Backyard broad beans & how to eat them

I began dabbling in gardening in the most unlikely of places – a rooftop overlooking the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. It got a good bit of sun and we had a wide terrace, so we decided to experiment with some tomato seeds in little terracotta pots that matched the rooftops. It was a step up from the previous pots of sage, thyme and basil that I’d kept on window ledges of tiny apartments. Like magic, they sprouted and grew. We moved them into bigger pots and they grew bigger still. Eventually we got tomatoes on them and enjoyed them, ripe and red, still warm from the sun, and I still marvel at the simplicity of growing your own vegetables even on a balcony.

This past winter we were lucky enough to move to a new house with a small raised garden bed with mint, parsley and rosemary bushes fighting for space on one end. With a bigger space, we got a little more adventurous and although I wouldn’t exactly say we’re green thumbs – amateur gardeners who learn along the way, at best – we bought a good book with good advice to follow and dove head first into the dizzying selection of heirloom seeds at The Diggers Club. In went some cavolo nero seeds, radicchio, strawberry seedlings and, for the spring, some snow peas and broad beans. When the broad beans have all been harvested we’ll pull them out and plant more tomatoes where they were – they leave the soil full of nitrogen, a great environment for growing tomatoes. How clever.

Broad beans are a favourite vegetable of ours. I was introduced to them, and my favourite way of eating them, when I moved to Tuscany: a basket of broad beans, still in their furry pods, some semi-aged pecorino cheese and silky slices of salty prosciutto toscano — lunch sorted. The beans (also known as fava beans, or fave or baccelli in Italian) are eaten raw, skins on, straight out of the pods. The slight bitterness of that outer layer of skin on the beans, a little more balanced in small, sweet, young specimens, is balanced by the sharp saltiness of the accompanying cheese and prosciutto. It’s a perfect match and on a warm spring evening, there’s nothing I’d rather have on the table than this.

We found here in Australia that broad beans sold at the markets were always quite large, with thick, inedible skins that made the arduous task of double-podding a must (I do like this Wall Street Journal article by Nancy Harmon Jenkins on fava beans and how Americans seem to have forgotten them). And eating them raw was no longer pleasurable as they were hard and mouth-puckeringly bitter. Finding those soft, sweet, young beans that you could just eat one by one, straight out of the pod, was the main inspiration in growing them ourselves and I found they were astonishingly easy to grow – as easy as popping the seed into the soil and just watching, waiting and watering.

The little buds grow tall very quickly, then pretty, folded black and white flowers grow and then shrivel, with the pods taking their place. They’re picked when still slender enough that the beans are still young and green – about the width of your middle finger. It’s hard not to just rip them open and eat them then and there, picked right off the plant. Especially with a curious baby around. She’s already discovered the delicious, bitter gems encased inside the pods and eagerly puts them in her mouth. Just like that, a handful of them have disappeared before we’ve even gone back inside the kitchen.

With the beans that are left from our little spring harvest I’m also making a Roman vignarola, pretty much just like this lovely one that Rachel makes, only Marco insists on putting pancetta in it too. It’s a celebration of Italy’s best spring vegetables, a medley of artichokes, peas, broad beans and spring onions, stewed together with some white wine. With these freshly picked, little, green backyard beans, I won’t be double-peeling. They just go straight in – one for me and one for the pot.

Comments

  1. Rosa says:

    A beautiful garden and lovely broad beans!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

  2. My grandparents had a huge vegetable garden as I grew up and broad beans were my favourite thing to go and pick straight off the plant. Your post brought back lovely memories. I hadn’t heard of double peeling before – I guess ours were always small enough to eat without it.

    • Emiko says:

      Oh that’s so lovely Emma – great memories to have, I’m hoping my daughter will have memories like this too! The double peeling, it seems, is a thing found mostly in the US and now also in Australia, but Europe and the rest of the world presumably know there’s no need to when they’re grown/picked properly!

    • Samantha says:

      Me, too … I would help my grandmother to pick them and I would always eat them raw … so lovely. The suggestion here to have them with cheese and prosciutto on toast is for tomorrow 🌞

  3. Elizabeth says:

    The double peeling is tedious but worth it if you haven’t got access to home grown baby broad beans.

  4. I do so much love that picture of Mariù’s little hands and the two fingers holding a bean… so so beautiful… I love broad beans as well, I love them raw but also find it very hard to find them in the first place and then find them when they are not too large – like you say – with touch pods.
    I love a nice toasted bread, spread with ricotta, raw broad beans, some prosciutto if I have some but it’s not absolutely needed, a sprinkle of olive oil and some shavings of parmesan. Oh simply heavenly!

  5. Heaven. I like them simply dipped in salt, when they are tender and young, and yes, they make the perfect dinner with some pecorino and prosciutto. I love them also stewed with pancetta and cubes of pecorino added at the very end, as to melt them just a little bit.
    So proud of Mariù!

  6. Zita says:

    One day if we live in a house with a garden I’ll definitely grow broad beans. And that recipe you linked in… oh my, heavenly! I need to try it! Maybe you’ll cook it for me?! 🙂

  7. Amy says:

    This is extremely helpful! I am growing broad beans for the first time, and they are producing beautiful pods. I had absolutely no idea when to pick them, how to prepare them or if they could be safely eaten raw.
    Thank-you for your very clear descriptions.

  8. Kathleen james says:

    I’m very late to your blog ,but here I am in 2017 .ive always loved broad beans.
    My father grew them commercially,on a small scale ,about an acre for a small country town and surrounds .
    I’m in my mid 70s ,and have never double peeled the bean ,if the been became tough ( usually last of the picking) I simmer in a clove of garlic,lightly salted.
    Drain the beans ,reserving the vegetable water.
    Make a sauce by lightly brown fatty bacon and finely chopped onion in a knob of butter, add plain flour to the pan ,cook ,add vegetable water and milk ( or cream ) until you have a nice consistency ,not too thick ,not too runny ,add a grate of nutmeg ,pepper and salt ,enjoy.
    I hope the years have not made my vontribution too late.

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