The Broad Bean Special

I tend to think of broad beans as a particularly chic ingredient - if you can assign such a quality to a vegetable. They’re less immediately accessible than their unabashedly sweet pea cousins, with a more nuanced balance of nuttiness and minerality thrown in too. They immediately signal spring on any plate they’re part of. And despite being generally inexpensive, it can take a bit of labour (double podding) to get them to their very best.

You don’t have to double pod the skins of broad beans of course, this is entirely optional - they provide fibre and removing them can be time-consuming. But it does slightly improve the eating experience. And while I generally hate wasting time in the kitchen, I actively find this task relaxing and mindful: piercing the thin skins and popping the slippery beans out to reveal their pleasing bright green hue. You can avoid it entirely in blended preparations though. Frozen broad beans are excellent too and can be used equally in the following recipes (apart from the grilled whole pods, of course).

Recipe
Makes 4 portions

180g bulgur wheat
500g podded broad beans (fresh or frozen)
1 clove garlic
Pinch ground cumin
1-2 tbsp tahini
1-2 lemons
Good pinch za’atar
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tbsp chopped mint
6 breakfast/ small radishes, finely sliced
1 small shallot, finely diced
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil

1. Wash the bulgur wheat, place in a large pan of cold, salted water. Bring to a simmer, cook until just tender and drain

2. Bring a large pan of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the broad beans to the pan. After 2-3 minute lift around half the bean from the water and refresh in ice water or cold running water to stop them cooking. Allow the remaining beans to continue cooking for another 2-3 mins and drain

3. Place the drained (more well-cooked beans) in a fast speed blender with the garlic, cumin, juice of half a lemon, dash olive oil and 1 tbsp water. Blend until completely smooth - if necessary add a splash more water, scrape down the sides of the blender and continue. Add 1 tbsp tahini and blend again until incorporated. If it’s still loose add another tbsp tahini and blend again. Season to taste

4. OPTIONAL STEP: Pop the remaining unblended broad beans from their inner pods

5. Place the bulgur wheat, radishes, shallot, mint, parsley, broad beans in a mixing bowl. Dress with olive oil, salt and lemon juice to taste

6. Spoon the pureed bean mixture onto a serving plate and top with the bulgur wheat mixture and za’atar

Waste not the pods, they’re delicious and majorly floral. The beans steam inside as they cook. This is best done with young or small, new season broad bean pods.