Broad Beans

My first (properly) edible items to come from the allotment (we won't mention the peculiar frankenradishes from last year).

These broad beans were the first second plant I planted. (The first batch were lost to slugs whilst I was feeling all merry about being organic, so the second round were given a liberal dose of slug pellets and fared much better).

The plants themselves looked super puny especially when I glance over at my neighbour's plot whose broad bean plants seemed about ten times the size, but puny or not, they were soon covered in loads of black and white flowers which developed into lots of beans.

Broad beans are like catnip to black fly. The stems of the plants get sooooo infested with the little blighters that the whole plant seems to turn black. We tried squirting with soapy water, applying organic blackfly sprays, but the most affective method is to just plain scrape them off with your thumb and fingers. Ewwwwwwwwwwww.

Anyway, onto the beans. I love em.

I usually put them in a cold rice salad with lemon juice, olive oil and mint but was sent this fantastic recipe from the Able & Cole magazine which turns them into something truly outstanding:

Broad bean pod fritters with Broad bean and feta dip.

 

For the dip: Blanch the shelled beans in boiling water for one minute, then pop the green beans from their little white cases., blend them with crumbled feta, fresh mint and a glug of olive oil.

Voila.

Why I love it - It reminds me of those little green peppers you can have as tapas, liberally sprinkled with salt. Yum. I also love that you are eating the bean and the pod - which I usually have just discarded in the compost.