At Anna’s Kitchen Table

This dish can be considered the ‘egg and chips’ of the average Cypriot kitchen. It’s a basic, no-frills, inexpensive and nutritious family dish, made regularly by many. And loved.

It’s a great dish for meat-free Mondays, or indeed any day of the week and we all know we should be eating less animal protein and more pulses (legumes) High fibre and nutritious.

Cannelini beans are soaked overnight to soften. Around 250g of dried beans will be enough for about 3 servings as a main dish.

Once the beans have soaked, tip away the water and rinse them clean.

I always cook pulses in the pressure cooker. I find they cook quickly and easily.
Cook the beans until they are almost, but not quite, tender. This takes about 10 minutes in my pressure cooker, but this varies depending on how old the beans are.

While the beans are cooking, fry 1lg onion which has been peeled and thinly sliced in about 3-4tbsp of olive oil until golden.
To the browned onions add 1, 400g tin of chopped tomatoes and about a tablespoon of tomato purée, simmer, stirring occasionally until any wateriness in the tomatoes has evaporated away. You can tell when the tomato mixture is ready because it appears to sizzle and little bubbles pop on the surface.

Tip into the beans and keep cooking for further time, until the sauce has reduced until it’s nice and thick and the beans are tender. This time varies greatly, so keep an eye on them.

Season with salt and pepper. Serve in bowls with great bread for mopping up.