Broad beans have arrived at my local market - Bliss! My favourite veggie and I can happily munch through a full carrier bag raw! However any suggestions/recipes to spice them up a bit?

Hello Winton

You know, this is one vegetable I have never been tempted to buy yet, after over 40 years in UK, they look so Ugly! You will have to tell me a few ways of eating them. I have never been tempted to grow them either, though I have driven past huge fields full of them. It is strange, I eat all vegetables, but these have just passed me by!

Mamta

Ohh Mamta! You are missing such a treat. You could make a soup or just boil the beans and serve with butter and lemon juice.

If you can't face the pods, frozen Soya Beans (available at Sainsburys) come a close second and are also delicious!

I'm no expert on cooking the Broad Beans, as I bring them home and have eaten them raw before they meet the pot!

I've got about 5 plants growing in growbags.. by now I should have had some beans on them but the slugs have eaten every single flower !!!!.... last night I've put them some beer out...when I check I'm hoping its cured the problem !...

Steve

Thank you for that Winton. Your post has given me an idea; you say they taste like, but better, than Soya beans. In USA, they sell fresh Soya beans and they are superb boiled/roasted/BBQ'd, eaten with lemon juice and alt and pepper. if your broad beans are better than Soya beans, then they go on my shopping list for next trip to the Sainsbury's.

Thank you for that :-), now I will be a broad bean queen!

You have, indeed, missed a treat. In the US, broad beans are usually called Fava beans. They are a Middle Eastern treat, and cooked in a dish (the National dish of Egypt, no less) as Ful medames, each Middle Eastern country seems to have their own recipe.

Ful medames is a great snack meal; I am lucky to have a local supermarket which has about six different recipes in tins, I'm working my way through them. The dish is slightly spicy (mostly cumin) and similar to India flavours.

Also great cold in salads.

Go for it Mamta! I'm sure when you get your hands on some broad beans you can conjure up a recipe for us - I'd be thinking tomato/chilli/garlic/spice. The beans are not cheap at the supermarket but good deals at local markets.

Steve - sorry about your infestation - is it not time we got our own back? Slugs marinated in beer overnight, then fried in butter with garlic, lemon juice and S/P? LOL!

Back to the Broad Beans - any ideas for the pods? Seems a shame to just put them out for compost.

I have some dried broadbeans in the cupboard but they are ear marked for a specific recipe...

Steve

I didn't think pods were any good, except as fodder!

LOL! Don't have a cow, donkey or goat so pods will continue for compost!

Just had broad beans with Japanese wasabi horseradish sauce - delicious!