Rice and peas

I cooked some black eyed beans the other day to make a curry with butternut squash and coconut milk. Mysteriously, it tasted like peanuts, but that's another story.

As usual, I cooked a load and then froze most of them for future use. I got to thinking about rice and peas. We ate masses of it in Belize, and my friend Liz used to make it sometimes. I guess traditionally it's with kidney beans, but somehow I thought it might be good with black-eyed beans.

Actually, I liked the black-eyed beans a lot. They cooked up really nicely from dried. I guess they are in that sweet spot, size-wise, along with chickpeas - I find bigger beans often cook unevenly. They were hard to find though - didn't seem to be stocked in any of the supermarkets.

I adapted this recipe to make a version that uses pre-cooked beans. I guess cooking the beans in the coconut milk would maintain more flavour and the whole dish would taste more beany... but I just know I will never make it if I have to soak an exact amount of beans the night before.

1 tbsp veg oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp finely chopped ginger
5 thyme sprigs (used c. 5 tsp dried instead)
5 allspice berries (did not have - used 2 tsp ground allspice instead)
1 scotch bonnet pepper (used 1 dried chilli instead)
3 cups cooked beans (black-eyed, black or kidney)
1 400 ml can coconut milk
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups long-grain rice
550 ml hot water (or bean cooking water if you kept it)


Heat the oil in a large lidded saucepan. Add the onion and fry a bit. Add the spring onions, garlic and ginger and fry a little more. Add the thyme, allspice, chilli, beans, coconut milk, salt and pepper, and bring to the boil. Stir in the rice and add the water. Cover and simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed - approx. 30 min. Remove from the heat, cover and let steam for 10 min before serving. Discard thyme stems, allspice berries and chilli before serving.


This made loads! A half quantity would be fine for us... But luckily it was a big hit with both S and s, so disappeared within a couple of days!

Bean, tomato and olive oil galette

I keep forgetting about galettes. They are the answer to pie-making urges when one does not own a pie dish - ie perfect for the onset of cold weather in this house.

When I last made a galette it was delicious and I wanted to make more, then forgot. I wanted to try a different, simpler-looking pastry, with ingredients we're more likely to have in stock, ie this olive oil dough. So that's what I did. For filling, I decided to go with a bean base, since I had just cooked a load of white-borlotti bean mix - figured anything could work as a filling, so long as not wet.

(makes 2 medium pies)

For the pastry:
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fridge cold water
1 beaten egg, for egg wash

For the filling:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
c 1 cup small tomatoes, chopped
c 2 cups cooked white/borlotti beans

1/2 cup parsley, chopped
salt+pepper
1/2 cup cubed gorgonzola (optional)

Mix salt and flour in a medium bowl with a fork, then mix in the olive oil and rub in until like breadcrumbs. Sprinkle in the cold water gradually (you probably don't need to use all of it) and knead until the pastry comes together - don't over work. Bring together into a ball, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for at least 30-40 min (or, I suspect, up to a few days).

While chilling, make the filling: heat olive oil in a large pan, then soften onions and garlic. Add tomatoes, beans and parsley and saute until well mingled and any extra moisture from the tomatoes has been absorbed. Season to taste and let cool.

When ready to assemble and bake, first heat the oven to 200C. Divide the dough into two and roll out the first half on a well-floured surface until approximately circular. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Spoon the filling onto the rolled-out dough circles, spreading it evenly from the centre until 1.5-2 inches from the edge. Fold in the borders, overlapping the edges and pressing together the folds. Brush the pastry edges with beaten egg. Sprinkle the gorgonzola (if using) over the exposed pie filling in the middle. Turn down the oven to 190C and put the pies in. Bake for 35-40 min, until the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven, check the bottom is crisp, and let cool on the baking sheet.

These can be stored in the fridge for a few days, travel well wrapped in paper or in a box, and reheat well in the oven (maybe underbake just slightly if planning to reheat in the oven) or microwave.


