Originally published 3/30/2015, Updated 9/17/2025
What is “Canabeys (Canabens) with Lekys”?
Canabeys/Canabens in Harleian MS. 279 refers to cooked beans, most often the broad/fava beans familiar to medieval cooks, prepared plainly in broth or enriched with dairy and sometimes served with bacon. Combined with lekys (leeks), you get a humble, comforting pottage that fits beautifully on a fifteenth-century table—and on ours.
🥕 Dietary badge: Vegetarian as written; easily vegan. Gluten-free.
Modern Recipe: Canabeys with Lekys (Vegetarian)
Ingredients (serves ~6–8)
- 1 lb dried beans (period: fava; modern stand-ins: Great Northern or cannellini)
- 6 cups vegetable stock (I use 50/50 homemade + low-sodium boxed)
- 2 large leeks, white & light green only, halved lengthwise and sliced (≈5 cups)
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced (a modern comfort swap for period savory)
- 1 tsp dried savory (or 1½ tsp fresh, minced) — optional, period-adjacent
- 2 tbsp olive oil (or 2 tbsp butter for non-vegan richness)
- 1 small bunch parsley, chopped
- 4–6 oz spinach or chard, chopped
- Salt to taste; optional few grinds black pepper
- Optional “bacon” note: 1–1½ cups vegetarian sausage crumbles or smoky sautéed mushrooms
Method
- Soak the beans: Cover with boiling water, soak 1 hour, drain. (If using dried favas with skins, see Cook’s Tip below.)
- Base aromatics: Warm oil/butter in a heavy pot. Add onion, leeks, pinch of salt; sweat until translucent. Stir in garlic and savory; cook 30 seconds.
- Simmer: Add beans and stock. Bring to a boil, then low simmer until beans are tender and beginning to break down (45–75 minutes depending on bean type). Salt to taste.
- Finish: Stir in parsley and greens; simmer 3–5 minutes. For a thicker pottage, mash some beans against the pot side or blitz very briefly.
- Optional richness: Fold in veggie sausage or smoky mushrooms just before serving.
Serving & Feast Notes
- Course placement: Works as an early pottage or a Lenten dish when made without dairy.
- Make-ahead: Improves overnight; reheat gently with a splash of stock.
- Texture control: Add stock for soupier bowls; mash more for a trencher-friendly spoonful.
👩🍳 Cook’s Tip: How to Use Dried Fava Beans
If you’d like to go period-style with favas, they need a little extra care:
- Soak overnight: Cover beans with plenty of water 8–12 hours; drain.
- Slip the skins: If your beans still have skins, blanch 1–2 minutes, then pop each bean from its shell. (Pre-peeled beans skip this step.)
- Cook gently: Simmer in fresh water or stock until soft (45–60 minutes), skimming foam.
- Texture tip: Favas are a bit starchier/earthier than white beans—mash a scoop for a silky pottage.
Source favas easily: peeled dried fava beans by the pound on Etsy 🫘.
Substitutions & Variations
- Beans: Period = fava. Modern stand-ins = cannellini/Great Northern (3 cans, rinsed, simmer ~20 minutes).
- Vegan: Use oil, vegetable stock; add a splash of almond milk to echo the almond-milk version noted in source (3).
- Camping-friendly: Pre-cook beans; pack sliced leeks and stock paste; reheat & thicken on site.
- Allergens: Legumes: for a non-bean variant, use hulled barley + extra leeks (not “canabens,” but serviceable for events).
Original Recipes (Harleian MS. 279)
2 For to make canabenez
Take white beans. Ley hem in watyr rennyng too days, and chaunge the watyr. Take hem dry, then dry hem hard uppon a ston or apron a este. Then shylle them in a mylle, and do away the holys; and cleve the benys iii or iiii at the most. And then take hem clene. And so may thou kepe hem as longe as thou wylte.
3 Canabens
Take kanbens. Wesch hem, and yf thu wilte stepe hem a lytyll, & make hem up with mylke of almondys. Put therto, sugure and salt. Out of lentyn, make hem up with cowe mylke, and put therto sygure and salt and buttyrr claryfyde.
4 Canabens with Bacon
Do suete brothe yn a potte. Wesche the canabens clene and do therto, and boyle yt up: put no other lykure therto. Loke they be salte, & serve hem. Take ribbys of bacon boylyd; do away the skyn and ley hem on a dysch, and serve hem forthe as ye serve venson with formente yn brothe.
Readable Paraphrase
- (2) Soak white beans in running water two days, changing water; dry; remove skins in a mill; split beans; store.
- (3) Cook beans and “make them up” with almond milk (Lent) or cow’s milk with sugar, salt, and clarified butter (non-Lent).
- (4) Cook beans in good broth, salt, and serve with boiled bacon ribs, plated as venison with frumenty.
Manuscript Note: “White beans” here does not mean modern navy/cannellini (New World). It refers to broad beans (favas) that have been soaked, de-hulled, and split—appearing pale or whitish. The directions describe making a storable split-bean, much like our split peas.
🌱 What Beans Did Medieval Cooks Use?
- Broad/Fava beans (Vicia faba) — the standard medieval “bean” in England; used in pottages, breads, stews.
- Chickpeas — known in Mediterranean/ Iberian sources; less common in English kitchens but present via trade.
- Lupins / black-eyed peas — seen in parts of southern Europe; rarely noted in English cookery.
- Not yet! Kidney, navy, pinto, and other Phaseolus beans are New World and arrive in Europe post-1500s.
Modern cooks often choose white beans for familiarity. If you want period-style favas, try peeled dried fava beans by the pound on Etsy.
Why This Matters Today
Canabeys with Lekys shows that medieval food wasn’t only spectacle; it was everyday sustenance. A simple bowl of beans and leeks crosses centuries—nourishing then and now—and still belongs beside roast meats and preserved fruits on an autumn table.
Related on Give it Forth
Sources
- C. B. Hieatt, An Ordinance of Pottage; An Edition of The Fifteenth Century Culinary Recipes in Yale University's MS Beinecke 163. Prospect Books, 1988.
- Harleian MS. 279 (c. 1430), entries on beans and leeks (nos. 2–4).
Labels
Browse by Dish Type: Pottage
Browse by Ingredient: Beans & Legumes, Leek, Herbs
Browse by Use: SCA Feast Planning, Period Techniques, Camping-Friendly, Dietary Suggestions 🥕
Browse by Era: Medieval, 15th Century, English
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