Breakfast · Lunch
Creamy Butter Beans
on Paleo Bread.
Butter beans mashed with lemon, garlic and olive oil until creamy, piled onto a slice of low carb almond bread with roast cherry tomatoes, avocado, rocket and a snowfall of Parmigiano Reggiano. This recipe serves two. Double it for a weekend brunch table.
- Energy
- 2,180 kJ (520 kcal)
- Protein
- 21 g
- Fat
- 33 g
- Carbohydrate
- 30 g
- Fibre
- 17 g
- Net carbs
- 13 g
How to make it.
- 01
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Put the cherry tomatoes on a small tray with a teaspoon of the olive oil and a pinch of salt and roast for 15 minutes until they blister and split.
- 02
While they roast, warm the remaining olive oil in a small pan over low heat with the garlic for 1 minute until fragrant, not brown.
- 03
Add the butter beans, lemon juice and 3 tbsp of water. Warm through for 3 minutes, then mash about half the beans with the back of a fork so the mixture turns creamy while the rest stay whole. Season well with salt and pepper.
- 04
Toast the bread until golden.
- 05
Halve and slice the avocado.
- 06
Pile the beans onto the toast, top with the roast tomatoes and their juices, the avocado and a handful of rocket. Finish with the grated Parmigiano Reggiano, a drizzle of olive oil and plenty of pepper.
Why this meal works.
This is what beans on toast looks like when it is built for fat loss. Seventeen grams of fibre per serve, which is more than half of what most women get in a whole day, and 21 grams of protein from the beans, the almond bread and the Parmigiano. Fibre and protein together are the two things that switch off hunger for the longest, so this breakfast holds you until lunch without a second thought.
The bread matters. A slice of white or even wholemeal toast is 15 to 20 grams of fast carbohydrate on its own. A slice of almond and seed bread is closer to five, with fat and protein built in, so your blood sugar rises in a steady curve rather than a spike. When the morning starts steady, the whole day tends to follow, and you stay in rest and digest instead of tipping into stress by ten o'clock.
Butter beans are one of the most underrated foods in the Mediterranean pantry. Cheap, whole, and rich in the resistant starch and soluble fibre that your gut bacteria feed on. Mashing half of them with lemon and olive oil gives you the creaminess of a spread with none of the ultra processed ingredients.
The avocado and olive oil are what carry the nutrients from the tomatoes and rocket into your body, and the Parmigiano is there for flavour and calcium in a small amount. A little of a real cheese does more than a lot of a fake one.
Micronutrients on the plate.
- Folate, iron, magnesium and potassium from the butter beans, supporting energy, blood pressure and nervous system health.
- Lycopene from the roast tomatoes, absorbed with the olive oil and avocado.
- Vitamin E, potassium and monounsaturated fat from the avocado and almond bread, for skin, heart and steady energy.
- Calcium and vitamin B12 from the Parmigiano Reggiano.
- Vitamin K and nitrates from the rocket, supporting bone health and blood flow.
Make it yours.
- Brunch for four? Double everything and roast the tomatoes on one large tray.
- Want more protein? Add a poached egg on top, or crumble some feta in place of the Parmigiano.
- Dairy free? Leave out the cheese and add a tablespoon of hemp seeds and extra lemon.
- No Almond Road? Any low carb almond and seed loaf works, or a slice of good sourdough, but with sourdough the carbohydrate roughly doubles, so keep that in mind if fat loss is the goal.
- The bean mixture keeps in the fridge for three days and reheats in a minute, so make a double batch on Sunday.
Beans on toast, the Mediterranean way, and it will carry you to lunch. Buon appetito.
Enjoy!
With love, Serena ×