I am totally enthused by the galette! Thinking this dough could be made ahead and kept in the fridge, then rolled out and filled whenever we want dinner - similar to our go-to pizza dough. Note, I did think this might be a little bit too much salt - the dough perhaps tasted a little salty - would prob be fine with a half tsp. The other filling I almost went with was butternut squash, walnuts and gorgonzola - so many possibilities though... I want to try sweet fillings too!

Sunchoke (jerusalum artichoke) and white bean soup

This is the first time I cooked with sunchokes in ages. They are much more easily available in shops  here than in the UK or the USA. I always thought maybe you didn't see them in shops much because they don't store well, but I guess that is wrong. When I was a kid we had them in the garden, and later L and I had them in our allotment... And they are unkillable (!), so I have eaten plenty of them in the past. I knew them as jerusalem artichokes then, but sunchokes is a better name I think - they are related to sunflowers and nothing to do with Jerusalem, after all. They lend themselves very well to soup. I kept this one simple: sunchokes have quite a distinctive but delicate taste and I didn't want to overpower it / thought they'd play well with white beans.

olive oil
1/2 a large onion, peeled and chopped
4 large sunchokes, well-cleaned and chopped into chunks
500 ml veg stock
1 1/2 cups cooked white beans or butterbeans
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
more olive oil to serve

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and saute for 5-10 min on a low-medium heat, until softened. Add the sunchokes, cover and cook for 10 min or so more, stirring often. Add the veg stock, bay leaf and beans. Simmer for 20-30 min, until the sunchokes are thoroughly cooked and tender. Blend until smooth. Add more water if necessary, and season to taste. Serve with a sprinkling of tasty olive oil, salt and pepper on top.

Bean and tomato stew

I am trying to use things up. I don't eat cheese, but S does, and I couldn't let him throw away a perfectly good parmesan rind. This also used up some beans and red wine that had been waiting for their moment for too long. And it's a good combination: beans and tomato and herbs and lush, rich sauce.

~2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tin tomatoes
~2 tbsp tomato puree
1 parmesan cheese rind
1 tin lima beans
~1 1/2 cups white beans (cooked and frozen)
~1/2 cup red wine
1-2 tsp dried oregano
1-2 tsp dried basil
1-2 tsp dried thyme
pinch of dried red chilli flakes
2 bay leaves
1-2 tsp dark soy sauce
salt+pepper

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan, add onion and garlic, cover and cook until softened. Add the remaining ingredients (except salt, pepper and soy sauce), cover and cook for at least 45 min, before turning off the heat, tasting for seasoning (salt, pepper and soy sauce) and letting sit for another half an hour. Remove the cheese rind and bay leaves and reheat to serve. Good with bread or pasta or polenta.

Three bean salad

Amazingly enough green beans to do something with, already. This time a multi-bean salad. I used to make these a lot, chucking in as many kinds of beans as I had, trying to max out the bean variety count. This time I kept it to three, as I thought they looked pretty and tasted good together. With tomatoes, herbs and nasturtium seeds (our other current favourite thing) from my pot garden (and garlic and sweet pepper from the CSA), this is super fresh and packed with flavour.

~1 cup green beans, top-and-tailed and chopped into ~2 cm pieces
~1 cup black eyed beans, defrosted
1/2 cup chickpeas, defrosted
1/2 sweet pepper (mine was yellow), diced
2-3 medium tomatoes, diced
~8 fresh nasturtium seeds, chopped
1 tbsp chives, chopped
1-2 tbsp mint, chopped
1-2 tbsp parsley, chopped
zest and juice of 1/4 lemon
1/8 clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp honey
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Prepare the green beans and steam them for 10-15 min, until tender. Plunge into cold water to stop cooking, then drain. Mix the black eyed beans, chickpeas and green beans in a bowl. Add the chopped pepper, tomatoes, nasturtium seeds, herbs and lemon zest. Mix the lemon juice, garlic, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl then add to the bean mixture. Toss everything together, taste for seasoning and eat.


This was really fresh and crunchy and tasty. There was quite a lot of liquid in it so I reduced the dressing quantities listed above (originally used more like 1/2 lemon etc).

Green beans with walnut sauce

Was pondering doing something slightly different with green beans, came across this idea in my New Covent Garden Soup Company cookbook, decided to try it. Interesting.

1 lb green beans, washed and trimmed
handful of chocolate cherry tomatoes, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 oz walnuts
1 oz breadcrumbs
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic
salt+pepper
3-4 tbsp olive oil

Put the beans in a steamer basket and steam for 5-10 min, until just done. Transfer to cold water immediately to stop cooking, then drain.

Put the walnuts, breadcrumbs, lemon juice, garlic and seasoning in a blender. Add olive oil a tbsp at a time and blend until fairly smooth. Taste for seasoning.

Put beans and tomatoes in a bowl, add the walnut sauce and toss until all well combined.

Tamale pie

It's S's birthday tomorrow and I've been devoting a lot of my daydream time to thinking up ideas for what to do to make it special. He is playing football in the evening, which he likes, so that's good. I'm going to make a cake. But then also thought it might be fun to go for lunch somewhere. El Pelon (little Mexican place near work) sprang to mind: I heard good things about it but didn't get around to going there for a long time; when I did get there I discovered joyously tasty, filling vegan tamales. So the taste of tamales was drifting temptingly around my brain when I came across the concept of tamale pie: it's sort of like shepherd's pie with Mexican influences. S had accidentally bought masa harina (corn flour made from hominy) a while ago. It's what you need to make corn tortillas or tamales or pupusas. All those things are delicious, but somewhat fiddly - tamale pie is a super simple way of getting that tamale fix. Note: this is my reinterpretation / amalgamation of a bunch of recipes.

(this took me about an hour to make from start to finish - it's a good idea to prep the veg sequentially as you cook to minimise the total time)

For the topping:
1 cup masa harina
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 tbsp fake butter
1/2 tsp baking powder

For the filling:
1 tbsp veg or light olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
1 400g tin tomatoes
2 cups pinto, kidney or black-eyed beans, pre-cooked
1 cup frozen sweetcorn
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp mushroom powder
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp red wine
3 tbsp chopped coriander
salt+red chilli flakes

To finish:
1 tbsp chopped coriander
1 tsp paprika
few squeezes of lime

Heat oven to 400F. Mix masa harina, salt and paprika for the topping in a bowl with a fork. Add boiling water gradually, mixing to form a soft dough. Cover and set aside.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onion, cover and cook for a few minutes. Add garlic and chilli and cook a few more minutes. Add grated carrot and cook for a few more minutes. Add the tomatoes, beans, sweetcorn, cumin, paprika, oregano, soy sauce, mushroom powder, wine and coriander and simmer until it is thickened and all the veg are cooked. Taste for seasoning and add salt and chilli flakes to taste if required.

Mix the butter and baking powder into the masa mixture. Put the filling into a lidded oven dish. Squish the masa to cover over the top as if making a shepherd's pie. Put the lid on (or cover with foil if no lid) and put in the oven for 30 min. Uncover and cook about 10 min more, until it is lightly browned and crispy around the edges.

Let it sit for 5-10 min before serving. Sprinkle with chopped coriander, paprika and a squeeze or two of lime juice.


Notes: Could use squash, mushrooms, courgette, peppers instead of carrot. Tomatilloes might be good too. Could use polenta (or cornbread) as topping instead of masa.


This was filling and tasty - the topping definitely had that tamale taste and went really well with the inside layer.

Molasses Flood: Boston Baked Beans and Boston Brown Bread

The Great Boston Molasses Flood happened at this time of year in 1919. I was incredulous when I first heard of it - seemed like such a strange and awful source of disaster (21 people died, drowning in a huge flood of molasses after a storage tank burst in the North End). A friend of ours is having a commemorative party. Not sure if it's something that should be partied about, but I guess it's important not to forget.

