I make a lot of soup, especially vegetable soups using whatever I have available. To make them more filling, I often add lentils, pearl barley or beans. Today I fancied making a mixed plate of tapas to eat before lunch and had paté cravings.
Instead of making a meat paté I took about a cup of dried beans that I had soaked overnight (the other half of which were destined for the soup pot) and made them into a tasty, garlicky paté which we served with pickled courgettes, our home cured olives, pickled onions from Cook, Eat, Live Vegetarian´s lovely recipe, salami made by a neigbour and some dried oven baked rolls.
To make one bowl of paté cook about a cup of your favourite dried beans until tender and drain (or use a can of beans). I cooked them with a few sticks of celery and a chopped carrot for extra flavour.
Put the cooked beans into a blender jug and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, 2 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper and a small bunch of fresh parsley. Blend using an immersion(stick) blender or a food processor. If the texture is too thick, taste and then add either extra oil, lemon juice or water depending on which flavours you want to dominate. Adjust seasoning if necessary.
Quick, easy, tasty and economical. Pass the bread please!
Chica Andaluza 