Creamy Flageolet Beans, French Style
- Ready In:
- 1hr 55mins
- Ingredients:
- 8
- Serves:
-
8
ingredients
- 500 g dried flageolet beans
- 1 bulb of garlic, cloves peeled
- 2 -3 fresh thyme sprigs
- 1 bay leaf
- 200 g creme fraiche
- 40 g fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 lemon, juice of
- salt & freshly ground black pepper
directions
- Place the beans in a large bowl, cover with plenty of cold water and leave to soak overnight (you can also soak these in the morning if you are eating in the evening).
- Drain the beans, place them in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, bring it to the boil and then drain them; repeat, covering the beans with plenty of cold water and adding the garlic, thyme, and bay leaf; simmer the beans for 1 ½ hours until very tender, topping up the pan with boiling water if necessary.
- Check the beans after 1 ¼ hours; when ready they should be tender and creamy-textured inside,
- Drain the beans, reserving a mug of cooking liquor and discarding the herbs; return the beans and garlic to the saucepan, stir in the crème fraiche with a little of the liquor and parsley and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
- If you prepare these in advance, add a little more of the cooking liquor when reheating.
Questions & Replies

Got a question?
Share it with the community!
Reviews
Have any thoughts about this recipe?
Share it with the community!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Mrs B
Worcester Park, Surrey
I live with my husband and 2 cats in Worcester Park; a quiet typical 1930s suburb (which no one has ever heard of!) about 12 miles South West of London.
I'm a fair weather gardener and as my husband is a vegetarian I grow a few easy vegetables, such as tomatoes and peppers, mainly in containers. My husband loves growing flowers, the brighter the better, and we have a pretty garden as a result. Our cats, Araminta and Purrl, like it too!
I do a lot of cooking and try to keep our diet as healthy and varied as possible. Although I work full time, I use very little in the way of pre-prepared foods. This is partly because of the limited choice of vegetarian meals, which I think are overpriced anyway; but mainly because I like to know what goes in my food!
I love using the Internet for all the great ideas it gives me. Last year I participated in the Zaar World Tour (under my previous public name Caroline Blakey), which was great. Mr B and I tried lots of new foods and discovered new favourite meals. Researching recipes for the Tour was really interesting, however as I didn't have time to try them all, some were posted untested. I'm still working my way very slowly through them. To make matters worse I keep seeing other recipes I want to save and have also participated in Zaar world Tour II. So many recipes, so little time to make them!
<img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/Banners/Animation3.gif">
My 'rules' for posting recipes are a) if I wouldn't make a particular recipe, I won't post it and b) if my husband wouldn't eat it, I won't post it. This means that all my recipes are vegetarian friendly.
As you will see from the number of recipes saved in my cookbooks, I particularly enjoy making jams and chutneys; I'd say it was one of my favourite hobbies. We always have a good supply of home preserves; my friends and work colleagues are well supplied too.
If we won the lottery (say £5m, as a good number) we'd like to give up work, move to the country and buy a place with a bit of land. In my dreams this would be a manor house or old vicarage, with a walled garden, an orchard where I could keep hens, a vegetable garden, etc, etc, etc! In my more realistic moments (the £1m win perhaps) I would like to run a B&B, perhaps offering Vegetarian taster weekends. Luckily it costs nothing to dream.......I’d also love more time to read, do embroidery, learn a language, see more of the countryside; and of course play on Zaar.