All sorts of beans

[Joanbunting Profile]

So versiatile aren't they?
What are your seasonal favourites and how do you cook them?
Mine are young broad beans - feves in French, simply cooked with a parsley sauce. In France they often skin them as well as podding them which, to my mind, is excessive though in Italy I did have a brilliant starter of young skinned raw beans with a simple olive oil and vinegar dressing and a shaving of aged Parmesan - magic.

[Alexandria Profile]

Good idea for a post, but living where I do, I could write a book about the enormous varieties we grow in a wide variety of designation of origins.

Which do we like most ?

1) Black Pearl Lentils from Romania which are prepared in a Shellfish Risotto.

2) Chickpeas ( Garbanzos). // A traditional Hummus ..

3) Pochas ( Asturian ). Fabada or With Fresh Clams & Artichokes.

4) Italian Cannelli. Tradiional Italian dishes.

5) Bordoletti .. Traditional Italian dishes.

6) Alubias ( White: Either Northern or Navy Beans ) prepared with Morcilla Blood Sausage, Fresh Sausage, Morcillo = Sort of a veal similar to a brisket in texture. Very tradiional Spanish, Castilla Leon. Caldo Gallego, a Galician Soup also known as Caldo Verde prepared with Grelos, a Galician Green leaf which is indigenious to the Galician Región, and prepared either with a ham hock base broth or vegetable broth from home made stock.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

We love broad beans, growing your own means they truly can be young when you eat them. They're such a welcome dish early in the season. They have to be early hereabouts to escape the depredations of blackfly. Mrs B isn't mad on parsley so they're generally served plainly. Leftover cooked beans are mashed with mint and used as a filling for quesadillas. I don't think young beans need to be peeled at all - the greengrocers' leather-clad monsters might benefit perhaps. I haven't tried cooking them with savory, the classic combination. That was a herb I was going to try growing but haven't got a round tuit.

I grow a lot of different beans, runners, borlottis, pea beans, French beans. White-seeded runners are used for pods and the beans themselves as butter beans in winter stews. I had a lovely salad of runner beans with red onion and anchovy dressing at St John Bread & Wine last summer, will have a crack at it this year.

French beans are grown for pods and seeds, I grow a variety with black seeds that I use in Mexican dishes.

Borlottis and pea beans (bicoloured like the yin & yang symbol) are grown for stews, cassoulets, dips (all the normal beanie stuff!) Generally the seeds are used dried, after a brief spell in the freezer to prevent protein development , although I do use some in the manner of flageolets, cooked simply like broad beans, served thus or used in salad.

This year I'm having another go at growing the large-seeded Gigantes beans, the sort that are served cold in a tomato sauce as a mezze.

Otherwise we like all sorts of pulses, chick peas in Mediterranean and sub-Continental dishes, lentils cooked with cured meat in a European style or as dals. Very fond of what is known in this house as Pooh lentils. Split peas with bacon, pease pudding.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Today, Sunday 10 Feb is World Pulses Day, and in the UK national Dal and Pulses day

I too love broad beans, specially with a bacon or gammon joint, new potatoes and parsley sauce

I had the remains of a can of borlotti beans to use up yesterday so I made a sort of hummus like dip with it. Very good.

I like white bean mash with a little garlic oil in it, as suggested by Nigella, can be made with cannellini or butter beans.

Lidl canned butter beans are a bargain, a different variety to the usual ones, the best and the cheapest. Very good with chorizo.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I tend to bring bags of dried beans back from our car travels.
Granxet from Catalunya - small & white, but not creamy.
Judiones. I brought back from Segovia. They're not easy to cook I find.

I got some Green Mountain lentils, that were delicious. Nutty. I prefer lentils cooked dry straight into the pan, rather than soaked to plump up.
But hey, I like them cooked both ways.

I tend to have moong beans in, for dahls, and for making batter for pancakes.

My favourite way with beans is tarka dahl. I've tried all sorts of others, but love this one particularly.

[Joanbunting Profile]

I am specially fond of green Puy lentils. Very impressive when you see huge fields of them growing up there in the Cevennes/Auvergne. I enjoy them cooked as they do up there with local sausages. In fact that's what I am planning for supper tomorrow.

Of course haricot s cocos both white and the pretty pink mottled ones as well as coco plat (a bit like runner beans) are essential for that Provencal summer standby. soupe au pistou.

One of the favourite in France is of course haricots verts. these are rarely cooked al dente in this part of France but with tomato, garlic and olive oil which is just was well because squeaky al dente beans set my teeth on edge, as I said elsewhere.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Green Puys.
On my list to buy next time, Joan. I only ever buy the brown.

