Butter Bean Mash

🍴 Why you will love this recipe

This deliciously rich and creamy mash is a nutritious alternative to mashed potato. Packed with protein and fibre, it is very quick and easy to make in just 7 minutes!

Perfect with vegan sausages and gravy, grilled flat mushrooms, stir-fried vegetables, or a rich and creamy topping for a Vegan Cottage Pie. This makes a great side dish to serve with a Mushroom Bourguignon or Vegan Sausage Casserole.

Butter beans are nutritional powerhouses, and this creamy mash is such a great way to serve them, even if you don't usually like beans! Perfect comfort food that's good for you too.

📝 What you need

Ingredients

There are just four basic ingredients in this easy recipe:

Tinned butter beans are cheap and very widely available - most supermarkets, even small ones will stock them. However you can use any type of white bean - cannellini or haricot would work well too.

Vegetable stock gives a flavour base to the mash - do check it is vegan as some vegetable stock cubes/powders contain milk. I prefer lower-salt varieties so you can adjust the seasoning to your own taste.

Lemon juice really lifts the flavour and removes any 'beany' taste from this creamy mash.

Vegan butter I like to use a good-quality block margarine rather than a tub of spread, as the water content is much lower. Flora Plant Butter or Naturli Vegan Block are ideal.

Equipment

A stick blender is the easiest way to blitz your butter bean mash to a smooth and silky purée. No pouring into a blender, just stick it in the pan and blitz. Mine is by Dualit and has served me well for many years, but any good quality stick blender will do the job well.

I really recommend using a blender of some sort rather than a standard potato masher. You do need to totally break down the skins of the beans otherwise you will never achieve the smooth and creamy texture that makes this mash so special.

👩🏽‍🍳 How to make your mash

For a full, printable recipe with ingredients and detailed instructions, scroll to the bottom of this page👇🏼.

Melt the vegan butter in a saucepan, add the beans and vegetable stock. Season well, cover with a lid and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the lemon juice then blitz to a very smooth purée with a stick blender. You may need to add a little more water to get the desired consistency. You can add a splash of vegan cream or yoghurt at this point for an extra-creamy mash. Taste and adjust seasoning as required.

🥄 Variations

This creamy mash is a blank canvas to add all sorts of flavours to match your main dish. How about some of these stirred through the mash just before serving?

• Wholegrain mustard 1-2 teaspoons to your taste
• Fresh herbs, finely chopped (how about flat-leaf parsley, coriander or basil?)
• Vegan cheese I find Violife or Applewood Smoked or Koko cheddar are the best at melting.
• Sun-dried tomato paste
• Curry paste (or curry powder added with the vegetable stock)
• Garlic either garlic paste or a roasted garlic clove with skin removed

🔪 Top Tips & FAQs

Keep blitzing for at least 2-3 minutes until the mash is totally smooth! You really need to break down the skins of the butter beans for a very smooth and potato-like mash, so don't stop until it is very smooth, and don't use a potato masher.

Adjust the consistency with water Every time I make this I need a slightly different amount of water to get it to the right consistency. So blitz it as it is, then add a splash of water at a time until it is a soft, mashed-potato-like consistency. If you add too much and it becomes too soft, just bubble it in the saucepan for a minute or two and it will thicken up.

🍽 If you liked that...

.... you might also enjoy these vegan recipes from The Veg Space: