November 27, 2023

Creamed Giant Beans & Olive Tapenade Canapes

BY IRINI TZORTZOGLOU

Gigantes are really fleshy beans and are traditionally cooked in the oven with carrots, celery, lots of tomatoes, onions and herbs so this jar of Odysea Baked Gigantes has bags of flavour. It would be a shame not to use them!

As for pitta which serves as the base of the canapes, I love the real thing. I keep a packet of the Odysea Elviart pitas in the freezer and defrost them as I need them. Great with dips of course or as a base for pretty much anything for a quick snack or lunch. For this recipe, I cut each pita into 12 fairly square pieces. There are markings that make this task easy. Any trimmings I crisp up in the oven and nibble with dips.

I often dehydrate herbs to use in both savoury and sweet preparations. Here I dried some washed and dried lovage leaves using a dehydrator but you could dry anything you like and use your conventional oven for that at a low temperature (no more than 50C) until the leaves are dried and break easily.

Ingredients

2 x 18cm Elviart pitas

3-4 tbsp of Odysea x Kew Organic Green Olive Tapenade

 

For the pickled carrots
1 Small carrot

30ml Odysea White Wine Vinegar

1 tbsp caster sugar

 

For the gigantes beans cream
1 jar of Odysea Baked Gigantes Beans

Zest of ½ orange

2 tbsp orange juice

 

To serve
A pinch of chilli flakes

A pinch of smoked paprika

A pinch of herb dust or fresh herb leaves or both

Instructions

  1. To pickle the carrots, peel and slice thinly. Cut the slices in smaller pieces of your preferred shape. In a small saucepan, bring the vinegar, sugar and 30ml of water to the boil. Add the sliced carrots, leave them to cool and transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge till needed. Any surplus are delicious in salads.
  2. To make the Gigantes cream, drain some of the oil from a jar of Odysea baked organic Gigantes and using a stick blender blitz with the orange zest and juice to a smooth, creamy consistency. Spoon the cream into a piping bag and cut 1cm wide hole at its tip
  3. Spoon some olive tapenade into a piping bag and cut 0.5cm hole at its tip.
  4. To serve, lay the pita pieces on a tray, pipe some Gigantes cream, a smaller quantity of the tapenade next to the cream, place the pickled carrot between the two and dust with the paprika, chilli flakes and herb dust. These are also great with a tiny cube of feta added.

Products used in this Recipe