Broad beans
The taste of the Mediterranean spring.
The tender beans became popular as a vegetable with a short-lived season often associated with peas. Both vegetables shared the gardens of our grandmothers who brought home fresh pods to eat almost raw together with ham. Sometimes they fried the ham. The crunchy texture and sweet flavour with a hint of bitterness, together with the salty and umami of the ham produced one of the great sensations of Mediterranean springtime.
Though baby broad beans started out as a legume with a diminished green colour, they have influenced some of the best Spanish cuisine from the gardens of Andalusia, the Balearic Islands and Catalonia. In fact, every year during Epiphany one lucky person will discover the bean in their roulade (sweet festive bread for King’s Day) and end up having to pay for the celebratory bread. We must remember that broad beans are pulses, almost even an oil nuts.
Advice
- The tender, almost raw or blanched broad beans can be cooled in water. The ham must be at room temperature.
- Fried green broad beans with diced ham, spring onions and fried eggs is one of the typical dishes of Andalusian cuisine.
- If they are tender enough, there’s no need to cook the broad beans to use them in a bean salad with mint and ham in a delicious spring contrast of flavours.
Origen
Andalucía, Baleares and Cataluña
