How do we feed the world without destroying the planet? It’s a question that’s been puzzling scientists for decades. Lab-grown meat? 3D printers? Turns out the answer – or at least part of it – has been here all along, gathering dust at the back of our cupboards.
“While there is no singular way to solve our complex challenges, there is a powerful ingredient: beans,” says Paul Newnham, executive director of the UN’s SDG2 Advocacy Hub, which aims to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
“Beans are a climate-positive solution that help tackle the global food, climate and cost of living crises,” he says. Small wonder the UN wants us to eat more of them. Its Beans Is How campaign aims to double global consumption by 2028, promoting beans as a simple and surprisingly versatile ingredient.
They are also incredibly nutritious. “Beans are fantastic for your health because they’re so high in fibre – more than most fruit or veg,” says Dr Emily Leeming, scientist, registered dietitian and author of the Second Brain newsletter. “Half a can contains a whopping 7g of fibre – an amount linked to a 6 to 7 per cent lower risk of type II diabetes, heart disease and stroke.”
“Beans are nutritional powerhouses,” adds public health nutritionist Ali Morpeth, who works on the Beans Is How campaign. “They are recognised as both a vegetable and protein source in our national dietary guidelines. This makes eating a portion of beans a win-win as it counts as one of your five-a-day, a source of protein and also provides fibre.”
As luck would have it, beans are also delicious (or, at least, have the potential to be). Just ask Amelia Christie-Miller. The founder of The Bold Bean Co, a luxury brand that stocks Sainsburys, M&S and Waitrose with the creamiest versions money can buy, she is on a mission to make beans the stars of the show, not the side dish. “Beans have had it tough,” she says. “I started life hating them: cold three-bean salads, sickly baked beans, bullet-like chickpeas – no thank you.” That all changed one fateful day in 2021, when – hungover and hungry – she reached for a jar of Spanish butter beans and realised how delicious they were.
From there, a bean obsession began. Christie-Miller, who previously worked in the food sustainability sector, realised that beans have huge potential to help fix a broken food system. “Forget lab-grown meat. Beans are the ultimate plant-protein,” she says. “They offer texture and heartiness – everything we’re craving as we reduce meat and refined carbs. They’re the food group that will enable global meat reduction and help fight climate change.”
Nick Saltmarsh agrees. He is the co-founder of Hodmedod’s – a brand working with British farmers to produce lesser-known pulses and grains. “Pulses are incredibly low-impact, especially compared with animal protein. They require less land, less water, and less or no fertiliser,” he says. “Plus, leguminous plants have the amazing ability to take nitrogen from the air and turn it into fertility in the soil.” If that weren’t enough, he adds, they are superb ingredients. “Satisfying and sustaining, they can be milled, roasted, sprouted and fermented to produce a vast array of foods with wonderfully different flavours and uses.”
Set up in 2012, Hodmedod’s now keeps restaurants like Apricity, River Cottage and Heckfield Place full of beans. “It’s a long list,” adds co-founder Josiah Meldrum. “We’ve been doing this for well over a decade and it’s amazing how things have changed. Demand really is growing, our sales are up by about 50 per cent this year.”
Varieties grown by Hodmedod’s farmers include fava beans and carlin peas (a firm and nutty alternative to chickpeas). Both are ancient crops – grown in Britain since the Iron Age but rarely eaten in recent centuries. Now, Hodmedod’s have teamed up with The Bold Bean Co to produce jarred British-grown carlin peas – available in Waitrose from February.
At between £4 and £5 a jar, Bold Beans are pricier than other varieties, but Christie-Miller says they’re well worth it. “For over 50 years, beans have been commodified: adapted and crossbred to make the cheapest product possible. This has led to the perception of beans as tasteless, and watery,” she says. “The beans we source are varieties grown for flavour rather than yield. This makes them more expensive. But we see it as essential to deliver on our mission – to make you obsessed with beans, by giving you the best of beans.”
Plus, she points out, when beans are this good, they don’t need much faffing about with. “When beans are higher quality, they’re a dish in themselves, served with olive oil and lemon zest,” she says. But they also lend themselves to a host of exciting recipes – as the Bold Bean Co’s Instagram page attests. On it, Christie-Miller shares dozens of innovative recipes – ranging from red bean ragu to unctuous mushroom bean-otto (a risotto made with beans instead of rice). This year, she even created an entire cookbook of bean-based dishes, Bold Beans: Recipes To Get Your Pulse Racing, featuring recipes from top chefs like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Thomasina Miers and Melissa Helmsley (all big Bold Bean fans).
“We want people to reimagine red beans beyond chilli con carne and chickpeas beyond hummus, celebrating how versatile beans can be in the kitchen,” muses Christie-Miller. “Beans really are the perfect way to create satisfying, veg-centric dishes that don’t compromise on flavour.” Maybe they are a little bit magic.
Zesty lemon, creamy ricotta and punchy pesto, this can be served as a speedy weeknight dinner with a fresh side salad, or topped with some roasted toms for a burst of sweetness and colour. If wild garlic is in season, swap the garlic clove for a bunch of wild garlic leaves.
Serves: 2-3
For when you’re craving hearty comfort food
Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
700g (1lb 9oz) jar Queen Butter Beans with their bean stock if you like
250g (9oz) ricotta (or burrata or stracciatella cheese)
These ricotta and pesto butter beans make for a speedy weeknight dinner
Miso paste plus creamy, soft white beans is a thing of magic
