Broad beans are the thing in the garden at the moment, big clumps of them, tall and round-leafed, stand proudly in almost every plot. And my plot is no exception. Lize and I put some in at the start of winter and they’ve just started cropping. We picked the first beans on Friday and I was determined to show them off at a pot luck Sunday lunch. Down at the garden on Sunday morning, harvesting more beans I got chatting to Gavin and Amanda about cooking them. They brought up the slightly frustrating element of broad bean cookery, the fact that once you’re done shelling them and skinning them, your huge pile of beans becomes a surprisingly small handful of actual edible beans.
I got a reasonable haul from my plot but as I was making a dish to serve about 10 people, I decided to find a way to stretch my beans as far as possible. Combining them with a pasta salad seemed the obvious choice and I decided to avoid the broad bean law of diminishing returns by making sure I used as much of the bean as possible. This meant combining several recipes and cooking methods, a risky strategy for a Sunday show off luncheon but I think it paid off in the end.
My recipe ended up being a combination/bastardisation of a few different recipes and cooking suggestions. I served it on Sunday with the wonderfully wanky title (thanks Rylee!), Pasta with Broad Beans Three Ways. This didn’t sit quite right with me though (too Masterchef) so I decided to ratchet up the wank factor and rename it something a little more Frenchy and chic. And so, ladies and gentleman, without further ado, I give you....
Broad Bean Ménage a Trois
Basically everything gets made separately then combined with the cooked pasta at the end. It’s a little time consuming (took me about an hour and a half) perfect for Sunday lunch but maybe not for Monday night dinner. The three different broad bean approaches are outlined below.
Part 1) Getting Smashed
This part of the recipe uses the larger beans (which need to be removed from their tough outer shells) in a bastardisation of the Moroccan Broad Bean Dip from Stephanie. Because the beans are cooked for longer than usual, the skin softens and can be left on, which means more bean for your buck.
I cooked the shelled beans in salted boiling water for 15 minutes, strained them (reserved the cooking water) and chucked them in mortar and pestle with lemon juice, a couple of cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, a little olive oil and a splash or two of the cooking water. Then I simply bashed them up until I had a chunky paste. I tasted it to check the seasoning, as luck would have it, mine turned out to be bang on... but you could always adjust as required.
Part 2) In the Raw
Jamie Oliver mentions in Jamie at Home that you can eat baby broad beans raw AND that the shoots are great in salads. I took him up on this and picked a bunch of bean tips, washed them and chopped them up with some sorrel. I also put aside the smaller sized beans when I was shelling them for the smash (above) and tossed these through the salad too.
Part 3) Long and Slow
This part formed the bulk of the beans in my salad. It uses the smaller beans and is a variation on Stephanie’s Andalucían recipe. Stephanie suggests only using beans less than 12cms – because of their smaller size (and the slow cooking process) they can be eaten pod and all, whoo!
So, I topped and tailed the broad beans (washed first) then cut them into segments, trying my best to cut between the individual beans not through them. If I’d had more garlic I would have cooked a little in oil first then added my beans to the fry pan. As it was I turned the beans in olive oil a couple of time before adding lemon juice, a dash of water, salt, pepper, bay and thyme (a dash of white wine and some lemon peel would also go nicely). When the whole thing began to simmer I tipped it into an oven proof dish popped on the lid and put it in the oven at 180 degrees C to cook slowly for an hour.
Bits on the Side
While my slow beans were cooking I put the fry pan back to use, first to cook up a batch of caramelised red onions (cook covered with a sprig of rosemary, a bay leaf and lots of oil for 15 mins, stirring often then uncover and cook further until they taste just right). When the onions were done I toasted a bunch of pine nuts, flaked almonds would also be good. I also shaved a whole lot of good quality parmesan to mix through.
I boiled the pasta (I used fancy fusilli), strained it, then chucked it back in the pot with the rest of the cooking water from the smashed beans. I let it sit for a few minute then strained off the excess water.
The Final Toss
Once the pasta has soaked in the cooking water, it'd be good to add the bean smash to mix it through well. I didn’t this time, in fact I forgot to mix in the smashed beans all together and only remembered to do so after a couple of bland-ish mouthfuls at the table. Could have been a disaster! Take home message - don't, whatever you do, forget the smashed beans.
Anyway, once the slow beans are done, all that remains is to assemble the salad. Toss everything together and garnish with a few extra shaves of Parmesan, a dash of lemon juice and olive oil if necessary, and a good sprinkle of pine nuts. Serve up and enjoy with good mates and good wine.
Call me old fashioned but I love cut flowers. I am a compulsive plucker, and I almost always have a vase, jar or jug of something somewhere around the house. With the arrival of spring, all sorts of flowering lovelies have exploded down at the garden just begging to be picked and put into vases. And, despite a lack of planning I've even got a few cute things flowering in the pots out the back. 
