This Organic September, Jenny will be sharing exclusive recipes and tips for you to make the most of your seasonal produce and store cupboard essentials.

We will be providing a series of recipes that are Twice as Nice. With some minor tweaks, each recipe can provide two distinctly, deliciously different meals – reducing your time, energy, and food waste in one go, nice!

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Chicken, Leek and Tarragon Beans

A wonderful way to enjoy beans, that soak up all the fabulous flavours as they bake in the oven. Double up the recipe, or use any leftovers, to make the soup below.

I find that just one chicken thigh per serving is plenty to enrich the dish, but go ahead and use whole legs for a more generous serving. The dish works as a fabulous veggie option too: just leave out the chicken and add about 50 g chopped sun-dried tomatoes to the leeks for extra savoury depth.

Not a fan of tarragon? Use a few leaves of fresh time and plenty of parsley instead.

Ingredients:

Serves 4

25 g butter
2 tbsp oil
4 chicken thighs or whole legs (skin on)
Pinch of salt
3 medium leeks, washed and finely sliced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
100 ml of white wine
2 x 400 g can cannellini or butter beans, drained (or 500g cooked beans)
100 ml chicken stock or veg’ stock – your choice
2 heaped tsps Dijon mustard
50ml double cream
4 small sprigs of tarragon, leaves roughly chopped (keep a few back for garnish)
Salt and pepper
12 cherry tomatoes, halved.

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 190ºC

Take a large sauté pan, frying pan, or cast iron dish (something that works on the hob, in the oven and ideally at the table too) and melt your butter with the oil. Season the chicken with a pinch of salt and brown the skin over a medium heat, before setting aside.

Fry the leeks in the buttery oil, until soft and just beginning to catch in places. Now push the leeks aside to create a small frying spot for the garlic and cook until fragrant before adding the wine.  Arrange the chicken pieces on top of the leeks and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, tumble your beans around in a large bowl with the stock, mustard, cream, tarragon and seasoning, taking care not to crush them.

Now add your bean mixture to the leeks (lift off any chicken and place it back on the top for fabulously crispy skin). Nestle the cherry tomatoes, cut side up, into the beans.

Cook for a further 20 minutes, or until your chicken is ready (juices running clear, about 75ºC if you have a meat thermometer) and the beans have wallowed in the lusciously creamy juices.

Garnish with a few more tarragon leaves and serve hot and accompany with really good bread to soak up all those luscious juices.

Creamy Bean Soup with Cavolo Nero

A perfect way to use up any surplus of the bean dish above; I often double everything but the chicken in the recipe, in order to have this superbly creamy soup base. If you do have any leftover chicken then strip into small pieces and sprinkle over the soup as a garnish.

Ingredients:

Serves 4

200 g Cavolo Nero (or your choice of kale), washed
1 x leek and tarragon beans recipe
400 ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds

Method:

Strip the Cavolo Nero leaves from the stalks and chop into thin ribbons. Chop the stalks into 1 cm chunks and keep separately.

Blend about 2/3rd of your leek and tarragon beans with the stock (using a hand held blender directly in the soup pan is the easiest way) until you have a smooth, creamy base.

Add the rest of the leek and beans and warm through gently, stirring from time to time so that nothing catches on the bottom of the pan. Check and rebalance the seasoning if required.

Meanwhile, in a separate pan big enough to hold the greens, heat the oil with the garlic and chopped stalks. Stir until you smell the garlic, then toss in the leaves with just a tablespoon of water, a good pinch of salt and some black pepper, cover with a lid. (This is the moment to add any little strips of leftover chicken to heat through too). Cook for a couple of minutes until the greens have wilted and turned a vivid green.

Serve the soup topped with the wilted greens, the garlicky juices and the pumpkin seeds.