Bean Mash - Cooking the humble Broad Bean

The nutritional quality of Broad Beans (also know as Fava Beans) is incredible. They are packed full of protein and fibre, along with a great wealth of important minerals (manganese, copper, phosphorus), low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium and a great source of folate (B-vitamins).

They are best fresh and young, but they can be blanched and frozen. Most recipes tell you to remove the "skin" after blanching as it does reduce the smooth nature of the finished dish but I question how much of the fibre and other nutrients are in the skin, so we, personally, keep it!

There are so many recipes for the broad bean - I've seen dozens for simple broad bean humus alone, but here is just about the simplest, and most delicious. Broad Bean Mash

INGREDIENTS

Broad Beans, shelled

A couple of garlic cloves

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

METHOD

Steam the broad beans for just 3 - 4 minutes. Most recipes will say "boil", but steaming keeps the nutrients better. They just need to be softened, not soft.

Add the crushed garlic cloves and blend with a hand blender (they should be too hard to just use a masher). While blending add water from the steamer and olive oil in equal amounts to produce the moist consistency that you want.

Season and serve - in this case, of course, with Green Farm sausages!