Broad beans are sleeping in a blankety bed*

Having friends with allotments has got to be the next best thing to having one yourself! At the moment there seems to be a glut of broad beans which I have been overjoyed to make use of.

Especially since I came across Sarah Raven's way of preparing them  (from her Garden Cookbook).

Blitz podded and jacketed broad beans with olive oil, lemon zest, mint and salt and pepper.

She suggests using the resulting puree on crostini with a sliver of pecorino, but I reckon Parma Ham would be fab too.

We ate ours as an accompaniment to some roast lamb and cous cous. One of the lovely things was that it didn't loose the bright green zingy colour at all. I would have taken a photo, but we were too greedy.

*Oh, takes me back to Harvest Festival...

Cauliflowers fluffy and cabbages green,
Strawberries sweeter than any I've seen
Beetroot purple and onions white,
All grow steadily day and night

The apples are ripe, the plums are red,
Broad beans are sleeping in a blankety bed

Blackberries juicy and rhubarb sour,
Marrows fattening hour by hour.
Gooseberries hairy and lettuces fat
Radishes round and runner beans flat

The apples are ripe, the plums are red,
Broad beans are sleeping in a blankety bed

Orangey carrots and turnips cream,
Reddening tomatoes that used to be green,
brown potatoes in little heaps,
Down in the darkness where the celery sleeps

The apples are ripe, the plums are red,
Broad beans are sleeping in a blankety bed

 

Comments

[raspberry]

I love broad beans, as do the boys, my darling husband, he picks them out!!!

[Dragonfly]

Yum! The last of my (small) crop are in the freezer now, but I may give this a try - it looks delish.

[hazeljoy]

i used to love harvest festival. we always took in the misshapen stuff we'd grown. i loved it right up until we had to sing to the old people at the care home. not that i didn't like the old people, nor that i didn't like singing, but these ones were always talking or falling asleep when we performed! and they hardly ever clapped (these things were important to us). i'd like to make that puree now.

[Thimbleina]

Sounds yummy, I think I might have overcooked my broad beans the other day, they looked a little grey, not what they were when they came out of their pods

[kristina]

Love the poem/song! I'm thinking maybe we should give up our allotment and just make more friends with allotments--the more I think about this the better it sounds--especially as we have loads of watering to do tonight! K x

[Di]

Aha - sounds lovely. Delia Smith has a similar recipe for crostini with broad bean puree, pear and pecorino drizzled in balsamic vinegar - it's delicious and I agree, the broad beans look even greener!!

[Gina]

Mmmm... broad bean puree on crostini sounds delicious.

[Kitty]

I'm the odd one out I guess - I don't like broad beans at all *blush* x

[commonplaceiris]

I haven't had broad beans in so long. I'm not sure if they have them over here in the US, haven't noticed them anyway.

Thanks for posting the song -- we sang it at first school and now I sing it to my daughter but I could only remember the first verse and chorus!

[Helen]

Mmmmm - I love the sound of those crostini. I could demolish a tray full of those in one sitting very easily! (and surely it's not a bad thing to gorge oneself on broad beans). I feel a broad bean and pecorino buying excursion coming on!

[Kathleen]

Oh WOW, I used to sing that song at primary school too. It evokes memories of sitting cross-legged on a highly polished parque floor. There were some great songs to be sung at harvest festival! I used to love
'Autumn days when grass is jewelled and the silk inside the chestnut shells...'
Your post made me smile with nostalgia!

[dottycookie]

My smaller small has had her first bean shelling experience this week and she noticed the blankety beds straightaway. She wouldn;t eat any of them, but she liked podding and peeling them!

[Tamara]

I love that poem, thank you for sharing it. Dont you love broad bean green.

[Louise]

Mmmmmm - yum! My MIL grows these especially for us and the kids help me do all the shelling - delish!!

[Lil' d]

I'm trying to persuade my husband to let me plant a few veggies in the strip along our driveway, but apparently he's partial to bug-eaten wilting rose bushes...

[Lucy :: attic24]

I really must get that Sarah Raven book, it's been on my amazon wishlist forever. I have her Great Veg Plot book (I had a share of an allotment last year with a friend) and love her style or writing, planting, cooking.
Mmmmmmm, beans. I used to spit at broad beans till I discovered you could take their jackets off and realised it's the skins that taste so bleugh.
Love the poem ALi, thanks for sharing
xx

[Lesley]

Ooh that's sounds yummy and so much better than the overboiled offerings that are usually served up where broad beans are concerned!

xxx

[Kim]

I love broad beans, love, love, love them!!! have you tried them warm with an olive oil and vinegar dressing with lots of fresh mint - delicious! Love too the harvest song, many a year I've sung along with that one
Kimx

[julie]

That looks and sounds so delicious - I love the way that the beans keep such a vibrant colour! The harvest song reminds me of when Amy was in playgroup - such a sweet song. By the way, I reckon that having a generous friend with an allottment is actually a little better than having one yourself - no slug killing, no back-breaking weeding and no lugging heavy watering cans around (but then I am a bit lazy!)

[ginny]

I love this song. My girls are always singing it. Now i can join in too as thanks to you i now have my own song sheet!
Great to have good friends with excess homegrown produce.