Plant Powered Parmesan-Crusted Cheesy Butter Beans

Mon, 21 July 2025

Rich, creamy, garlicky beans with a golden cheesy crumb – lush on toast or in a bowl with crusty
bread for dunkin’.
Proper comfort food with a plant-based twist!

Ingredients
For the Parmesan Crumb
60g day-old bread, torn into chunks
1 tbsp olive oil
20g plant-based parmesan-style cheese, finely grated
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Cheesy Butter Beans
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
3 garlic cloves, crushed
800g butter beans (2 x 400g tins), drained and rinsed
200ml hot vegetable stock
70g plant-based cheddar, coarsely grated
150g baby spinach
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
Make the Parmesan crumb:
Pop your bread into a food processor and blitz into chunky breadcrumbs.
Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the breadcrumbs and fry for about 5
minutes, stirring often, until golden and crisp.
Tip into a bowl, stir through the grated parmesan-style cheese, season with salt and pepper, and set
aside.

For the cheesy beans:
Wipe out the frying pan, add 2 tbsp olive oil and gently fry the garlic over medium heat for 2–3
minutes until fragrant – no browning, just warming it up to get that mellow garlicky flavour going.
Add half the butter beans and stir to coat in that lovely garlicky oil. Pour in the veg stock and let it
bubble gently.
Give the beans a light mash – just enough to get a creamy base while still keeping some texture.
Stir in the grated plant-based cheddar until melted and lush.
Add the rest of the butter beans and cook for another few minutes until they’re warmed through.
Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
Chuck in the spinach, reduce the heat to low, and let it wilt gently into the cheesy beans.

To serve:
Spoon the beans over toasted sourdough or into a warm bowl, drizzle with a touch of olive oil, and
scatter over that golden parmesan crumb. Absolute perfection for dipping, dunking or just devouring
straight off the spoon!