Leek and Bean Bake

This dish goes back to when I was a little girl. My Dad would make it weekly and everyone would get so excited when it came out of the oven.

The crispy cheese crumb, the creamy leek and bean middle and gorgeously juicy, plum tomatoes on the bottom. Yum, yum, yum!

It literally has everything you need, vegetables, protein, fat and carbohydrates and I am super excited to be sharing one of my childhood favourites with you.

Ingredients: For the Bake

• 4-5 medium sized leeks
• 250 g Mushrooms
• 500 g haricot beans (tin or dried - make sure to hydrate the dried beans)
• 2 x 480 g tins of plum tomatoes or 10-12 large fresh plum tomatoes
• 200 ml heavy cream
• 1 tbsp of all purpose flour
• 4-5 slices of bread (toasted)
• 150 g grated cheese (I used emmental)
• 3 tbsp oats
• Milk
• Butter or oil for cooking
• Parsley (fresh or dried)
• Salt and pepper to taste

For the mustard mash:

• 2 kg potatoes
• 2 tbsp butter (or margarine)
• Milk
• 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• Salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Chopping board
• Knife
• Peeler
• Frying/sauté pan
• Masher
• Bowls
• Electric blender
• Shallow baking dish (think lasagna height)

1. Spread an even layer of plum tomatoes at the bottom of your dish.
2. Try not to add too much juice as you don't want it to dilute the next layer. Any spare juice can be used to make a soup.
3. Season with freshly ground pepper.

1. Slice the mushrooms.
2. Wash and slice the leeks. I like to cut the white part of the leek as round discs and the green part, I cut into four and dice. This is because the green part takes longer to cook and also it makes a nice contrast in shapes.
3. Place into the sauté/frying pan with a tablespoon of oil or butter. Gently cook, being careful not to brown the vegetables, just soften them.
4. Add parsley, salt and pepper to the vegetables.

1. Drain the haricot beans and add them to the mushrooms and leeks.
2. Mix the all purpose flour with the heavy cream (this avoids any lumps forming when you add it to the hot vegetables).
3. Add the cream mix to the vegetable mix and gently warm through to cook out the flour. Add milk to thin out the sauce, you are looking for a sauce that nicely coats all of the vegetables.

Add the leek and bean mix on top of the tomato layer, being careful not to mix them.

Don't worry we are nearly there, just one more layer to add.

It's looking good though isn't it?

1. If you have fresh bread, be sure to toast it first as this makes it easier to turn into breadcrumbs, otherwise with stale bread just blitz it until you get breadcrumbs.
2. Add the oats and half of the grated cheese and mix together.
3. Spread over the top of the leek and bean mixture.
4. Add the rest of the grated cheese on top and some extra ground pepper if you like.
5. Bake in the oven at 180°C (for around 40-45 mins) until the cheese is nicely melted and golden and you can see the juices bubbling up.

I don't know anyone who doesn't love mashed potatoes, they literally go with any dish right?

Potatoes are SO versatile and can pretty much handle anything you throw at them, so over the years I like to experiment with adding other flavours to the mashed potato.

The mash is pretty simple to make and you probably already know how to make it, but here's a quick recap of what I did:

1. Peel and chop your potatoes and add to salted water. Boil until tender.
2. Using a hand masher or a ricer (for really creamy mash), smash those blonde beauties up.
3. I added in a couple of knobs of butter and some milk, no salt because my butter was salted, but lots of black pepper. (We are a bit pepper mad in our house :-))
4. Once the mash is all nice and creamy, I added in a couple of heaped tablespoons of wholegrain mustard.

I use a knife to cut through the cheesy crust, peel it back so I can get to the yummy stuff underneath, portion it onto the plate and then place the cheesy crust on top. I mean it would be criminal to not keep that crispy crumb on top!

You'll notice a little of the tomato sauce has mixed in with the leeks and beans and this adds just a nice amount of acidity to cut through the creamy sauce.

If you are having this for lunch, you may want to swap out the mashed potato for a nice salad, or go all out and have mash, salad and the leek and bean bake. Whatever makes you happy.

Most importantly if you do try this recipe, I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did when my Dad would make it for me.