Broad Beans with Garlic & Lemon Recipe

Recipe for Broad Beans with Garlic and Lemon submitted by Sunshineband

This week we had to unexpectedly harvest our broad beans to save them from being eaten by rats, and so we had lots of pods where the beans had not yet developed. Never eaten these before, so I was a bit tentative about this recipe. It turned out just fine and I can recommend it!

You could of course make it with all beans if you have no pods, or include French beans instead. There are two schools of thought as to whether to skin the beans themselves or not, but to me much of the unique flavour of broad beans is in the skin, so unless they are massive beasts, I leave the skin on …a matter of individual taste really.

Ingredients for Broad Beans with Garlic and Lemon:

• 2 large handfuls of podded beans, blanched for 3 minutes
• 2 large handfuls of young pods, trimmed and cut into 2 – 3 cm pieces and also blanched for 3 minutes. You can blanch both together.
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (I used extra virgin because there was some in the cupboard, but really you could use any oil that you like the taste of)
• 2 large cloves of garlic, skinned, sliced and then mashed with some salt to a paste
• Juice and zest of a lemon
• 1 level tablespoon dried thyme leaves, or twice the amount of fresh
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method for Broad Beans with Garlic and Lemon:

1. Rinse the blanched pods and beans in cold water and drain well. This will get rid of any scum that rose to the top when blanching, and put them in the serving bowl
2. Pour the olive oil into a small bowl with the lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper and whisk well to emulsify into a thickish dressing. Taste to check seasoning and adjust if needed. Stir in the thyme leaves
3. Pour the dressing over the beans and mix well
4. Add the lemon zest directly onto the beans and mix gently

Notes:

You can vary this by adding chopped parsley or summer savory in place of the thyme. This makes a tasty accompaniment to barbecued meats, and makes enough for three generous servings or four smaller ones.

Photographs:

Broad Beans with Garlic and Lemon Juice