Warm salad of cannellini beans and radicchio Timely comfort food

AS spring approaches, I find my need of heavy rich food wanes but I still need some comfort food. This is the perfect time of year for me to enjoy a warm bean salad – so creamy and tasty you’ll never want to eat meat again.

Bitter radicchio is full of flavour and packed with zinc and vitamin C – just what we all need to boost the immune system.

Ingredients

If using dried beans

200g dried cannellini beans 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda 1 clove garlic

2 fresh bay leaves or a sprig of fresh rosemary

2 celery stalks

Stalks of fresh parsley

1 dried chilli

1 splash of extra virgin olive oil Sea salt

Method

Soak the cannellini beans overnight in plenty of cold water. Rinse and cover with fresh water, add the bicarbonate of soda and bring to a boil.

Simmer for 10 minutes, removing any scum that rises to the surface.

Rinse and return to the pot. Cover with enough water to have about 3cm of water above the beans.

Add the garlic, chilli, fresh herbs, celery, parsley stalks and a splash of extra virgin olive oil.

Bring back to the boil and simmer for 45-60 minutes until the beans absorb the water and become soft and creamy in texture.

Keep an eye on it, adding more water if necessary.

Remove the garlic, herbs and celery. Season with sea salt – if you add salt at the start of cooking, the beans become tough.

Now assemble the salad

1 small red onion (optional)

3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 clove finely chopped garlic 1 piece dried chilli crushed Precooked cannellini beans or a 450g tin, drained and rinsed. 2 heads radicchio or bitter chicory

2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

Method

Before you start, if you are choosing to add a red onion, peel and cut it into thin slices and soak in a small bowl of cold water.

This removes the acid from the onion and sweetens it.

Using a wide frying pan, warm the extra virgin olive oil.

Add the chopped garlic and dried chilli.

Sauté gently to infuse the oil. Add the beans and turn them in the oil to flavour and warm them through.

Add a splash of water if they are too dry.

Trim the end of the radicchio or chicory, remove any coarse outer leaves and slice thinly, lengthwise, following the grain of the white stem.

Stir into the beans. Remove from the heat. Check seasoning. Fold in the chopped celery and parsley.

Drain the red onions and scatter across the salad.

Serve warm with plenty of black pepper and a further swirl of extra virgin olive oil.