Tuesday 2 September 2014

Specials Board: Broadbean Pesto

Broad Bean Pesto & Vegan Mofo Day 2
The first recipe I'm sharing with you during Vegan Mofo 2014 is using broad beans from my garden. They're at their end now and this will be the penultimate recipe from my last harvest picked at the weekend. I'm going to miss them! Now I have a freezer I think I will grow twice the amount next year!

Broad beans are so easy to grow, you sow the seed, water and watch it grow! However this year I had a little visitor in the way of a field mouse, I named him Sammy. Now I don't mind sharing my veggies but this little munchkin was devouring all of the young plants night after night until I had none left! I kept sowing in the hope that he would get fed up of the broad bean plant but no Sammy just seemed to love them, he couldn't get enough! 

I started to sow each bean encased by a toilet roll, which acted as a barrier to my little field mousse friend and that seemed to do the trick. But as soft as I am I did plant a couple without the toilet roll just for Sammy! And yes he found them and munched his way through but he did leave the toilet roll beans alone, so we were both happy.

My last broad bean recipe, in a few days time, will give you some top tips on how to grow broad beans, when to sow, how to stop the usual critters and when to harvest. But for now on with this recipe.

Broad Bean Pesto (Serves 4-6)

Ingredients
235g Podded broad beans
3-4 Cloves of Garlic
10g Pine nuts
2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp Lemon juice
4 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Method
Remove the skin from the garlic and cook with the beans in boiling water for 5 minutes, I've noticed the beans float to the top when they are cooked so if your beans are small they might need less than 5 minutes.

Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process and are cool enough to handle. Remove the outer grey skin to reveal the bright green bean! Transfer the bean and garlic to a food processor.

Add the pine nuts and pulse a few times to chop the ingredients. Add the remainder of the ingredients to the processor and blitz until you have the texture you prefer. I don't like mine completely smooth, I like a bit of texture.


The pesto is great spread on toast, used to make a dip (my fried green tomatoes recipe) or stirred through pasta, which is what I did for tea tonight. 







10 comments:

  1. YUM! That pesto looks great!!! (And full of protein and nutrients!)

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    1. Thanks! I'll definitely be making it again once I have grown more broad beans - until next year.......

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  2. Ah! Another reason to get hold of some broad beans, looks delicious!

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    1. Thank you! I know I'm biased but it was rather tasty, I went back for seconds! :o)

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  3. Such a cute story about Sammy & a creative way to keep your growing broad beans safe! The pesto looks great! :)

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    1. Thanks Julie! I think Sammy may remember (and told his friends) so my future broad beans will be protected by toilet rolls! I just wish I had managed to get a photo - he was soooo cute! :o)

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  4. Broadbean pesto sounds delicious! I haven't had broad beans for such a while, hopefully I will come across them soon.

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    1. I love them and they're so versatile, hopefully you'll pick some up soon :o)

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  5. I love recipes like this! So healthy and delicious! I had a problem with animals eating the beans in my garden this year too. I lost all of my edamame and most of my other beans as well, but I'm pretty sure it was deer and bunnies. I too am happy to share my harvest with animals, but wish they didn't eat the baby plants before they could really start producing. I guess that's when the food was scarce for them in my neighborhood though. Next year, I'll have to try a different approach.

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    1. Thanks Heather, I love food that is healthy and delicious! I was quite surprised the toilet rolls stopped Sammy nibbling his way through my broad bean plants, perhaps you could try the same approach next year. Although deer are bigger than my field mouse! :o)

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Thanks for leaving a comment, Jasmine x