Spring carrots and beans recipe

Warm slices of pan-fried carrots, white beans and chopped dill tossed with a tangy-yet-sweet lemon and shallot dressing make this a compelling preparation. It tastes good the day you make it, then even better the day after. And by day three it’s even better, as the shallots infuse the beans and the lemon mellows and deepens.

Ingredients (serves 8)

60ml extra-virgin olive oil

45ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

¼tsp fine-grain salt

70g thinly sliced French shallots

Olive oil for cooking

210g sliced carrots, cut 5 mm | ¼ in thick diagonally

560g cooked white beans

7g chopped fresh dill

2tbsp brown sugar or honey

30g flaked almonds, toasted

Method 

Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and shallots in a small bowl. Stir and set aside.

In your largest frying pan, over medium-high heat, toss the carrots with a splash of olive oil. Let them cook in a single layer. They’ll give off a bit of water at first; keep cooking, tossing gently every three or four minutes until the carrots are deeply browned. All told, about 12 minutes.

Add the beans and dill to the frying pan and cook, stirring often, for another five minutes, until the beans are heated through. If you are using beans that weren’t tinned, you can allow them to brown a bit as well, cooking a bit longer and stirring less frequently – they can handle this in a way that most tinned beans can’t. If you need to add a bit more oil to the pan to keep things from sticking, do so.

Place the contents of the frying pan in a large mixing bowl, sprinkle with the brown sugar and pour three-quarters of the lemon–olive oil mixture over the top. Toss gently. Let sit for 10 minutes. Toss once again, taste and adjust with more salt or sugar or lemon juice if needed to balance the flavours. Serve warm or at room temperature; finish by sprinkling with almonds just before serving.

Recipe courtesy of Near & Far, by Heidi Swanson (Hardie Grant, £20).