from-dried beans make a noticeably better purée, and their cooking liquid is the best thing to thin it with. Use the same drained weight.

What to serve it under: brown-butter scallops, seared fish, lamb chops, or sausages. Related beds on the site: pea purée, cauliflower purée, sweet corn purée, and celery root purée.

Make ahead: keeps 4 days in the fridge. Reheat gently with a splash of water, stirring — it stiffens a lot when cold.

Leftovers: thinned with more stock it is a good soup, and spread thickly on toast with a little more olive oil it is lunch.

Easier, if you like

Immersion blender, straight in the pan — one fewer thing to wash, and it gets plenty smooth.
Skip the fresh rosemary and use a strip of lemon peel warmed in the oil instead; pull it out before blending.

Vegan and gluten-free as written

Vegan: already vegan — use water or vegetable stock.

Gluten-free: naturally gluten-free.

Richer version: blend in a knob of butter or a spoon of cream at the end (no longer vegan). It is excellent under lamb that way.

Herb swaps: sage in place of rosemary, or a bay leaf warmed in the oil and removed before blending.