I’ve been waiting for something proper to come out of the vegetable garden and it’s finally happened.
In fact lots has suddenly landed; new potatoes, radishes, salad leaves, baby carrots, rocket, lambs lettuce. But, most excitingly, broad beans. Those fat little pods bursting with their pale green lozenges are a real treat. Best eaten very small and very fresh (as the sugars start to turn to starch quite quickly) they require hardly any cooking – just a minute or so plunged into boiling water and then just as quickly plunged into cold to halt the cooking process and retain their bright colour. Once cooled the little green morsels are easily slipped from their leathery jackets and ready to eat. Like most from the bean family broad beans have a great affinity with pork. Here I have sliced some chorizo into thin strips, fried them till crisp and made a very simple dressing with the fat left in the pan and some good vinegar, dried chilli and lemon zest. The cooked beans are thrown in at the last minute and the whole thing is topped with a few fresh mint leaves.
Serves 2 as a side dish
Ingredients:
500g fresh broad beans in their pods (or a couple of big handfuls of frozen podded if you can’t get hold of fresh)
100g good quality cooking chorizo
A good glug of a very good quality vinegar (an aged sherry vinegar would be the most classic but I am obsessed with Willy’s Turmeric and Honey Apple Cider Vinegar at the moment and i thought the sweetness it gave worked really well)
A good glug of extra virgin olive oil
A little lemon zest
Dried chilli flakes (I like Aleppo from Spice Mountain)
Salt and pepper
A few small fresh mint leaves
Method:
Pod the broad beans and throw them into a pan of boiling water for around a minute
Drain and plunge into cold water and then peel off and discard the leathery jackets to reveal the bright green beans inside
Meanwhile slice the chorizo into very thin long strips and fry till lightly crisp
Remove the chorizo to a plate and make the dressing by simply splashing in the vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper
Taste and adjust as necessary – it should have a nice balance of sweetness, sourness and saltiness all brought together with the chorizo and olive oils
Arrange the broad beans and chorizo on a serving plate and splash over enough dressing to make it glisten
Scatter the dried chilli, grate the lemon zest, dot over the mint leaves and serve
Recipe and Images courtesy of Cook Folk
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