BROAD BEANS

The gentle, seasonal pleasure of podding beans and shelling peas seems to have been almost entirely replaced by the year-round convenience of frozen packets. It’s perfectly understandable why, but it’s rather a pity. Sitting at the kitchen table podding a pile of plump beans is one of those meditative chores providing something we all say we crave – time out. With mature broad beans, you could say we get extra ‘time out’. Because the outer greyish skin is rather chewy, it pays to ‘double pod’, leaving behind the inner green bean.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Fresh broad beans make an all too brief appearance in the produce aisles and farmers’ markets in spring. The good news is that snap-frozen podded broad beans are available all year round. Check the use-buy or best-before date.

HOW TO STORE THEM

Fresh broad beans are best eaten within a few days of picking. They can be stored in the refrigerator in a plastic bag for up to a week.

WHAT’S IN THEM?

Half a cup (about 95 g/3¼ oz) of podded and peeled broad beans has about 130 kilojoules (31 calories), 4 g protein, 0 g fat, 1 g carbs(0.5 g sugars, 0.5 g starches), 4 g fibre, 2 mg sodium, 138 mg potassium, and a moderate GI (63) and low GL (1).

WHAT ELSE?

Picked very young and tender straight from the vine, broad beans are a treat fresh or lightly cooked, just like regular runner beans. No podding necessary.

Broad beans are called fava in many parts of the world (from the Latin faba, which means bean, because those were the beans they had in their kitchens and gardens). In Greek cooking, fava refers to dried yellow split peas, and that’s what you will need to have on hand to whip up a classic fava spread.

HERO RECIPES

Lamb and broad bean stew with silverbeet (here )

Spiced chickpea and broad bean soup (here )