At the moment, I’m perpetually lugging hosepipes around but I don’t care. There’s been a strange yellow ball glowing in the sky for days now and it’s making everything grow and everyone happy. I heard on the radio that it’s a rare phenomenon called ‘summer’.
The broad bean harvest is now in full swing. It doesn’t feel like fifteen weeks since I wrote about sowing them but apparently it is. There are many reasons to love this bean, aside from the taste (certainly beats the rather insipid runner bean in my book). I admire its hardiness – it shrugged off that ludicrously long winter we just had and its broad oval leaves are always cheering sight on cold days. I appreciate that it crops early in the summer, after the comparative vegetable drought of late spring. I also respect its antiquity – it’s the only bean we had in Europe till Columbus reached the Americas. All that said, the thought of there being no prospect of baked beans in tomato sauce here till the sixteenth century does make me feel a bit peculiar.
The plant itself is beautiful too, in a stout, no-nonsense kind of way. It needs to be to hold all those heavy pods, which hang in clusters at regular intervals, like the storeys of a building. As with tomatoes, these are called trusses. Before that, however, come the flowers, which are fragrant and usually purply-black and white though there is a striking red-flowered variety.
When the first pods started to form at the bottom of the plant, I pinched out the tops, which focuses the plant’s energies on pod formation and ripening and also helps to control blackfly by denying them their favourite meal. This aphid loves to suck the sweet sap at the growing point. A bad infestation gums the surface of the plant up with their sticky excretions, stunts growth and deforms pods.
By the time the bean tops come off there are usually four or five trusses of flowers, which means plenty of beans in due course. Don’t throw decent tops away though, as they can be put to many uses in the kitchen. Fifteen Restaurant had the lot this year. They ended up in garden salads, inside ravioli, mixed with ricotta and smashed broad beans on bruschetta and even as a bed under baked bream.
When very small, pods can be eaten whole, either raw or lightly cooked. Any bigger and the beans must be shelled. It’s a job I enjoy, partly because the packaging is so nice to handle – the beans nestle in a delightful material that’s somewhere between foam and fur. It smells lovely and never fails to take me back to a childhood where I was press-ganged into service in the garden by cruel and authoritarian parents. Beans are usually green or white-green but look out for pink ones such as ‘Karmazyn’ and ‘Red Epicure’. All three together on a plate look marvellous.
By picking regularly you can catch all your beans at their sweet and tender best before they turn into starchy, mealy monsters. You can tell if a shelled bean is going over by knocking off its little stalk and looking at the colour of the scar underneath. If this hilum is turning black then the bean is now on the starchy side. Such beans are still edible, of course, but are better off individually peeled, and that way madness lies.
FAQs
The best broad bean salad
Roughly mash the blanched broad beans – you can do this with a food processor, chop them up with a knife or crush them in a pestle and mortar. Mix together with the small raw beans, the pecorino, lemon juice, oil and some of the mint, finely chopped.
What are some fun facts about broad beans? ›
It is one of the most popular cold season vegetables and has for 6000 years been appriciated for its abilities as a cover crop, combined with a high salt tolerance – making it a farmers' favorite. One cup (100g) of broad beans has 341 calories, 58.59 g of carbohydrates, 25 g of fibre, and 26.12g of protein.
What are broad beans good for? ›
Fava beans, or broad beans, are a type of bean that's eaten around the world. They're high in protein and other important nutrients. Eating fava beans can help with weight loss, aid in your body's immunity, and provide other health benefits.
What do broad beans symbolize? ›
Among the oldest domesticated legumes, they have also a cultural value linked to an ancient symbolic meaning. Generally associated with funerary rituals, broad beans have also a positive significance being “dead” seeds with a regenerative capacity.
Is Epsom salt good for broad beans? ›
Broad beans like their soil to be slightly acidic (pH 6.0 to 7.5). Prepare your soil a couple of weeks before planting seeds with plenty of organic matter and a good general fertiliser. Soak your seeds for at least 12 hours before planting, I add a pinch of Epsom Salts to the water to speed up germination.
What are broad beans called in America? ›
Dried fava beans are also known as field beans, horse beans or even tic beans (a name for the very smallest varieties). In US English however the name fava refers to fresh broad beans, infamously washed down with Italian wine.
Can you eat broad beans straight from the plant? ›
The beans (also known as fava beans, or fave or baccelli in Italian) are eaten raw, skins on, straight out of the pods. The slight bitterness of that outer layer of skin on the beans, a little more balanced in small, sweet, young specimens, is balanced by the sharp saltiness of the accompanying cheese and prosciutto.
Should you eat the skin of broad beans? ›
But bitter flavours are good for us: they aid digestion and add a depth of flavour to food. For this reason, I never peel broad beans (even later in summer, when they grow large and bitter); this also saves both unnecessary waste and preparation time.
What is beans in the Bible? ›
In Ezekiel 4:9, beans are mentioned with other articles as an unusual source of bread and in 2 Samuel 17:28 David receives from certain staunch friends of his at Mahanaim a present, which included "beans, and lentils, and parched pulse."
Can I eat broad beans raw? ›
When very small, pods can be eaten whole, either raw or lightly cooked. Any bigger and the beans must be shelled. It's a job I enjoy, partly because the packaging is so nice to handle – the beans nestle in a delightful material that's somewhere between foam and fur.
Broad bean, fava bean, faba bean, field bean, bell bean, English bean, horse bean, Windsor bean, pigeon bean and tick bean are all different names for the Vicia faba, a flowering plant and species belonging to the vetch and pea family Fabaceae.
Do broad beans need to be soaked before planting? ›
Before planting, soak your seeds in a glass of water overnight. The broad bean, much like regular beans and peas, has the ability to hold moisture that will aid its germination. A soaking will help increase its reserve as well as reveal any unviable seeds. Those that float to the surface should be discarded.
Do you peel broad beans before eating? ›
Broad beans can be eaten complete with their greeny-grey skins, but they're much nicer and prettier double podded to reveal the bright green jewels inside.
Do you need to soak fresh broad beans before cooking? ›
To prepare your fresh fava beans, you have to soak them to loosen the protective outer layer: pour 10 cups of water into a pot for every pound of beans, and let them soak overnight to loosen their outer layers. As an alternative, you can boil the beans for three minutes and then let them soak in hot water for one hour.
How do you take the bitterness out of broad beans? ›
Pick them before the 'scar' goes black (probably a bit late now). Failing that it helps to know that most of the bitterness is in the skins, so blanch or cook them depending on intended use, plunge into cold water, then skin. Use cold in salads, or return to the pan to finish off cooking if wanting them hot.
