yes, I love broad beans or as some peopl eknow them , fava beans.

No I dont usually skin them , just sometimes when the outerskin is a bit tough and the beans are arge.

I do like broadbeans made into a pate, crushed with seasonings and spread onto toast , mint goes well as does a little chilli.

I also like them ( amd this is a bit of a 70's relic !!) cooked, coated with a buttery white sauce / bachamele  scattered with brown or white seasoned  bread crumbs and then grilled crisp , sometimes with just a touch of cheese in the breadcrumbs.

They are also goob in a curry .

Also I enjoy them with pasta and a simple buttery sauce.

Just podded normally....But my entire crop has failed this year, seemingly healthy plants, plenty of flowers but not one Pod...

We love them and dip them in Guérande salt for aperitif...we just pop them out of the pod which has been slit beforehand. Its rare that any are left to add to a meal.

Love love love broad beans, we grow our own so have loads growing.
We like them lightly boiled and I did serve them with Gammon steaks the other night i cooked them in reduced chick stock, white wine, garlic, spring onion,  bay leaf and parsley.
There is another recipe i would like to try which is Broad bean and mint soup.
Jamie (30minute meals) used them last night in a vegetable lasagne it looked gorgeous
So many things can be done with those yummy beans.

Oh and we just pod ours i did once pod and peel but to be honest i couldn't really see the point they taste fine (in our opinion) just podded.

Last edited by joobes (Mon 25 Jun 12 1:22pm)

mummza wrote:

wine~o wrote:

Just podded normally....But my entire crop has failed this year, seemingly healthy plants, plenty of flowers but not one Pod...

I wonder if that's due to the very changeable weather we have been having . We had that very cold spell , them that 2 week hot spell and then blustery rainy cold autumnal weather again , it's no wonder the plants are confused and the bees are in a muddle !

Also there are less bees around to polinate the crops .

When I was in the champagne region of France a coue of years ago , I noticed that in most fields of crops was an area of flowers , mostly sunflowers , this seemed to me to be a good idea as it would attract the bees and other wildlife  that would help with pollination .

Might be worth planting a little corner of flowers next to the beans next year .

Another thought ... Do you rotate where you plant things in your garden or do you plant the same things in the same area each year ?

Nice advice about the flowers, we now have 3 working bee hives in the field and have purposely planted lots of flowers especially one s that attract bees, we also have a row of sunflowers.

We dont tend to rotate as this year the bean area from last year is now an Asparagus bed (12ft x 12ft) so a nice size, this will now stay as an asparagus bed and we are growing the beans in another bed (same size) with other veggies, we have 10 beds at the moment all at 12ft x 12ft

You could well be right about the weather and plants not growing as well or as they should, the weather has been mighty crazy of late.

Last edited by joobes (Wed 27 Jun 12 6:17pm)