I thought of making Boston Brown Bread because I'd been keen to try making it for a while and knew it had molasses in it. Then I started suspecting it wasn't the only regional recipe to involve molasses and I was right - Boston Baked Beans also makes heavy use of molasses, as does Indian Pudding. The Boston-molasses connection, it turns out, is through the Triangle Trade and alcohol production. Apparently slaves were shipped from Africa to South American sugar plantations, then sugar and molasses were shipped to New England to be distilled into rum or other alcohol (hence the huge molasses storage tank and the disaster), then the alcohol (and ice, to make up the weight) was shipped to Europe and elsewhere (including back to Africa, completing the triangle).

Quite a series of connections. I made a Brown Bread and a vegetarian Baked Beans (usually it has salted pork or bacon in it).

Boston Brown Bread

(based on this recipe, although I used the flour mix recommended here and this recipe also looked good)

(I used the in-oven cooking method written out below, as opposed to the stove-top steamer method, due to the fact my coffee can was too tall for my steaming apparatus)

I first came across Boston Brown Bread at P's house in New Hampshire - my friend G and his uncle P are from a big New England Irish family, and P had half a can of brown bread in the fridge left over from a fry-up. I'd never seen anything like it before: bread in a can?! But, bread packed with molasses and wholewheat and raisins - sounds like something I'd love (and similar to a malted tealoaf)!

Butter for greasing loaf pans or coffee cans
1/2 cup (heaping) wholemeal flour
1/2 cup (heaping) rye flour
1/2 cup (heaping) finely ground corn meal (must be finely ground)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 cup molasses (any kind - I used blackstrap)
1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 cup almond milk with 1 tsp cider vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

One metal 6-inch tall by 4-inch diameter coffee can, or a 4x8 loaf pan (used a coffee can)

Heat the oven to 325F and boil a full kettle of water (to do oven steaming method). Or heat oven to 350F (for oven baking method - use loaf tin).

Grease the tin with butter. In a large bowl, mix the wholemeal flour, rye flour, corn meal, baking powder and bicarb, salt and allspice. Add the raisins if using.

In another bowl, mix together the milk and vanilla essence (if using). Whisk in the molasses. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir well with a spoon.

Pour the batter into the tin taking care that the batter not reach higher than 2/3 up the sides of the container.

Oven steaming method:
Cover the tin tightly with foil and tie in place with string. Put the prepared tin into a high-sided oven-proof pan that can hold water up to 1/3 the height of the tin. Pour boiling water into the pan until it reaches 1/3 up the side of the tin. Put the pan into the oven. Steam the bread for at least 2 hours and 15 minutes. Check to see if the bread is done by inserting a skewer (or thin metal knitting needle) into it. If the skewer comes out clean, you're ready. If not, re-cover the tin and cook for up to another 45 minutes (I ended up cooking it for the extra time but I think it would also have been fine earlier).

Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before putting on a rack. Let the bread cool for 1 hour before turning out of the tin (it turned out quite easily, although the edges were soft from condensation and I wondered if it wasn't done yet, once turned out and fully cooled it was totally good).

Oven baking method:
Put loaf tin in oven (at 350F) and cover the top with a baking tray. Bake for ~45-50 min, until it is coming away from the sides and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the tin.

This also worked well  in muffin form (I like this form because they're easy to freeze and defrost in portions): I filled four cups down each side of my muffin tin (8 total), and filled the middle cups with water / put an oven dish of water in the bottom of the oven to stop it drying out - this might have been overkill. Bake for ~25 min at 350F.


Slice and eat plain, or toast in a little butter in a frying pan.

This is delicious - rich with irony molasses loveliness; definitely reminiscent of malted loaf, and of course pleasingly can-shaped. Loved the cooking process, even if it did take rather a long time - was really pleased to find an actual empty coffee can of about the right dimensions in my cupboard - it had already been repurposed once to store bulghur wheat, now onto its next life... Also made use of some string, a large steel pan, and a knitting needle.


