Tag Archives: broad beans

Variety is a spice of life…

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Parsnips "Duchess" interplanted with onions on July 17, 2012

Every year I try to grow one or two cultivars that are new to me, that I have never grown before. Last year these were parsnips and a single courgette plant, this year they are broad beans and turnips.

Parsnips were a great success, so this year I interplanted them between onions. Onions were planted in November and then parsnips sown in between the onion rows in spring. As parsnips take a long time to germinate, at least I know where they are supposed to come up one day. When the onions are harvested, parsnips will have the space to grow – biodynamic approach is brilliant!

Courgette "Defender F1" in July 2012

Little baby courgettes last year from my single courgette plant were so good, that this year I have more of them. I bought the seeds of courgette Defender F1 (a long green type) and also squash Sunburst (a yellow round type) and grown them all from seed myself. Courgette plants look much more ornamental in my “forest garden” border in comparison to squash plants, but the slugs love courgette plants much much more than squashes, so more lines of defence are needed to protect courgettes. This year I planted the seedlings outside through pot noodles pots (with bottoms cut out first) and then put some sharp gravel stones around and then Slug Bait pellets (suitable for organic gardening). Slug pellets need to be replaced regularly especially in this rainy weather that we are having this summer.

Young broad beans with potatoes, bacon and mint

One new crop for me this year has been broad beans which I sowed direct in November. They came up beautifully and were a joy to look at in late winter and early spring. I had to cover them with fleece a few times when frosts were forecasted. We tried the very young broad beans with pods in stir fries, and then larger ones, podded, in pies, stews and by themselves with sauce or butter. Surprisingly I liked their taste, so I will plant some more this coming autumn. The variety I’ve been growing is Aquadulce Claudia, very good for autumn sowing. They did get aphid infestation at the end of June, so pinching the tops off helped a bit. Then they got bean rust, so on July 15th I cleared them and now have some space to fill.

Turnips "Snowball" harvested on July 15, 2012

Another new vegetable I’ve been growing this year is a turnip. I bought seeds of the Snowball variety and sown them indoors in March. I kept the seedlings in a mini greenhouse in the conservatory, but we had a few weeks of sunny weather then, so they got scorched a few times and didn’t survive in the end. So I had to sow another batch on April 18th and then the seedlings were planted outside on May 20th. I also interplanted them between the rows of onions and they have been doing great so far. The turnips themselves look beautiful, very white and round. We tried them in a chicken and potato/turnip pies (pasty type ones), and they tasted lovely. As I thought they might taste a bit bitter, I made the filling with half young Charlotte potatoes (also from our garden) and half turnips, but as the turnips were so young, they were not bitter at all, so I could have done the pasties with just turnips!

Chicken, potato and turnip pasties

Now the challenge is to find more recipes of what to do with turnips apart from grating them raw into salads, and adding them to pies! So if you know a great turnip recipe, please share it in the Comments below!

Seasonal recipes – broad beans

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Broad Bean and Feta Salad (from Abel and Cole)

Broad beans are delicious combined with these flavours. Other good additions would be roast peppers. Serves 2–3.

  • 225 g / 1/2 lb fresh broad beans, shelled weight
  • 60 g / 2 oz Feta cheese, cubed
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Put the beans in boiling water for 3–4 minutes until tender. Drain well and put into a bowl. Mix together the oil, vinegar and mint and stir into the hot beans. When the beans have cooled to room temperature, mix in the cubed Feta and serve.

 

Broad Beans with Onions and Bacon (from Abel and Cole)

Serves 2 as a side dish.

  • 250 g broad beans, shelled
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 175 ml chicken stock
  • 125 g smoked bacon, thinly sliced
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • salt and pepper to taste

Cook the broad beans in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain and cool. Peel and discard the outer skins. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium–high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the broad beans and bacon and sauté for a further 5 minutes. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the broad beans are tender. Add lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 

Broad Bean Pod Fritters (from Abel and Cole)

Did you know that you can cook (and eat) those furry little sleeping bag covers for your broad beans? A chef tipped us off on this one. They’re delicious – just as anything that is fried and dusted with salt is. Your compost bin may start feeling deprived, though.

