Warm bean and spinach salad

Over the weekend, I had planned for some girlfriends to come over for lunch. Sadly, illness struck one of my friends, so we decided to postpone the lunch to another day.

A downside being that I then had 4 chicken marylands (that I had planned to cook for lunch) and nothing to serve them with (as one of my friends had been on ‘salad duty’).

So, while the chicken was roasting in the oven that evening, I raided our fridge and pantry to see what I could come up with for a side dish.

Starting with the fridge – carrots and zucchini…

Followed by the pantry – from which I grabbed cannellini beans, harissa paste and some tomato paste.

Finally - a bag of baby spinach and a little water..

And then left to cook until the spinach had wilted and the dish had warmed through.

The result being a rather tasty warm salad – that was so very easy to make

Packed with veggies and the creamy beans…

And with just a kick of spice from the harissa paste. 

Served with the roasted chicken marylands…

and we had ourselves quite a tasty dinner. Gotta love the versatility of beans!

What about you? Do you have a favourite bean / legume? Mine would have to be chickpeas, although I also love the creaminess of cannellini beans.