Food writer Rukmini Iyer has shared a brilliantly simple recipe that promises a vibrant and satisfying dinner with minimal fuss. Her roast sweet potato, feta, and butter bean traybake, crowned with a fresh spring onion pesto, is designed to be on the table in just half an hour.
A One-Tin Wonder for Busy Evenings
This recipe epitomises the appeal of the modern traybake: maximum flavour with minimal washing up. The dish combines chunks of sweet potato and butter beans, roasted with smoked paprika and olive oil until tender and slightly caramelised. The result is a warm, inviting base that is both hearty and healthy.
Iyer suggests the recipe is wonderfully adaptable. If you don't have butter beans, a tin of chickpeas works perfectly. Similarly, the flat-leaf parsley in the pesto can be swapped for other soft herbs like coriander or basil, depending on what's in your fridge.
Creating the Zesty Spring Onion Pesto
While the vegetables roast, you can whip up the pesto that lifts the entire dish. It's a vibrant blend of parsley, spring onions, and almonds (or pine nuts), blitzed with extra-virgin olive oil and lemon juice. This sauce adds a crucial hit of freshness and brightness, cutting through the richness of the feta and the sweetness of the potatoes.
The recipe is deliberately straightforward. After 15 minutes of prep and 30 minutes in a 200C (180C fan) oven, you simply spoon the pesto over the roasted vegetables and scatter with crumbled feta. No complicated steps are required.
A Nutritious and Flavour-Packed Main
This traybake is more than just convenient; it's a nutritionally balanced meal. The sweet potatoes and butter beans provide fibre and complex carbohydrates, while the beans and feta contribute a solid dose of plant-based and dairy protein. It's a clever way to incorporate more legumes into your weekly diet without compromising on taste.
Ultimately, Rukmini Iyer's creation is a testament to how a few quality ingredients, cooked simply together, can produce something truly special. It's a recipe that suits a midweek family dinner yet is impressive enough for casual entertaining, proving that quick food can still be exciting and full of bright, warming flavours.
