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Baby Broad Bean Stew

No matter what you think you know, there is always more to learn! This happened to me when a Greek friend responded to a photo of my Baby Broad Beans and said, I have a lovely recipe you can make with those...

This salad isn't what you might be expecting. As much as a love a classic Greek Salad of juicy tomatoes, refreshing cucumbers, bitter olives and salty feta, this salad take the aniseed notes of tarragon and Ouzo for this salad packed full of summery flavours and crunchy textures!

The recipe that followed was more a list of ingredients – a list I might add that seemed incredibly short and looking temptingly easy to make. Further to my #GIY adventures this year, everything I plant has not only sprouted, but taken on an almost Triffid-like quality leaving me petrified for the forthcoming Pea and Bean Armageddon I see looming in my near future!

For that reason, my friend, Nana Karaoulani’s suggestion that I make a traditional Greek dish, heretofore unheard of by me, as a way of making a genius inroad in my Broad Bean Crop, was well-timed and brilliant!

Baby Broad Beans growing happily in my garden…

I do seem to be on a bit of Greek flow at the moment with my food and flavours! It must be the time of year. It’s also one of my favourite cuisines, and there is a strong familial link with this cuisine too. I didn’t hesitate in heading out to my garden and picking off a colander of smaller pods and getting to work in the kitchen.

There is one tiny time consuming activity associated with this dish (aside from growing your own veg, of course!), and that is de-stringing the beans! Usually, when I eat Broad Beans, the labour comes from double-podding: taking the beans out of their furry jackets and removing the outer skin to reveal the tender, bright green flesh within. Now, if you had my childhood, every Broad Bean ever put in front of me was subjected to single podding only. My mother, obsessed with dietary fibre, made us eat the rubber outer skin. She is right of course, but when one becomes an adult, we can do things our way, and I say Double-Podding is worth every moment.

Anyway, with baby Broad Beans (or Fava Beans as you might know them to be), what is required is to top and tail and run a pairing knife down the side seam of each bean to remove the string, keeping the pod intact. Put each bean into a bowl of lemon water to prevent oxidisation and turning the pods black where you cut them. We cook the whole thing, double-pods and all, and let me tell you: this dish is delicious! Thank you Nana for the top tip!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
500 g baby broad beans
400 g tin chopped tomato
300 ml water
3 potatoes, scrubbed/peeled and cut into apx 3 cm pieces
Salt and Pepper
Handful of Feta cheese, crumbled

Method:

Heat a saute pan over a low heat, add oil and onions. Cook the onions until softened and brown. Add the baby broad beans and potatoes, tin of tomatoes and top with the water so that all has been covered.
Cook until all is tender and most of the liquid has cooked off. You are looking for a thick sauce-like texture. Season with salt and pepper.
Tip out into a serving bowl and top with crumbled feta.

I served this dish with a joint of slow cooked lamb and a side of braised fennel topped with crispy, garlicky breadcrumbs. Delicious, and so simple – a feast for the whole family!

Enjoy…

This salad isn’t what you might be expecting. As much as a love a classic Greek Salad of juicy tomatoes, refreshing cucumbers, bitter olives and salty feta, this salad take the aniseed notes of tarragon and Ouzo for this salad packed full of summery flavours and crunchy textures!

I’ve often said that my family tree looks like something out of the UN – a mongrel of a family with strands of DNA pulled from all over Europe smushed together under one roof. One such strand comes from Cyprus (the Greek bit, she whispers before running away), and I have very fond memories of visiting Granny Helen and Grandad George as a kid and being treated to the most amazing plates of food a child could hope to taste. It’s an appreciation of a regional cuisine I have kept with me all my life, and expanded to include all flavours of the Levant region.

I digress. In my organic veg box order from Dunworley Cottage recently were crisp as a pin sugar snap peas, peas and french beans and, joy of joys, a huge bunch of fresh tarragon – one of my favourite of all herbs. Tarragon, rich in aniseed flavours reminded me of a bottle of Ouzo I had in the drinks cabinet and half a portion of Feta in the fridge needing to be used up. Within moments, I rustled up this salad for lunch one hot day, eaten outside so maximise the feeling of having just left the sun lounger to step in for lunch in a beach-side taverna. One day…one day, we will travel again!

Now, before I begin, I want to address what may seem a controversial way of cooking the bulgar wheat. The traditional, and therefore time consuming, way to cook Bulgar is the same as Cous Cous: cover with water and allow it to soak up and bloom. This can take an hour and a half – and I always forget to do it! So, a much quicker method I use is to briefly rinse the bulgar under the tap, add to a saucepan, cover with 1 1/2 times the amount of water, set over a low heat with the lid on and when the liquid is all soaked up, the bulgar is cooked. Take off the heat, allow to steam under the lid for a while then fluff up with a fork. It takes about 10 minutes, and still has a lovely texture!

Ingredients:

2 shallots, halved and finely sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
50 ml Ouzo, or you could use Raki instead
50 g Smoked bacon – whatever you can get, this is for flavour, so smokey rashers, pancetta, or a small piece of smoked bacon loin.
250 g Bulgar wheat, rinsed
400 ml of vegetable stock
A handful each of fresh sugar snaps, french beans and peas
A handful of herbs: tarragon, chives and parsley
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, sea salt and black pepper
2 scallions, finely sliced
50 g Feta (I used Macroom Buffalo Feta)
4 crisp radishes, topped and tailed and finely sliced on the round
Spiced flaked Almonds (you can use normal flaked almonds too)

Method:

Into a sauce pan, add the Bulgar wheat and stock. Cook over a low-medium heat covered until the stock has been absorbed and the wheat is fluffy. Turn off heat, keep covered to steam.
While the Bulgar Wheat is cooking, prepare your peas and beans. Clean, tail or pod, and slice the green beans and sugar snaps into small pieces. Slice the radishes and scallions and chop up the herbs. Set aside ready for assembly. Get a serving bowl ready.
Heat a saute pan over a medium heat, add olive oil, bacon, shallots, fresh peas and French beans. Cook until the bacon is golden and shallots and green veg have slightly softened.
Add the garlic, turn up the heat a little and add the Ouzo. Cook the alcohol off. Turn the heat down, add the cooked Bulgar Wheat to this mix and stir.
Add in the fresh herbs and sliced sugar snaps and stir to mix through.
Transfer all into a serving bowl. Pour a generous glug of Extra Virgin Olive Oil over everything, season with sea salt and black pepper and toss to combine everything together.
Sprinkle over the sliced scallions and spiced almonds, crumble over the feta and top everything with colourful slices of crisp radish.

Serve outside in the blazing sun with a crisp white wine. Enjoy…

Baby Broad Bean Stew

Baby Broad Bean Stew

Greek-ish Salad

Kate Ryan