Well, it’s been a long week which is why I’m just giving you a couple of short posts in lieu of a nice big proper recipe. My grandpa died this week, aged 96 – which is a pretty good innings, vale Glenmore Charles – and I worked the elections yesterday, which, at a 15 hour day, has left me pretty knackered today.
So, broad bean dip.
I’ve only got a piccy of the dip about to be eaten at the top there (that was my afternoon snack about 10 minutes ago) because I wasn’t intending to do a post about it as it’s basically just hummus made with fresh broad beans. I’ve got a bit of a broad bean glut at the moment and this is a great thing to do with those big, old hoary ones that have been hiding and got massive and floury while you looked away for ten mintues.
I’m not going to give any quantities for this one because a) it’s very much a taste-and-see recipe, and b) how much you make it entirely determined by how many spare broad beans you’ve got kicking around.
The only fiddly bit is that you will have to double pod the beans as the hard coating on the big beans really isn’t palatable.
Broad bean dip
Broad beans, shelled and taken out of their individual coats
garlic
olive oil
lemon juice
salt
water
boil some water and cook the podded beans for 3-4 minutes, drain and run under some cold water to cool them down a little. Finely chop the garlic then add the garlic and the beans to a food processor (or similar – you could do it in a mortar and pestle if you were really keen but it would take a while). Pulse until vaguely broken up (it won’t look very dip-y at this stage), you’ll probably need a soft spatula to run around the top of the food processor to push all the spattered chunks down. Add some lemon juice, salt, and olive oil – you’ll need enough oil to get the ingredients to combine into a recognisable paste, but it will still be really thick. Taste it and adjust the seasoning to suit your taste. Keep whizzing and add some water in little amounts until the dip is the consistency you want, don’t worry if it ends up a little runnier than you wanted, it will thicken a little as it cools, and a little more over the next few days (if it sticks around for that long) as the beans absorb more of the liquid. Eat on everything.
Other things you should totally add if you feel like it:
parsley
mint
coriander
toasted cumin seeds
toasted coriander seeds
dukkah
CHILLI!
etc.
Oh, I do have another picture for you, the garlic that went into the dip is also from my garden:
