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Boston bean pot

Boston bean pot

Here is a tasty mid-week family meal that uses up store cupboard ingredients and spices with extra meatballs to freeze for a second meal.
By Love Food Hate Waste
Serves 4
Prep/Cook time: 20-30 minutes
A vibrant pot of orange broth mixed with a variety of warming beans and veggies

Ingredients

Meatballs

2 slices bread
Frozen bread works well. Defrost at room temperature or toast straight from frozen.
750g turkey breast mince
This recipe works perfectly with frozen meat. Check what you have in your freezer and defrost meat thoroughly before cooking.
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, finely diced
Leftover onions can be diced and frozen in an airtight container.
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp chilli powder
Black pepper to season
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Boston Beans

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 small onion, diced
Use up what you have. Spring onions, leeks or shallots work well too.
1 small red pepper, diced
If you have other vegetables such as mushrooms, courgettes and aubergines that need using up, try chopping them into small cubes and adding to the mix at the same time as you fry the onions.
2 tsp smoked paprika
3 tbsp BBQ sauce
415g can reduced salt and sugar baked beans
1 vegetable stock cube, crumbled into 200ml boiling water and stirred

Perfect portions

Use our portion calculator for a quick and simple way to check how much food to serve with this meal.

Use portion calculator

Recipe

  1. Remember to defrost your meat. Defrost your meat in the fridge and use within 24 hours, or in a microwave on ‘defrost’ directly before use. 

    This recipe works perfectly with frozen meat. Check what you have in your freezer and defrost meat thoroughly before cooking.

  2. Preheat the oven to 200°C/ 180°C Fan/gas 7.

  3. To make the breadcrumbs tear the bread and place in a food processor and blitz for a few seconds until the bread resembles fine breadcrumbs. Alternatively finely grate the bread.

  4. Place the breadcrumbs plus the remaining meatball ingredients, except the oil into the bowl and mix well until the ingredients are combined then using your hands shape into 24 equal sized balls about the size of a walnut. Set 12 balls aside to freeze and place the remaining balls on a lightly greased shallow non-stick roasting pan. Brush the balls lightly with oil and bake for 20 minutes until cooked through.

  5. Meanwhile to prepare the Boston beans heat the oil in a non-stick saucepan and gently fry the garlic, onion and pepper for 5 minutes until softened.

  6. Sprinkle over the smoked paprika and cook gently for a minute then add the BBQ sauce, baked beans and half of the stock. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, adding the remaining stock if the sauce is thick.

  7. Remove the meatballs from the oven and add to sauce, stirring gently until the balls are coated in sauce.

  8. Try serving with crispy potato wedges, rice, pasta or bread. This dish also makes a great topping for a jacket potato. Use ready-made vegetarian meat-free balls to make this dish veggie.

  9. Freezing and storage: Freeze the uncooked meatballs in a freezer box between parchment paper then defrost in the fridge and use within 24 hours, cook as detailed above. Boston beans can be frozen but are best eaten freshly made. If you don’t have a freezer you could cook the meatballs in one go and store in the fridge for up to two days, alternatively you could halve the recipe for the meatballs.

Make the most of your leftovers
Store in
Airtight container
Time
Fridge for 2 days
Where to store
Fridge
Reheat
Oven or microwave until piping hot. Reheat only once.

Perfect portions

Use our portion calculator for a quick and simple way to check how much food to serve with this meal.

Use portion calculator

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Inside of the fridge with someone changing the fridge temperature dial

Keep your fridge at 5°C or below

Did you know that adjusting the temperature of your fridge could help to preserve your food for three days longer than usual? A big win to help keep your food fresher for longer. Our fridge temperature tool can help you learn how to change the temperature on your specific fridge brand.