Harissa butter beans with garlicky yogurt
Butter beans simmered in smoky, spicy harissa and spooned over cool lemon-garlic yogurt with warm pita, a 20-minute dinner for two that tastes like a restaurant small plate.
- 20 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 2
- About $3.72 a serving
- 790 calories
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 lemon, halved
- 3 cloves garlic, 1 grated, 2 thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp harissa
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cans butter beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 pita bread
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- ¾ tsp salt, divided
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- ½ cup water
Each serving has about 790 calories, 39 g protein, 102 g carbs and 26 g fat, and costs about $3.72 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No plain Greek yogurt? Plain yogurt or sour cream works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No pita bread? Flour tortillas work.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Stir the yogurt with the juice of half the lemon, the garlic and of salt, then spread it over two plates.
Grate. Grating means rubbing food across the holes of a grater to make fine shreds or flakes. It spreads cheese, garlic or ginger evenly through a dish so it melts right in.
How you’ll know: Even shreds fall off the back of the grater, and you stop while the piece is still big enough to hold.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Heat the oil in a medium over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook about 1 minute, until pale .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heat
Stir in the harissa and tomato paste and cook 1 minute, until darker and .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: Harissa varies a lot in heat. Taste a dab first and use less if it bites.Add the beans, water and ½ teaspoon salt and 5 to 6 minutes, stirring gently, until the sauce clings to the beans and a few are crushed.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Squeeze in the rest of the lemon, then taste and add salt if it needs it.
Warm the pitas in a dry over medium heat, about 30 seconds a side.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium heat
Spoon the beans over the yogurt, with the oil left in the pan, scatter the parsley, and scoop it up with the pita.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
