Lemony white beans with artichokes and olives
White beans and golden seared artichoke hearts with olives, oregano and lots of lemon, scooped up with garlicky toast, a Mediterranean dinner for two straight from the pantry.
- 20 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 2
- About $4.12 a serving
- 830 calories
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 1 can artichoke hearts, drained, patted dry and quartered
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 2 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- ¼ cup Kalamata olives, halved
- ⅓ cup feta cheese, crumbled (optional)
- 2 slices sourdough bread
From your pantry
- 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ⅓ cup water
- ½ tsp salt
Each serving has about 830 calories, 36 g protein, 109 g carbs and 29 g fat, and costs about $4.12 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No Kalamata olives? Black olives work.
- No feta cheese? Goat cheese works.
- No sourdough bread? French bread works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large over medium-high heat. Add the artichokes cut side down and cook 4 to 5 minutes, until .
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.
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-high heatTimer: 4 min
Dolly’s tip: Pat them dry first so they brown instead of spitting.Turn the heat to medium, add the garlic and oregano, and cook 1 minute, .
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
Add the beans, water and salt and 5 minutes, mashing a few beans so the sauce turns creamy.
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
Stir in the lemon zest and juice and the olives, then taste and add salt if it needs it.
Medium heat
Toast the bread and with the last tablespoon of oil.
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.
Spoon into bowls, scatter the feta over the top, and eat with the toast.
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.
