Smokey garlic and butter bean bites

A Sunday evening, just before the new series of Spooks is about to start, calls for something quick, tasty, and easy to eat in front of the TV. One of my recent impulse purchases from Borough Market was a bulb of smoked garlic so I created bite-sized morsels of smokey garlic-infused butter bean and paprika crostina with lime juice - easy to crunch with eyes glued to the latest MI5 drama.

Recipe follows...

Serves 2 as a light supper but can serve 6 - 8 for pre-dinner canapes

• 8 large cloves of smoked garlic
• 1 tin of butter beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons good quality olive oil
• pinch of smoked paprika to garnish

Heat the oven to 150C and cook the garlic (unpeeled) for half an hour, until soft.Heat the oil in a saucepan with the butter beans and add the garlic - you can simply squeeze the garlic out of the cloves into the butterbean mixture. Add the juice of half the lime and beat to mash the butter beans. 

I like to leave the butter beans with some texture so you don't need to mash the mixture for too long. Spoon the mixture onto crostini (simply bake thin slices of french bread in the oven until crisp), top with a pinch of smoked paprika and a squeeze of lime juice to serve.