Broad Beans with Mint
I love recipes but very rarely stick to the instructions - I like to adapt a dish depending on my mood and what I can find in my cupboards.
This week I made a spicy broad bean and mint salad based on a moroccan recipe, but altered quite a bit to fit my ingredients! Broad beans are delicious and are in season at the moment, so I really enjoyed shelling and peeling the fresh beans before cooking them - the smell is mouth watering.
After shelling the beans I boiled them for a couple of minutes and then dropped them in a cold water bath to keep them crisp and fresh. Then I fried half an onion with garlic and chili before adding a handful of pine nuts and spices - I used cumin, coriander and paprika with a pinch of salt and pepper. When the onions are soft and the pine nuts crunchy and brown I added the beans and fresh mint leaves for a couple of minutes to warm up and absorb the flavours.
For this dish I decided to serve the beans with chick pea patties - not exactly felafel, as I didn’t have all the right ingredients again, but tasty nonetheless. I minced a can of chick peas with a hand blender, adding garlic, cumin, coriander and chili with a spoonful of tahini and a tablespoon or so of olive oil and a squeeze of lime. Shape the mixture into small balls and flatten into patties, covering lightly in flour. Fry in vegetable oil for a couple of minutes each side until crisp and golden. Delicious.
Served with a little salad and tomatoes, with feta cheese crumbled over the beans (unless you fancy a vegan option), this is a really tasty dinner!
Shopping list (for two):
Fresh broad beans (a bagful)
Fresh Mint 1 can chick peas
1 onion or 2 shallots Tahini
Garlic bulb 1 lime
pine nuts plain flour or gram flour if you can find it
red chili vegetable oil for frying
olive oil
spices:
Coriander
Cumin
Paprika
Chili
salt and pepper
