The recipe

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Ingredients

This is the pantry dinner we make when the fridge is nearly empty: two cans of beans turned silky in garlicky coconut cream, brightened hard with lemon so it never tastes heavy.

Steps

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium. Cook the onion with a pinch of salt for 5-6 minutes, until soft and translucent.
  2. Add the garlic, pepper flakes, and smoked paprika; stir for 1 minute until the garlic smells sweet.
  3. Add the beans, coconut milk, broth, and salt. Simmer gently for 6-8 minutes, mashing about a quarter of the beans against the pan with your spoon, that's what makes the sauce creamy without any thickener.
  4. Fold in the spinach in two handfuls; it wilts in about 2 minutes.
  5. Off the heat, add the lemon zest and juice. Taste, it should be rich first, bright second. Adjust salt.
  6. Serve over rice or with crusty bread dragged through the sauce.

Tips from our test

Full-fat coconut milk is the difference between silky and thin, light coconut milk needs 3-4 extra minutes of simmering to concentrate. The quarter-mash in step 3 isn't optional; skip it and you have beans in broth, not beans in cream. Our test run: 14 minutes of cook time.

Swaps that work

Chickpeas hold their shape more but work; butter beans are the luxury version. Kale instead of spinach goes in at step 3 with the beans so it has time to soften. If coconut isn't your flavor, heavy cream works for a vegetarian (not vegan) version, same quantity.

Storage and reheating

Fridge, 4 days; it thickens overnight, so loosen with a splash of water when reheating over medium-low. Freezes well for 2 months in portions, thaw in the fridge, then reheat gently.

What to serve with it

Rice makes it a bowl, bread makes it a scoop, and a fried egg on top makes it Sunday. A squeeze more lemon at the table never hurts.