These dairy-free creamy pesto butter beans are a delicious appetizer, side dish, or lunch. Enjoy them by dipping a piece of toast or flatbread in the beans! The butter beans have the best creamy texture, which goes perfectly with the basil pesto. The dish is oil-free, gluten-free, and can be made nut-free as well (see notes).
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes
Servings: 2-4
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil, for frying (see notes for oil-free)
- 1 can of butter beans (400mL)
- 14-16 cherry tomatoes (approx)
- 1/4 cup water (as needed, to loosen)
- Bread, for serving
Pesto
- 1 generous handful of basil leaves
- 1 generous handful of kale or spinach
- 1/3 cup roasted unsalted cashews
- 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 1/2 lemon (about 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice)
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2/3 cup + 1 tbsp oat milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 1/2 tsp salt
Equipment
- Frying pan
- Blender
Instructions
- Dice an onion and peel 4 cloves of garlic. Set 2 cloves aside for the pesto, then mince the other 2.
- Add olive oil to a pan on medium heat (see notes for oil-free). Add the diced onion, keeping an eye on it and stirring occasionally. After a few minutes, add the minced garlic.
- While the onion and garlic are sauteing, prepare the pesto.
- To a blender, add kale (or spinach), basil leaves, cashews, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, 2 garlic cloves, non-dairy milk, and salt. Blend until smooth and creamy (see notes on what type of blender I like using for creamy sauces like this one!).
- Wash the cherry tomatoes then cut them in half.
- Once the onion and garlic are cooked through, add a can of rinsed butter beans and the cherry tomatoes.
- After 2-3 minutes, pour in the creamy pesto and stir. Let that warm up, then finally loosen with a bit of water (starting with 1/4 cup, adding more if needed). If you’ve added too much water, just let it simmer and it will boil off.
- Remove from heat, then enjoy with some toasted bread! You can also garnish with some fresh basil leaves and a few cherry tomato halves.
Notes
*For a nut-free version of these creamy pesto butter beans, substitute sunflower seeds for cashews in the sauce (total 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp sunflower seeds).
*Depending on the strength of your blender, you may need to soak cashews in boiling water before blending. I find the best blender for cashews is a bullet blender (you won’t need to do any soaking!).