Lentils I was brought up with, in Scotch broths or casseroles as fillers.
(Pearl barley I use to love, but that's not a bean)

[karadekoolaid Profile]

I love beans! Despite having been brought up on baked beans, it wasn´t until I got to university that I actually got a chance to try other forms of beans, peas and lentils. I can remember the first time I had a salad with red kidney beans, and the delicious sweetness of Mexican brown beans. Then there was a time I had a simple Florentine starter at a restaurant in Chelsea - Tonno è Fagioli: tuna , cannelli beans, red onion, olive oil.
Over here, black beans are a staple; they form part of our National Dish -pabellón criollo. My favourit at the moment is the Borlotti ( or cranberry) bean, which I can usually buy fresh. Delicious as part of pasta è fagioli, a fav ourite comfort food in this family!
At the moment, Venezuelans are eating more and more beans/peas/lentils, given that meat, chicken and fish are both scarce and absurdly expensive. One of my favourites in the market is the tiny lentils which normally you would only find as (split) masoor dal , or pink lentils. But the ones I get are whole - and delicious!
In México there are dozens of varieties of beans. Huge purple ones, brown , red and black ones, and some delightful black & white , or red and white peas. I´m currently trying to cultivate them at home, with limited success.

[Lusciouslush Profile]

Another huge bean-lover here! Fresh or dried. I use dried in so many dishes from soups to stews, casseroles etc. I make a lot of salads & salsa with them - especially the black turtle bean which looks very dramatic with colourful fruits & veg. Beans are wonderful for taking on the flavour of whatever you put with them.
I have two industrial-sized plastic clip-lock boxes in the garage full of assorted organic dried beans & lentils - couldn't imagine being without them - there's something very comforting & satisfying about rich earthy textured beans even when they're pared with strong spices & chillies. Plus all that protein! Some folk are affected by a certain side effect - I have never found that to be a problem but have heard adding epazote to the cooking water stops that!

[cherrytree Profile]

I hate all pulses. It’s the mealy feeling in my mouth. I occasionally make something with the Le Puy lentils because they come from so near our house in Lozere, but it’s under sufferance. I can cope with Birds Eye frozen peas, but that’s it. The thought of anything at all with chick peas in particular makes me go all queasy. Never mind- there’s plenty of other stuff to enjoy!

[Renee Profile]

Do you not like hummus Cherrytree? That's my favourite way of using chickpeas. I have a recipe for bhajis which includes chickpeas. I will make this soon. It is a healthy Slimming World snack.

[Pampy Profile]

Bhajis are made with chickpea flour.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I cook green beans - the flat stick beans, not the "pencil podded" haricots or French beans with tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil Turkish style

I recreated a salad OH had in a restaurant - butterhead lettuce, cooked French beans, and little cubes of ripe fresh peach dressed with a vinaigrette including a fair amount of mustard and garlic. One time I couldn't get peaches (it was 04 March after all) and used ripe papaya. Even better.

I'm glad to see that the fashion for tiny immature French beans, the ones I once described as "green hairpins" has waned, I like them with a little juicy flesh.

And of course harictos verts in in salade Nicoise

[Pampy Profile]

Some folk are affected by a certain side effect - I have never found that to be a problem but have heard adding epazote to the cooking water stops that!

To quote Stephen King : "beans, beans the wonderful fruit, the more that you eat them the more you will toot"! I'll get me coat...

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Hahaha, Pampy!
I learned the one that starts:
Beans, beans, good for your heart, the more you eat, the more...................

As for the bhaji thing: well many times they are synonymous with pakoras, or pakodas - a kind of deep-fried snack. But I´ve eaten some wonderful Brinjal Bhaji - aubergine - which has no besan (chickpea) flour in it at all.More like an Indian version of babaghanush.
Onion bhajis, for me, are quintessential Brit Curry Inn dishes. I couldn´t have survived university without them!

[Renee Profile]

Bhajis are made with chickpea flour.

This Slimming World recipe is made using canned chick peas whizzed a bit in a food processor.

Pampy!!!

[Lusciouslush Profile]

Onion Bhais are bringing back memories of a misspent youth! We thought we were very sophisticated ordering them in the ' Anglo Asian' ( the name says it all ) - I did try to make them at home, but I was a virgin Lush & they always came out a greasy mess - I'd never even heard of chickpea flour then or chickpeas for that matter!


Pampy & Clive...…..you won't be doing any of this then

[Pampy Profile]

[cherrytree Profile]

No, I dislike hummus too. It’s the feel on my mouth. In the great scheme of things it’s not really a problem though.l like most things (apart from goats cheese and gooseberries)

[Amyw Profile]

I absolutely hate hummus too and anything chickpea related though the world and his wife seem to love it

I agree broad beans, parsley sauce and gammon are a match made in heaven . I also love broad beans , mint and bursts on bruschetta.

Green beans are a pretty good standby veg . I do a kind of salad nicoise with them cooked till tender , mixed with good EVOO, diced tomato and shallot , olives and hard boiled egg. Green beans with pesto and sundried tomatoes are good with pasta