Boston Baked Beans

(based on this recipe, being the tastiest sounding veggie version I came across... there are an awful lot of variants out there)

The molasses contains lots of sugar and calcium (as well as iron, magnesium and potassium) - apparently these are what allow you to cook the beans for so long without them collapsing.

I have never eaten real Boston baked beans, veggie or otherwise, so don't know what this should turn out like. Still, feels right to eat Boston baked beans at least once while living in Beantown.

1 1/2 cups yellow eyed or navy beans, with water to cover (I used ~ 4 1/2 cups pre-cooked kidney and black-eyed beans)
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar (I used turbinado)
2 tbsp ground mustard (used ground white mustard seeds)
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp paprika
2 large onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp sea salt
16 oz tin chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup tomato puree
1/2 cup molasses (used ~1/3 cup blackstrap - was running out of molasses!)
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Heat the oil in a high-sided frying pan and add onion. Cover and fry until softened and starting to brown. Add garlic and salt and cook for a few more minutes. Defrost beans if frozen, then add the beans, tinned tomatoes and tomato puree to the pan and mix.  Mix the brown sugar, mustard, nutmeg and paprika in a small bowl, then add to the pan along with the molasses and mix. Add vinegar last and stir. Cover and put in oven for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Check for liquid level, adding a bit of water if mixture is too thick or drying out. Uncover and cook an additional 15 minutes.


Really like the texture of the beans - nice and firm. In general a good balance of spiced, sweet and salty.

Mum's 'Red Dragon' bean pie

This is sort of a veg shepherd's pie. Grandma looked out the recipe while I was in Edinburgh and made it for me. She had got the recipe from Mum. In fact, as she looked through her recipe folders she found that she had got the recipe from Mum twice: she had two different copies, both handwritten by Mum. Seeing Mum's handwriting is one of those things that makes her seem so near yet so far - I remember tearing out and keeping all these little bits of paper where she'd signed my schoolwork: I didn't want to forget what her writing looked like, same as I didn't want to forget anything else about her.

The pie was really tasty - a bit 70s perhaps, but lovely. Grandma gave me one copy of the recipe and I've brought it back with me: I made it for S today (with black eyed beans) and he liked it.

For filling:
4 oz aduki beans (or similar)
2 oz wheat grain or rice (used rice)
1 onion, chopped
8 oz grated carrot (used about 5 medium-small ones)
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp mixed herbs (used mix of oregano, basil, thyme)
1/2 pint bean stock
salt+pepper

For topping:
~4 medium potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed with
-marg, olive oil, fake milk, salt+pepper to taste

Soak the beans overnight, then cook. Cook the rice. Cook the potatoes separately, then mash with oil/marg, milk, salt+pepper (we used a mixture of potato and celeriac and it was yum).

Fry the onion and carrot. Add the rest of the filling ingredients to the onion and carrot and simmer until thickened.

Put the filling in an ovenproof dish, top with the mashed potato, and bake in a 400F oven for 20-30 min until the top of the mashed potato has started to brown and the filling is bubbling.

Note: I followed the recipe fairly approximately - used ingredients as above but just guessed quantities.

White bean dip

Prepped a large quantity of lima beans (note, soaking with  1/2 tsp bicarb, draining, rinsing and cooking without bicarb seemed to give good results).  Had been dreaming of white beans with pomegranate molasses and spices, so that is what I made.

2 cups cooked white beans (lima)
1-2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1-2 tbsp tahini
1/2 - 1 tbsp olive oil
1 small clove garlic
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin
salt+pepper

Put all ingredients in blender cup and blend til smooth.  Add a little cooking water if it is too thick, until the desired texture is achieved.


This turned out really well.  Was also very very quick and easy to assemble.  S liked it too, and we polished off the first batch in minutes, so I made more straight away.

