Beany bake!

I spotted this recipe for a white bean and leek bake on Laura's blog, Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish, and I just had to try it! Most bake-type affairs involve rather a lot of cheese sauce, and while I am a huge fan of cheese in all forms, I do try not to eat too much of it! So the idea of a sauce made from cannellini beans sounded really interesting.

I didn't have any nutritional yeast (in fact, I've never tried it) so I added a little bit of Marigold bouillon powder, and I added some rosemary to the whizzed-up beany sauce as well. And I turned it into a pasta bake with some wholewheat penne (because I'm going for a run tomorrow morning and fancied some more carbs) and chucked in some broccoli that was languishing in the fridge. Oh, and I didn't have rye bread, so I crumbled up some Ryvita for the topping. It was lovely and crunchy!



Following Laura's lead, I had some gorgeous English asparagus with it (you've got to love asparagus season!) and it was totally delicious. And unbelivably filling, thanks to those protein-packed beans! I actually don't think I needed to put the pasta in - I'm stuffed! It really is a great recipe - it's vegan, it can easily be made gluten-free just by using GF bread for the topping, and there's barely any fat whatsoever (I just used a couple of sprays of sunflower oil from my spray bottle to fry the leeks).



Definitely a winner! Let's hope it fuels a good run tomorrow!