Broad beans

Delia (may her name be ever praised) had a recipe but I am upstairs and the book is downstairs

I seem to remember something that she said about removing the skin of each bean, but she sure as hell didn't mean the pods with the sort of velvety interior!

We also grow broad beans on our allotment. They don't seem to suffer from being frozen. We remove the outside pod (and compost it), put the beans in boiling water for one minute and allow them to cool. Then we take the skin off each bean. This is fiddly and time consuming but worth it. It's a job we do on a sunny day when sitting in the garden with a cup of tea. We then freeze surplus beans in one portion sizes. When I take them out of the freezer I just put them in boiling water until they are hot.

I am happy with them as they are but our neighbour at the allotments fries his in bacon fat when he has his morning fry up.

Pod the beans, but if they are young, you do not need to pop them out of their skins. However, it is a good idea to do this with older beans. Sage is the herb to use with beans of any sort and gently cooking broad beans with diced bacon, chopped onion, a hint of garlic and chopped fresh sage in olive oil makes a delicious accompaniment.

That sounds lovely Absent

Also, older beans (which I too pop out of their skins) made lovely soup.

On the new cookery programme, 'The Box', where the amateur cooks are given an unseen selection of foods, one of the men was seen to be boiling the whole broad beans in their outer shell! They appeared later on the plate without inner or outer skins. Is this a recommended way of cooking them unknown to me?
I can't stand them, by the way, probably echos from past school dinners!

shysal I always loathed broad beans until a friend with an allotment brought me a bagful of freshly picked beans. I could have dined on the smell alone.

A Turkish recipe for a broad bean dip/paste - Fava

3 cups of fresh broad beans, 2 onions quartered, 1 carrot pealed and cut into chunks, I medium potato, pealed and cut into chunks, 6 whole garlic cloves. 1/2 cup of olive oil, 2 tspns of salt and the same with sugar - salt and pepper to taste, olive oil to drizzle, paprika and chopped fresh dill to garnish and lemon wedges to squeeze over.

Discard the skins (unless you want a lumpy puree). Put the beans in a pan with onions, potato, carrot, garlic, olive oil, salt and sugar. Add enough water to cover and simmer for 45 minutes until all the contents are mushy (suggest you used waxy potatoes) and the water gone. Remove from heat and allow to cool a little. blitz the mixture with a food processor or press through a sieve. The mixture should be a creamy, thick pouring consistency. Add a little more salt (if required) and black pepper.
Pour into a well oiled mould or bowl and chill overnight.

To serve - turn out fava onto a plate (might need to warm the mould in some boiling water (like jelly). Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with dill and paprika and serve with lemon sedges to squeeze over. Enjoy with freshly toasted bread or something similar.

The recipe sounds a bit odd but it really is very tasty

We too are growing broad beans for the first time - the crop is looking very positive but they are still quite small.

One of our favourite ways to serve them is to pod them and steam the beans till tender - skinned if tough, but I don't usually bother! Then I stir them into a light cheese sauce flavoured with tarragon and pepper.

We've been surprised, being the first time we've grown them, to see they grow standing up rather than hanging down like runner beans - do they flip over and hang as they get heavier?

ayse - I like the sound of that! Thanks.

I also grow broad beans and my favourite way to eat them, when they are tiny and can be eaten raw, is very simply with feta cheese, mint and olive oil.

We've grown them a few times, but I haven't done anything imaginative with them, just a quick boil.
I expect you can use them like lentils or chickpeas, mashed up in spicy recipes, I gave some to a friend and he made a curry with them. They're a good source of protein.

I love them so much, they all just get eaten young, lightly boiled with a small knob of butter.

If you are looking for recipes why not google 'broad beans recipes'. You will be inundated with ideas!

We love them too. One of my favourites, when we have a glut, is to make houmous with them, instead of with chickpeas. Delicious. You can eat the young leaves in salads, you can pick off the curly tips to add to salads too and that stops the blackfly getting into them.

But the real treat is the pods. Once you have taken out the beans, save the pods, although they don't last long so do it in the next day or so. Make sure the tough side strings are peeled off and cut the pods into diagonal strips. Dip them into milk, then dredge with seasoned flour and fry until golden brown. They make the most wonderful snack with dips, or can be used as a veg instead of chips in their own right. They are a real treat, but not one we have very often.