Because it’s Easter week, Steve has had a few days to work in the garden. I walked up there at the weekend and the size of the broad bean plants alarmed me.
Let me explain, last year we had a bumper broad bean crop. I struggle a bit with broad beans as a vegetable because they are fiddly to process. I like them double podded, and that takes time so I had a tendency to pick them and leave them in the fridge in favour of something easier. In the end, when we were sick of looking at them, there was no more room in the fridge and they were still coming. I had a freezer day. I froze them in gigantic bags. At Christmas, I took out a bag and thought I had used all of them. Last week, I found one of the previously mentioned gigantic bags full in the bottom of the freezer.
Rather alarmed that I would freeze this year’s before the last years were all eaten. I dug around my folder for recipes. I settled on the soup. The garden mint had had a bit of a growth spurt and would work well with them. Even half a bag would make soup for a week, meaning that they would be back in the freezer, albeit in a distinct form, fine until Steve got fed up of pots of soup for his lunch.
So for the other half of the bag, I decided on an experiment that I have been wanting to try for a while. I have a recipe for broad bean dip with middle eastern flavours that I rather like. The problem is that Steve is not a big dip fan. Every now and again he can be persuaded, but more often that not I am on my own. So a giant pot of dip would end up in the compost, wasted. I have been thinking how to dehydrate it so that I can make up small portions just for myself, or quickly if we decide to have crisps and a dip while we are watching a film.
The original recipe has lots of olive oil which will not dehydrate, so I made some alterations and played with possibilities until I came up with a winner. You can add olive oil, or Greek yoghurt at the end for an improved texture, but it tastes pretty good even without.
This week in part 1 is the soup recipe and a blow by blow account of the soup making process.
Next week, come back for the dip recipes, both the fresh version and the dehydrated.
The new crop will almost be ready to pick by the time you get the second recipe and you can try them even if you don’t have bags full lurking at the bottom of the freezer.
Take note, these recipes are both glut recipes. There are better things to do with the first vivid and vibrant pickings of spring.
This soup is very forgiving and so no need for weights or exact quantities
You will need.
1 onion
garlic to taste, optional
1 carrot
2 Sticks of celery
1 potato
500 ml to 1 litre of stock,
500 gm or more./ 1 pound double podded broad beans
Bunch of mint
Bunch of parsley
Knob of butter or extra olive oil.
Lemon juice, yoghurt, cream to taste
To get a beany tasting soup then one onion, one carrot and one medium potato needs about 500 gm or a pound of double podded beans. Don’t double pod, if the beans are tiny or you don’t mind the colour . The result will be less smooth, vibrant and fresh, but still comforting to take on a spring picnic.
I made mine in a pressure cooker, but there is no need it cooks happily on the stove.
Start with your base veg, one onion, one carrot and two sticks of celery if you have them. I didn’t have the celery, but I have some lovage in the garden, which I added with the mint towards the end, and it performed the same task.
Clean and chop the veg and fry in olive oil until all the vegetables are soft and the onion is translucent. Don’t let them colour as if will affect the final flavour.
Add the 500 ml stock and bring to the boil.
Peal and dice the potato and cook for 3 mins.
Add the beans, cook until the beans and potato are soft. Add the chopped herbs, salt and pepper and the butter or oil.
Liquidise, I used a hand blender, but a stand blender or a food processor are just as good.
Add extra stock if it’s too thick. The thickness will depend on how starchy your beans are,
Finish with yoghurt or cream and a squeeze of lemon to taste.
Eat hot or chill in the fridge for a summer soup.
Abigail Thorne 