Garlic butter is f*cking delicious. This is a truth universally acknowledged. One of my favourite things about staying at my Nan’s house used to be the guarantee that there would be a stick of Lurpak garlic butter waiting for me in the fridge door, ready to be spread in copious (and probably inappropriate) amounts on crusty white bread. It was one of those things we never had at home – probably a lot to do with extravagant pricing – but was for some reason a fridge staple at her house. Like Nesquik.

On my mission to start slowly playing with the idea of veganising things that would otherwise be a no go for proper actual vegans (I’m not yet included in this gang, in case you were wondering) garlic butter comes pretty high up on the list of things I’d like to get right. After mucking about a few times, I’ve decided it’s impossible to actually get right.

The reason it’s impossible to get right is the same reason that actual garlic butter is delicious: fat. Fat that comes from animals and fat that comes from plants are just too damn different. Delicious, fatty, salty garlic butter is the way it is because it’s made of milk. If trying to compare the two – no matter what form – animal fat will almost always win. That doesn’t mean that we can’t make something that does taste pretty good though, I wouldn’t be writing about vegan garlic butter at all if I thought it tasted rubbish, it just means that you shouldn’t expect it to win any competitions in a direct comparison.

The vegan butter I used in this recipe was the Pure dairy free soya spread – for no reason besides the fact that it was on offer at Asda when I did my most recent food shop. It works pretty well here because it’s close to tasteless, so is very much responsive to any flavours you throw at it – salt, garlic and herbs, in this case.

Side note: if you’re one of those (seemingly many) people that hate dill with a fiery passion and think that it should be banned, chuck a different herb in. There are plenty to choose from and all equally welcome next to green beans and butteryness, I’m sure.

Why roast the green beans? Because why not. I thoroughly enjoy roasting things that might normally be boiled or steamed. Roast everything, roast everything while there’s still time, it’ll be summer before we know it and all we’ll be able to eat are crunchy salads and frozen cocktails. God, I can’t wait. For now though, again with the roasting.

Serves 2 as a side

250g green beans

1/2 tsp garlic granules
big pinch salt
1.5 heaped tbsps soya spread
small handful parsley and dill, chopped finely

1. Heat the oven to Gas Mark 7 (conversions here) and rinse, top and tail your green beans.
2. Chuck the beans in a roasting dish, drizzle with just a tiny bit of olive oil and even tinier pinch of salt and roast for about 15-20 minutes.
3. While the beans roast, mix together the garlic granules, salt, vegan butter and chopped herbs in a fancy little bowl.
4. Serve the beans with the butter. Done.

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