Cannellini Bean Blueberry Slice

If you’re looking for something new to add to the lunch box rotation, this one is definitely worth a try.

Our Beanie Blueberry Slice is soft, subtly sweet and bursting with blueberries, but the ingredient doing some of the heavy lifting might surprise you: cannellini beans.

Legumes probably aren’t the first thing that spring to mind when you think about baking, but they’re a brilliant ingredient to experiment with. Cannellini beans have a mild flavour and blend beautifully into the mixture, so once this slice is baked, you’d never know they were there.

And the best bit? Everything goes into the blender, making this a genuinely easy recipe for busy families.

Why bake with cannellini beans?

As a paediatric dietitian, I’m always interested in practical ways we can add a little more nutritional value to the foods our families already enjoy, without making food complicated.

Legumes such as cannellini beans provide fibre, plant-based protein and non-haem iron, along with a range of other nutrients.

Using beans alongside flour also gives this slice a different nutritional profile from a traditional sweet slice made predominantly with refined white flour. And it’s a lovely way to introduce legumes in a completely different form from the beans, lentils and chickpeas children might usually encounter at mealtimes.

It’s not about turning a slice into a “health food”. It’s simply about making use of a nutritious ingredient in another delicious way.

And it’s ridiculously easy to make

This is my kind of baking.

There’s no creaming butter and sugar, no stand mixer and no collection of bowls covering the kitchen bench afterwards.

Drain the beans, pop the ingredients into a blender, blitz, pour and bake.

The blueberries are scattered over the top and gently swirled through before baking, giving you little bursts of sweetness throughout the slice.

Once cooled, you can add a light dusting of icing sugar if you like.

Ingredients

• 1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (approximately 250 g drained)
• 1 cup plain flour
• ⅓ cup honey
• 70 g milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• Icing sugar, optional

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 170°C and line a 20 cm × 20 cm baking tin.
2. Drain and thoroughly rinse the cannellini beans.
3. Add the beans, flour, honey, milk, vanilla and baking powder to a blender. Blend until the mixture is well combined and smooth.
4. Pour the mixture into your prepared tin.
5. Sprinkle the frozen blueberries over the top, then use a knife to gently swirl them through the mixture.
6. Bake for 35–45 minutes, or until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
7. Allow the slice to cool completely in the tin before removing and slicing.
8. Once cool, dust lightly with icing sugar if desired.

For the lunch box

Once completely cooled, cut it into portions to suit your child’s appetite and pop a piece into their lunch box alongside the other foods they enjoy.

You can also make a batch ahead, portion it up and have another homemade option ready to go when the school-week lunch box fatigue inevitably hits.