Harvesting Broad (Fava) Beans – how many ways do you think you can eat them?

Posted on June 30, 2012 by greensideupveg

Broad (Fava) Beans

Are you a fan of broad beans (or fava beans as they’re known in the majority of countries around the world)? Have you even tried them?

I wrote a blog post a while ago about how easy it is to grow these hardy beans, but basically just pop a seed in the soil and watch it grow!

Broad (Fava) Bean

Watching the plants grow, smelling the beautiful scented blossoms as they develop never ceases to bring a smile.

Have you ever observed how a bean appears? I was enthralled the first time I saw it, checking my plants daily to see if there’d been a development overnight. Firstly the flowers open, then as they wither you’ll notice tiny little beanlets replacing them. The pods develop on the bottom of the plant first, so that’s where you’ll find them first. When they’re ripe for picking just twist them off the stems rather than pulling which will prevent an accidental stem snapping. As the plant continues to grow, more beans will appear, working their way upwards.

Outside my bean plants never usually make it past waist height but this year in the polytunnel they were over six-foot tall – that’s a whole lotta beans!

So once your beans are developing what then? How do you know when to harvest them?

Would it surprise you that you can prepare a simple broad bean in five different ways?

Starting with a bean pod about a little finger in length, you can leave these whole, top and tail then add to stir fries, steam or add to stews.
As they grow larger, about middle finger length, slice them into 1cm pieces and cook – we usually steam and serve them as an accompanying veg.
Larger still, when you can see the bulges of the beans growing inside, split the pods open, remove the beans and add to salads, steam or become more adventurous with different bean recipes.
If you find the waxy outer shell of the beans too tough, you can split these open to reveal tiny little pea sized tender beans. The easiest way to do this is to put them into boiling water for a minute, then plunge into cold water and pull off the skins. I’ve watched a friend sit and double pod her broad beans in this way but I have to admit to taking the lazy option – serving them hot onto plates and the diner can choose whether they would like to take this fiddly option.
Finally you can dry them – lovely for winter stews. The simplest way is to leave the pods on the plants until they go brown and dry up.

broad (fava) bean tops

As if that’s not enough variations of a meal from one plant, the tender tops can also be removed and lightly steamed just like spring beans. Pick them when the plant is still flowering but before the pods form. This will help the pods to swell and prevent blackfly too as they’re very attracted to the tasty tops. Wash the tops a couple of times and steam them for a few minutes.

Wikipedia lists many other ways of cooking broad or fava beans in countries around the world – I like the idea of frying them (which splits their shells) then salt or spices are added making them a tasty snack – might give this a go!

black bean aphid

It’s important to keep picking beans as this will encourage more – stop picking and the plant will stop producing.

You can either harvest the beans as you require them, or pick them all, blanch and freeze. Blanching involves placing the washed and prepared beans into boiling water for two minutes then plunging into cold water. I find it easier to bag them into portion sizes bags (I usually serve up four portions with family meals so that’s how many spoonfuls end up in my bags) then freeze them. Blanching prevents enzymes building up when defrosting and helps to retain the texture and flavour.

nitrogen nodules on broad beans

Once you’ve removed all the beans from the plants, cut the stems off at ground level digging the roots into the soil. You might notice nitrogen nodules growing on the roots which following plants will benefit from (the nodules ‘fix’ nitrogen into the soil.) Disease free stems can be added to the compost heap.

Have you any favourite recipes for using these versatile beans?

Pea and bean crops – do they contain enough nitrogen to benefit anything else?

Posted on April 4, 2011 by greensideupveg

I just thought I’d share this fabulous photo taken by one of the Goresbridge Community Gardeners, James Burke of Bigger Picture Web, who captured a picture of nitrogen nodules on a field bean I took along to show the group last week.

Over the winter months I’ve been growing field beans in one of my veggie beds as a green manure. Green Manures are used as a means of adding organic matter back into the soil, and are particularly handy for people who’re growing veg and don’t have a ready supply of organic matter (compost or manure).

As members of the legume (pea and bean) family, they’re able to make their own nitrogen and are known as nitrogen fixers. Legumes store it in little nodules (as can be seen here) and once the nodules have separated from the plant or the plant decomposes, the nitrogen is released and is available to other plants. Plants from other vegetable families get their nitrogen from the soil, usually from plant debris (or from fertilisers).

Green manures from the legume family are therefore great to grow before anything from the brassica family (cabbages etc) as the big leafy green crops will relish the additional nitrogen and are unable to make it themselves.

*It might surprise many gardeners who are familiar with crop rotation that botanists now believe that the root nodules accumulate half of the total nitrogen and that it only becomes available to other plants when the nodules are removed from the plant. This only happens when the plant is severely stressed from shade or drought or when the root dies.

Also, when the plant is young about 40% of the nitrogen is in the roots with the rest in the foliage and stems. Once the plant has flowered the reserves of nitrogen in the roots drop to 3-6% with 8-10% in the leaves and stems. The remaining 70-90% is stored in the seeds and seed pods.

What this means for most of us hobby gardeners is that the roots of the pea and bean crops that we have allowed to flower and fruit for the cooking pot are unlikely to be of any nutritional benefit to the veg following them in our crop rotations as is currently believed…. green manures are the key.

* Source Chris Beardshaw – How Does Your Garden Grow

Broad beans – a great crop for beginners – hardy with a good success rate

Posted on January 21, 2011 by greensideupveg

Broad Beans (Vicia Faba) are not usually available in supermarkets so home grown pods are often the first many of us will ever try.

It’s the beans that are nestled inside the velvety pods that are usually eaten, although young beans that are no thicker than a finger can be cooked in their pods.

Larger beans must be shelled before they’re cooked, and can then be eaten hot or cold.

Big mature beans should be shelled and after they’ve boiled, the tough outer skin removed and the small beanlet inside can be mashed with butter (you’d need the patience of a saint to do that very often!). We usually dish them up with dinner and remove the beanlets ourselves.

We’ve always grow Broad Beans in our garden as three of us love to eat them cooked (I usually steam them) and the two girls love them raw.

They’re a very easy first veg to grow and ideal for beginners. They’re also very hardy and most varieties can be sown outside from October/November or February to April.

They germinate at much lower temperatures than most other vegetables and we tend to sow them here in or around February, depending upon conditions, making them our first legume crop (pea/bean) of the year.

We usually plant the seeds straight into the soil about 2.5 cm (1″) deep but they can be started off in modules in December, ready to plant out in February. It’s also a good idea to place stakes around the perimeter of the crop which will help to prevent the stems snapping in the wind (they’ll support each other).

Broad beans like well-dug, previously manured soil so are an ideal crop to follow potatoes. Once they’ve all been harvested, if they’re disease free chop the stems off at soil level and compost, leaving the nitrogen fixing roots in the soil to benefit the brassica type crops (cabbages etc) that might follow them.

Things to watch out for ……. if you plant broad beans in the Spring, one day you may wander into your garden and find that the tops of them are covered in blackfly, who adore their sweet flavour. Sometimes just spraying them hard with the hose is enough to remove them, or pinching off the tops of the plants as soon as you notice the little black aphids. A garlic spray works wonders on them too but will have to be repeated regularly.

We try to encourage beneficial insects into our garden that will prey on the predatory aphids, but hoverfly and ladybird larvae never seem to be around at this time of year when we need them!

Chocolate spot …… this is a disease that’s particular to broad beans and one we’ve suffered on every crop grown here. It is what it says … chocolate coloured spots that appear on the leaves, and then spread to the stems, flowers and pods, potentially leading to the plant’s death.

It’s caused by a fungus (Botrytis fabae) that thrives in damp, humid air and can overwinter on the remains of previously infected plants. For this reason it’s a good idea to get rid of old, infected plants rather than composting them. The good news is that it usually affects the pods last of all so whilst they remain unaffected (or infected), they’re still fine to eat.

Spacing the plants well -about 25cm between each plant – will help with air circulation and may prevent or delay infection.

So why not give Broad Beans a chance? They’re a great crop for grow your own newbies as their success rate is high, which all helps in raising the confidence levels.

Teaching Growth. Teaching Green.

Category Archives: Beans and Peas