Favourite beans

I love broad beans; I love them when they are young and bright green, I love them when they are old and a bit leathery and chewy. I love them on their own, just boiled in a little salted water, or served with white sauce as we always had when we were children, or in mayonnaise, or plunged into cold water and mixed into a salad… Hot or cold, I love broad beans.

Strangely, I have never used them in a recipe; I guess because the season is short and I just like to eat them as they are and we never have so many that we want a change… but anyway, Riverford Organics not only delivers delicious veg but also includes recipes, an in this weeks’ box there was one for broad bean bruschetta – crushed beans served on toasted bread rubbed with garlic. It was so simple, and absolutely delicious; the genius who created this recipe was inspired to think that lemon zest would be a perfect match… and it really is! There is the juice of the lemon, but the zest is what sings out! The recipe said it might be necessary to skin the actual beans; well I like the skins so I didn’t, but I actually think it would have been better. I made the dish and we ate it straight away; I had some a little later and the resting had improved the flavour, so I think next time I will make it in advance and leave it to ‘mature’. It was a little dry so I added some mayonnaise, but that was just to my taste.

Here is a link to the recipe – and all the other delicious things Riverford suggests:

http://www.riverford.co.uk/nst/recipes/view/recipe/crushed-broad-beans