I Cannot Stop Making These Instagram Beans

One night last summer I was lying in bed and texting myself a post of my Instagram recipe. This is a ritual that fell into my wind after putting my daughter to sleep. As soon as the sound machine progresses, I creep up into my bedroom and lay silent for ten minutes. If something looks good, I text myself as a reminder of it. But the truth is, most nights I’m just too throbbing to try something new. As long as you can’t see Really It’s good Really Easy, I already have the ingredients, it doesn’t happen.

But on one fateful night last summer, I landed on one that checked all three boxes. Marry creamy Tuscan sauce and butter beans. It was a basic bean plate, mostly made with pantry ingredients and cooking time of just 10 minutes. I thought it was worth the shot, even if it wasn’t as good as I saw it on Instagram. And here is the wild part: it was. It was a good thing to “marry me.” In fact, I’m almost married to this recipe now. Over the past year, I have made it on average twice a week. I make it frequently and buy lots of ingredients.

There is a mountain of “MarryMe” recipes (including originals) Marry chickenand its predecessor, Engagement chicken). But this is what I’ll come back to. Most nights I still lie on my bed texting recipe reel (my discovery page is half beans now – I love it). But this is what I send to everyone else.

Marry creamy Tuscan sauce and butter beans
Depending on the recipe Sarah Bond

2 tablespoons butter
Four cloves garlic, chopped (I press!)
1/2 tsp each: salt, oregano, crushed red pepper flakes, smoked paprika
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup of tanned tomatoes, almost chopped
2 15 oz canned butter beans (see note #1 below)
1/2 cup to 1 cup vegetable soup
1 cup (or more) spinach
1 cup heavy cream (or subhalf and half, 236 ml)
1/2 cup grated parmesan
2 tablespoons of fresh basil

Seasonings on low and medium heat for about 2 minutes, until the large sauté pan or pot, heat butter, garlic and garsin are aromatic. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes, beans and soup. (Sala suggests 1/2 cup soup for thick sauce, or 1 cup soup for thin ones. This may be great if you are serving beans over pasta or rice). Continue cooking over medium heat for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the spinach until the spinach dies (I add more tons than I need – a great way to add bulk and texture without changing the flavor). Next, stir in the cream, parmesan and basil. Enjoy yourself on unfriendly bread, rice or with pasta.

Note #1: Depending on where you live, butter beans may be called large lima beans. In New York, where I live, it can be difficult to find big beans. And I don’t hunt. I use cannellini beans, great north beans, or anything available.

Note #2: When cooking myself, I’m not a fan so I’ll omit the cheese and red chili flakes. I usually skip basil. Because I don’t have it. You may also add a heavy splash of cream rather than measuring the full cup. I say this. Because, I would recommend trying Sara’s gorgeous recipes just as you wrote, but I want you to know that it’s probably still great, even if you don’t have everything on hand!

Does anyone else have a viral dish that lived up to the hype? One of these nights I have to make something Other than that.

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