Beans, seeds and tomato

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped (or 3-4 spring onions for quicker cooking)
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
3 handfuls cooked lima beans
1 large tomato
1 tbsp coriander, chopped

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and add the chopped onion.  Cover and cook on medium-low til softened but not coloured, about 10 min.  Meanwhile toast the seeds and chop the tomato and coriander.  When the onion is ready, as the beans, tomato and seeds and then cook for 2-5 min.  Lastly, add the coriander and season to taste.  Surprisingly yum.

Black bean patties

A quick weekday evening supper - wanted to do something with black beans.  Think their best feature is their colour, so made them into colourful, herby patties.

1 cup cooked black beans, defrosted
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chia seed, ground
2 tsp flour
pinch cayenne
1 tbsp lemon + lime juice
1 very mild red chili, chopped
1/2 a clove garlic, chopped
3 spring onions, finely sliced
handful sweetcorn, defrosted
2 tbsp coriander, chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
salt+pepper
water
veg oil for cooking

Pulverise the beans with a handheld blender (try and leave them with a bit of texture).  Add the remaining ingredients, except the sweetcorn, herbs and water, and mix til well combined and a good consistency.  Add the sweetcorn and herbs, mix in, check for seasoning and add water if too dry / falling apart.  Shape into patties (about six), and fry in a tiny bit of oil in a non stick pan til browned on the sides and heated through.  Eat with rice and chutney.

Bean salad

Saw this recipe in the Guardian this weekend, then ended up with an awful lot of yellow beans (3lb for $1) - seemed to fit together.

280g yellow beans (had loads of yellow and no green, so just used yellow)
280g french beans, trimmed
2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into 0.5cm strips
2½ tbsp olive oil, plus 1 tsp extra
50g capers, rinsed and patted dry
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
10g roughly chopped tarragon (didn't have tarragon or chervil so used mixture of parsley and dill instead)
20g picked chervil (or a mixture of picked dill and shredded parsley)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Salt and black pepper

Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Bring a large pan of water to a boil and add the yellow beans. After two minutes, add the french beans and cook for four minutes more. Refresh under cold water, drain, pat dry and place in a large bowl. Toss the pepper strips in a teaspoon of oil, spread on an oven tray and roast for five minutes, until tender. Remove and add to the beans.
Heat the oil in a small saucepan. Add the capers (be careful, as they'll spit) and garlic, fry for 20 seconds, then add the seeds and fry for another 20 seconds. The garlic should by now have turned golden. Remove from the heat and immediately pour over the beans. Add the spring onion, herbs, lemon zest, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and some black pepper, and toss to combine. This salad will keep well for a day.

It was, as advertised, pretty damn tasty.  Quite salty - might not bother adding extra salt another time, the capers are probably salty enough.

Cannelini beans with tomato and cinnamon.

 Followed HFW's recipe @ Guardian

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onions, peeled, halved and finely sliced 
½ cinnamon stick
1 small bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
approx 1 400g tins cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (used dried from freezer) 
about 1 cup vegetable stock (or water) 
1/4 tsp chilli flakes or cayenne
400g tinned chopped tomatoes (used 2 large plum tomatoes, diced, and 2 tbsp tomato paste) 
1/4 tsp sugar 
35g black olives, stoned and roughly chopped (optional)
Juice of 1/2 lemon 
small handful parsley, tough stalks ­removed, coarsely chopped 
small handful coriander, tough stalks removed, coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Warm the oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the onions, cinnamon and bay leaf, and sweat, stirring frequently, until the onions are very soft, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and fry for a couple of minutes more.
Tip in the beans and add just enough stock barely to cover the beans. Let it bubble away for 10 ­minutes, then add the chilli flakes, tomatoes, sugar and olives (if using), and simmer, uncovered, for 15 ­minutes, stirring from time to time, until the tomatoes have reduced into a thick sauce.
Add the lemon juice, leave to cool slightly, then stir in the parsley and coriander. Season to taste, and serve with a little yogurt dolloped over the top (if wanted) and warm flatbreads or pitta on the side.

The beans I used were a bit collapsed - would have been nicer if they were more shapely.  But it still tastes very good.