Ingredients
- 1 15oz can butter beans
- 1 15oz can navy or cannellini beans
- 1 medium leek
- 1 small fennel bulb
- 1 shallot
- 3-4 green garlic or 1-2 spring onions*
- ¾-1 tsp salt
- 1½ lemons
- 1 cup olive oil
- optional herbs: mint + dill + chives
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 300 and grabbing a 10 or 12in cast iron (or any oven save frying pan).
- Start by prepping all of your veg. I prefer a mandolin tool for this as it’s quick and uniform, but watch your fingers! Thinly slice the shallot to about 1/8 in. Remove the root and dark green tops of the leeks. Rinse well and remove the outmost layer as dirt hides under there often. Slice the leek into large rounds, about 1/2 in each. For the fennel- slice the root and the dark green top off. Chop or use mandolin for about 1/4 in thin slices, removing some of the harder root/core toward the bottom. Set aside.
- Lastly, if you’re using green garlic or spring onions, chop off the root and the dark green tops, keeping the center white/light green parts. I like to chop one of them into small pieces and then the others more length-wise for some variation (and it’s pretty on top!). Drain + rinse your beans off. Slice 1 lemon into thin 1/4 in slices, removing seeds. Slice again into half moons.
- Heat your pan over medium-high heat. Pour in 1/4 cup of olive oil and when hot, add leeks to the pan undisturbed for about 2-3 minutes, until brown. Remove and place on a plate.
- Add in the length-wise cut spring onion or green garlic (if using), cut side down, until brown (a few minutes). Remove and place on plate with leeks.
- Add in the chopped green garlic (or regular garlic) + shallots. Stir and saute for a few minutes. Add in the fennel for another few minutes, until starting to soften.
- Add in the rest of olive oil (3/4 cup), salt (3/4 tsp), few cracks of pepper, sliced lemons (yes skin intact!), and beans. Stir well to coat and mix. Nestle in the leeks (browned side up) and spring onions or green garlic. Squeeze the juice of the remaining half lemon over the top. Cook, covered, for about 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and sprinkle some flaky sea salt if you wish (that's a yes) and chopped herbs. Serve as it or with some crusty bread for soaking up that delicious sauce!
Notes
*Green garlic is just simply young garlic, where it’s been harvested before it’s fully grown! It will look like a thicker/lighter scallion almost and you’ll use the white + light green parts. This is more common throughout farmers market’s vs. the grocery store. Spring onions are similar– they’re simply young onions! They’ll have a larger bulb than green garlic or scallions, but much smaller than a typical onion. All of this to say: you can’t mess this up! If it’s spring where you live or you have access to these varieties, great! If not, use a little extra leek or shallot, yellow onion, or even regular garlic cloves, sliced or smashed.