Quick butter bean mash with dill salsa
With a similar texture to hummus, this mash/dip is good with pita breads or sliced beef fillet. The dill salsa with briny capers and fresh herbs livens things up immensely. Serves 6 as a dip
You’ll need for the mash: 2 x 400g tins butter beans, rinsed and drained; 30ml extra virgin olive oil; 30ml lemon juice; fine salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the dill salsa: a generous handful each of fresh basil, dill and flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked; 30ml capers, rinsed and drained; 60ml extra virgin olive oil; 30ml lemon juice; fine salt and freshly ground black pepper
To make: For the mash, place the butter beans, olive oil and lemon juice in a processor. Blitz until smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper, and pulse to combine.
To make the dill salsa, bundle the herbs together and chop roughly. In a small bowl, combine the herbs, capers, olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and black pepper.
Swirl the butter bean spread onto a plate and drizzle over the salsa.
This butterbean mash, and spekboom G&T. Or pumpkin waffles with date syrup, and butternut and leek soup with browned chilli butter. Perhaps chicken and chorizo rigatoni. Bibby’s More Good Food is just page after delicious page of Dianne Bibby’s sensational but achievable recipes … a book, she says, she hopes you’ll reach for whether planning an intimate dinner for two or hosting a dressed-in-full-feature dinner party. Breads and plant-rich salads, Indian, Moroccan and Italian feasts, salty bits and bobs and golden hour cocktails … it is, as Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen writes in the foreword, ‘a symphony of flavours’. R480, Penguin Books
Spekboom Gin & Tonic
A perfect elixir using local wonder-plant, Spekboom. Makes 1.
You’ll need: 60ml gin; 200ml tonic water; 30ml Spekboom Simple Syrup (place 125g white granulated sugar, 250ml water, 125ml spekboom stem, leaves plucked, one lemon with skin on, thinly sliced and 30ml lemon juice in a small saucepan; bring slowly to the boil and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve and discard the solids. Set aside to cool, pour into a sterilised bottle and seal (keeps well for 3 to 4 weeks, chilled). To serve: lime slice, ice and a sprig of spekboom.
To make: Fill a highball glass with plenty of ice. Add the gin and spekboom syrup, and stir to combine. Top up with the tonic water and ‘lift’ with a drink stirrer to retain as much of the fizz as possible. Finish with lime slices and a botanical sprig.
