This recipe comes from my great friend Thomas Gooch. It's adapted from something he ate in a market in Melbourne. I like it because it makes use of the whole beans, pods and all. Thomas has experimented with a few different flavourings, and reports that broad beans with sweet paprika works particularly well with rice or fish. But this variation is his favourite. Note the beans must be very young and tender for this to work.
© Andrew Montgomery
Lebanese Broad Beans
This Middle Eastern-inspired dish makes a delicious addition to a mezze-style meal and will turn simply grilled meat or fish into a feast. Photograph Andrew Montgomery.
Prep: 10 mins
Ingredients
- 2-4tbsp Olive oil for frying
- 1 Onion diced
- 500g Broad beans very young and tender in their pods, topped and tailed and destringed
- 1 bunch of parsley chopped
- 1 bunch of coriander chopped into 2.5cm pieces
- 1 Lemon juice of
- Salt and pepper to taste
Methods
Step 1
Heat a slug of olive oil (around 1-2tbsp) in a frying pan, add the onion and cook over medium heat for 5–10 minutes until translucent and softened.
Step 2
Chop the beans into pieces roughly 2.5cm long, then add them to the pan along with another glug of oil. Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook for 10 minutes.
Step 3
Add the parsley, coriander and lemon juice and cook over low heat for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. The beans should still have a little bite to them when they’re done.
This recipe is taken from Grow Fruit & Vegetables in Pots by Aaron Bertelsen (Phaidon, 2020).