We have broad beans in the garden. Hooray!
I haven’t always been enamoured by broad beans. When I was a child I disliked them with zeal. They seemed too bitter and fibrous and my mum always seemed to serve them with liver! But things change, and my taste buds must have done as I love them now. I can’t say the same for liver though.
We went on holiday with my parents three years ago and had these little beauties as an appetiser at a little place, suspiciously called Cafe Londres. We have eaten them often since. If I have parsley then I add it. Our parsley in the garden has now gone to seed, so tonight’s version was un-embellished. It’s delicious either way.
I like my vinaigrette with a bit of zing so I always add more lemon than is traditional, but feel free to adjust to taste.
Shelled broad beans (fava beans, I understand, are the same thing)
1 clove of garlic, crushed
juice of ½ lemon
3-4 tablespoons of good extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Method
Make a vinaigrette by mixing together the crushed garlic, lemon juice, oil and salt and pepper and adjust to your taste (adding more oil or lemon to suit you).
Boil the broad beans for a few minutes until tender (timings will depend on the size of the bean). Drain well and run briefly under a cool tap until they are cool enough to handle and then pop the skin off the larger beans.
Add the broad beans to the vinaigrette and leave to stand for at least 30 minutes before enjoying at room temperature.
Now to the chicks part of the title. I was a little busy last week and this was the reason:
Our Black Rock, Daisy, went broody four weeks ago, so we let her sit on her eggs in a rabbit hutch. The first chick hatched on Monday and the eighth hatched on Friday. It was very exciting to go out and find yet another chick hatched under Daisy. I took each one off her after it was born and kept it warm in a box on the Aga, with a mop head as a temporary mummy and then when we were sure that no more were going to be hatched we reintroduced Daisy to her brood – and very happy about it all she is too.
I just hope they aren’t all cockerels.
Kath, we have a bag of frozen favas just waiting for me to do something with. I’ve been thinking potatoes and fava or short pasta with fava (cold, to be eaten at lunch) and your vinaigrette sound like the perfect way to bring it all together.
Tracy, that does sound perfect. Glad to have inspired you.
I want to come and sit in your garden and eat these beans in a pool of your nice dessing and watch chicks, Your girls muct be beside themselves with excitement. Broad beans are really nice with pecorino or parmesan , eaten straight from the pod with hunks of cheese.
Rachel, you would be very welcome indeed! The girls are loving every minute of it. The chicks are unbelievably cute and I do spend a little too much time watching them. Beans with pecorino sounds very good indeed. I will have to give that a go.
Aahh, 8 little chic-chic-chickens must be lovely running about the place.
I ate the broad beans I got in my veg box last night (with roasted chicken – sorry Daisy), they were just boiled – your recipe looks like a better use for them than mine.
Vegboxboy, don’t tell Daisy but we had these broad beans with chicken too. Although I did refrain from cooking chicken whilst the chicks were living on the Aga. I thought that would be a cruel step too far.
The broad beans do look tasty–but those chicks! I, too, would probably spend too much time watching them. Enjoy.
Thank you Michele, and it is exciting watching them grow. They seem different every day. They will be fully grown before we know it.
Homegrown broad beans. Now all you need with it is some crusty bread.
Mostly for you, but a little to throw at the chicks. Gosh I would love to have some chicks, I mean hens of my own – oneday.
Well Mangocheeks, I hope you get those hens.
Awe! Those chicks are just too cute!!! But I hate to say it, my taste buds never grew into broad beans! My grandfather used to grow them in his garden and when I was little I got told he grew them with my name in the middle so I had to eat them. I protested so much one came out my nose – there is just no getting to terms with a vegetable that comes out your nose!
Well Chele, I can quite understand – coming out of your nose, that sounds like something you may never get over!
The chickens look beautiful, I would never manage to stop holding them.
Sadly I can’t join you eating broad beans – I am still scarred from eating them as a child!
Hi Margaret, They are very, very cute. It’s amazing how many people are put off broad beans because they had to eat them when they were young. It really is only in the last few years that I have started enjoying them.
Oh how exciting having a clutch / brood / bunch (whatever the term is) of chicks – they are so cute. I’ll cross fingers that they are all hens.
You echo my sentiments on broad beans exactly. I hated them as a child and my mother was always trying to get me to eat them saying they were delicious. When I was 18 I was taken out for a posh meal to celebrate my birthday and was served a broad bean salad, which was delicious – they had taken the skins of the beans, what a revelation! I’m now happy to eat them without shelling (as long as they are not too old). We grow crimson flowered ones which I think are a bit more tender than others – none ready yet though. I shall try your salad when they are.
Choclette – I shall have to look out for crimson flowered broad beans, they are something I have never seen. It is funny how our tastes change and I agree, skinning a broad bean was a revelation to me as well. It’s something which never occurred to my mum, and we weren’t wasting a harvest, no matter how tough the beans had become.
I so love freshly 2 peeled broad beans aka fava beans!! You know that I made a fava bean spread a while ago, don’t you?
This fava beans dressing sounds so tasty! I will try it!
Your chicks are looking so cute!
Hi Sophie, yes I saw your delicious looking spread. The chicks are so much bigger already, it’s amazing how quick they grow.