Crispy lemon potatoes, creamy beans, one pan

Method

1. Give the potatoes a head start

   Put a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. When it looks loose and shimmers, add the potatoes cut-side down. Leave them alone for five minutes. If you stir immediately, they skate around in oil and never form the crust you are waiting for.

   Turn them once the undersides are properly brown, not just beige. Add the rosemary, salt and pepper, then cook for another five minutes. The centres will not be tender yet. That is fine.

2. Steam the centres tender

   Pour in the water and cover the skillet. Cook for eight minutes, until a knife slips into the thickest potato with a little resistance. You want the water gone by this point. If there is a puddle, take off the lid and let it boil away before moving on.

   This covered stage is the useful compromise: dry heat gives you the crust, a small amount of steam cooks the middle. Boil the potatoes first and you lose the surface that makes the dish worth eating.

3. Add garlic and beans late

   Push the potatoes to one side and add the sliced garlic to the bare patch of pan. Give it thirty seconds in the oil, then tip in the drained beans. Toss everything together and cook uncovered for three minutes.

   Beans do not need much cooking. They need warming and a chance to pick up the rosemary oil. Leave them in the pan for fifteen minutes and the skins split, the middles break down, and you have made a thick potato purée by accident.

4. Fold in the greens

   Add the kale in two handfuls, turning it through the hot potatoes and beans as it collapses. Keep the pan uncovered. Four minutes is enough for tender leaves with a little bite; young spinach needs less than two. If the leaves sit on top in a dry pile, wait ten seconds and fold again rather than adding water.

   When the greens are glossy and the potatoes are still showing their browned faces, squeeze over half the lemon juice and add the zest. The pan should smell sharp and savoury, not like boiled cabbage.

   

5. Taste it at the table

   Take the skillet off the heat and taste one potato with a bean. Add the remaining lemon juice if the beans taste heavy, then more salt if the lemon has made the seasoning seem thin. Serve straight from the skillet while the edges are still crisp.

   A final drizzle of olive oil is good. More rosemary is not. It turns bitter as it sits on the hot food, and the dried herb has already done its job.