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There's truly nothing I love more than experimenting with food. Trying out a new recipe is always the highlight of my week, and it's often the most unexpected ones that turn out the best.

As I'm sure is the case with most people, carbonara is a regular feature in my weekly meal rotation. The silky, savoury sauce is hard to beat, and it's difficult to believe it's made with so few ingredients. But this week I dared to ask the question - what would happen if you ditched the pasta in carbonara for an unusual and more nutrient-dense alternative?

I was inspired after coming across a recipe on Instagram by cooking enthusiast Finley Richards. Instead of spaghetti, he'd used butterbeans - and immediately I was intrigued.

As an ex-vegan, I still have a soft spot for pulses, especially butterbeans. Their texture lends itself perfectly to so many saucy dishes, and they're a great source of fibre, so we should all be eating more of them.

In his video, which has racked up over 250k views, he said: "My favourite Italian chef Massimo Bottura said: "No cream in carbonara." And luckily for him there's no cream in this recipe. But there's also no pasta.

"This is my car-bean-ara, a dish that has all the principles of the classic carbonara, except replaces pasta for butterbeans."

It's far from traditional, but it ended up being so delicious and kept me full for hours and hours. The specifics of the recipe weren't shared, so here is my take on it.

Ingredients

• One tin or jar of butterbeans
• 250g bacon lardons or giancale if you can get it
• One egg and two yolks
• Tbsp black peppercorns
• 50g-80g pecorino or parmesan

Method

First, cook the bacon pieces in a little oil until they're nice and crispy, then set aside until later. Reserve the oil in a bowl - you'll need this to help make the silky sauce.

Then, take the beans and drain them, but keep the leftover water from the jar or tin. Pour a little water into the jar or tin and shake it around, adding it to the leftovers. This will replicate the starchy pasta water you'd normally use in a carbonara to bind everything together.

Crack the eggs and yolks into a large bowl and grate in your parmesan. Give it a good mix until combined, then add more parmesan if it's looking too thin. Add the oil from the bacon and mix again.

Meanwhile, add the peppercorns to a dry, clean pan and toast them for a couple of minutes before grinding them into a fine powder. Add the butterbeans to a pan along with a few tablespoons of the leftover water mix and cook on low.

Little by little, add the egg and cheese mix, stirring constantly to make sure everything is coated. You don't want to overcook as this will end up scrambling the eggs, so take it off the heat if it's looking too warm.

Once the sauce is lovely and silky, add the black pepper and some of the bacon. Divide into bowl and top with the rest of the bacon, and serve with crusty bread for scooping it all up.