I hated butterbeans when I was a child. But it’s funny how your tastes change and I now love them. I know people who’ll tell me that they tried something once many years ago, hated it and have never tried it since. Don’t they realise what they could be missing?

This is a novel twist on the traditional sausage meat-based scotch egg. Not only is it another way to enjoy egg and beans, it means vegetarians can enjoy a scotch egg too.

The recipe is for one egg which will serve two people as a starter or one as a main course. However there’ll be around a pint of the tomato jam. Any extra can be refrigerated for a few days and used with cheese on toast or frozen in small amounts for later. You could even add a little white wine or cider vinegar to it to make a dressing for salads.

I’ve used cheese biscuit mixed in with the butter beans. These are the savoury type that you can get that give a little extra lift as opposed to just using breadcrumbs.

For the scotch egg:

125g tinned butter beans – drained

15g cheese biscuit

One medium free range eggs

One egg – lightly beaten for egg washing

A tablespoon of plain flour

A tablespoon of breadcrumbs

For the tomato jam:

400g tomatoes

100g sugar

20g tomato puree

Salt and freshly-ground black pepper

To make the tomato jam, place the tomatoes, sugar and tomato puree into a thick-bottomed saucepan. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to low and allow the mixture to simmer for 60 to 90 minutes until the consistency of jam. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t burn. Taste and season with salt and pepper before allowing to cool.

To make the scotch egg, place the egg in a pan of simmering water, bring back to a simmer and boil for four minutes. Put the pan in the sink, run the cold tap into it and allow the egg to cool completely. Carefully break the shell and remove; trying not to tear the white.

Put the butter beans into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Break up the biscuit into crumbs and add to the mixture along with a little salt and pepper; processing again for a few seconds.

Remove the mixture and, with slightly wetted hands, mould it into a sheet that can sit in your hand. Place the egg on top and gently mould the sheet around it. It can help if you keep a little back to finish it off where the sides of the sheet come together. You can shape it properly once the egg’s completely covered with no gaps.

Roll the egg in the flour to cover, then roll in the beaten egg and finally in the breadcrumbs.

To cook, you can deep fry the egg until golden if you have a deep fat fryer. However if, like me you don’t, fry the egg in a little hot oil in a frying pan, turning to make sure that it’s cooked all over, before putting into a pre-heated oven at 180°C, gas mark 4.

To serve, cut the egg in half, spoon a little of the tomato jam alongside and possibly add a few salad leaves.

Previously published in the Northern Echo