  • 10-12 broad bean pods
  • 2 mugs of flour
  • 1 mug of milk
  • A good pinch of sea salt, pepper and chilli powder (or any other punchy spice)
  • Sunflower oil, for frying

Tear the broad bean pods along their seam. Trim any string sides off. Cut each pod half into 3-4cm pieces – if you do this at a diagonally angle it looks fancier. Place in a large shallow bowl or on a plate. Season it well. Place the milk in a separate bowl, much the same sizes.

Dredge the trimmed pods through the flour. Dip in the milk. Dredge through the flour again. You can deep or shallow fry them. Do this until golden. Let them cool slightly. You can eat them like this, but if you want them extra crispy, give them one more dip in the hot oil. They’re extra moreish this way. Dust with salt and serve. Delicious on their own. Also very yummy with a dip like our sticky Red Chilli Jam.

 

Broad Bean Salad with Bacon (from “Fork to Fork” by Monty & Sarah Don)

Serves 6.

For this recipe, use the very young tender beans, while their skins are still soft – 1.5kg (3lb5oz) of beans in pods, when shelled, yields about 300g (10 1/2oz). This is good eaten warm with a few shavings of Parmesan.

  • 100g (4oz) very finely sliced dry-cured streaky bacon
  • Olive oil for frying
  • 275g (10oz) shelled broad beans
  • Bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Lemon quarters

For the dressing:

  • 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • Sea salt and pepper

Cut the bacon into strips and fry in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes until it is slightly crisp. Cook the beans in boiling water for 4 minutes – less if they are very tiny. Drain the beans and dress them immediately with the olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Add the bacon and parsley, and serve while still warm with shavings of Parmesan and quartered lemon. (Shave the Parmesan with a potato peeler).

 

Broad Bean Risotto (from “The Garden to Kitchen Expert by Judith Wills & Dr D. G. Hessayon)

You can serve this with grilled or baked chicken breast – or even add chopped cooked chicken to the risotto with the beans. Serves 4.

  • 300g (11oz) broad beans
  • 1 onion
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 300g (11oz) risotto rice
  • 750ml (1 ¼ pints) hot vegetable stock
  • 1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
  • 1 tbsp fresh chopped mint
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • 50g (2oz) grated Parmesan

Boil or steam beans. Sweat finely chopped onion in the oil in a large pan over low heat for 5 minutes to soften but not colour, adding chopped garlic for the last minute.

Stir in rice until coated with oil. Stir a large ladle (about 75ml / 2 ½ fl. oz) of the hot stock into the risotto and continue stirring until stock has been absorbed by rice. Repeat until all stock is used up or rice is cooked through and creamy.

Stir in beans, parsley, mint, lemon juice and half the cheese. Serve sprinkled with remaining cheese.

Beans glorious beans!

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My first ever harvest of broad beans!

Yesterday I had my first ever harvest of broad beans. Though I got them quite young, all the pods are under 10 cm long. They are to be cooked and eaten whole, probably with some fried bacon bits and spring onions. Or maybe a quick and simple stir-fry is in order? It has been so hot for a week or so here (up to 27 C), that I don’t really feel like cooking at all, let alone cooking something that requires a long time in the hot kitchen!

I also planted some runner beans last week (on May 25th to be precise). Two varieties “Enorma” and “Moonlight” were planted in a trench along the fence. The trench was filled with some food waste, then topped with vegetable compost from a bag and then the beans were planted. They should look pretty together, I think, as Enorma flowers with red flowers and Moonlight with white. I didn’t mix them together though, half a row was planted with Enorma and the rest with Moonlight. Now I am thinking maybe I should have interplanted them for a better effect…

Milla's French beans ready to go outside

This week it’s the turn of dwarf French beans to go in. Just a couple of rows, but it already seems like an awful lot of beans, especially if we take into account the fact that there are no big bean fans in the family! Oh well, we like watching them grow, they have pretty flowers and our little daughter enjoys shelling the pods in autumn – there you go, three good reasons to grow them then!