Broad beans on toast would be called an antipasta in Italy; high in vegetable protein, with added chopped boiled egg or cheese, it makes a very satisfying dish.
If you really want to be posh, call it a bruschetta which just means on burned toast.
They are also known as fava beans, and tuinbonen in Holland.
"A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet."
- Romeo and Juliet
You can turn this into a top notch dish with broad beans from your garden and real bread made with 100% wholemeal flour; both are difficult to find in the shops so the chances are you will be making your bruschetta just like everyone else. So here's the basic recipe.
Which of the top three forms of broad beans are you going to use?
Keep it simple, Stupid; our slogan is slow food, made fast. Saving you time and money; it is all part of the Cyan Zone philosophy.
And now for the better way to make your broad beans on toast.
Unfortunately your supermarket loaf will never qualify as medicine; even so-called wholemeal artisan bread is made from refined flour. And broad beans picked when too mature become hard and starchy; that is why the traditional method first pods them, and then pops them to remove the husk.
Remember that more than half the L-dopa in broad beans is to be found in the young shells.
So, if you want your food to be your medicine, growing broad beans and baking your own artisan bread is the way to go. Both will improve your well-being in leaps and bounds; more about that below.
If raw garlic gives you indigestion, drop the clove into the boiling water for 1 minute.
Just like we humans like to remove most of the bran and germ from our wheat before baking, so it slides down the throat, most recipes recommend you discard both the pod and the bean husk. That is why the broad bean is listed as having a high glycemic index; it is in fact highly refined.
The tender young pod contains much of the important nutrients and together with the husk of the bean has invaluable fibre that lowers the GI and provides vital prebiotics for the teeming billions of bugs in the colon.
It takes a little time to retrain the tongue and lips; ultimately we have to accept that whole foods are chewy.
Nutritionally, we live in a mad world, that would have you remove the most important parts of your wheat and beans, discard them and then separately purchase them in capsules at great expense.
To get the very best from your flour, we recommend purchasing a flour mill and baking your own artisan bread; you can then have the very best loaf in the whole world, with all the finest nutrients and far superior taste for under a dollar. Dinkum, I do it every day.
Oh, and if you are gluten intolerant you will find that by adding a sourdough starter, your problems with a grumbling belly will be a matter of the past.
Alas, you are most unlikely to find young broad bean pods in the shops. You have to grow them yourself.
Well-being that will take you to stunning eighties and nineties with little or no medication and all your marbles and joints intact takes time and some planning. If the thought of spending five minutes every morning milling the 100% flour for the best tasting bread in the world, and some time in the garden growing your own broad beans is just too much, then alas you must go your own way.
Spending time in the garden is our way of what is known as forest bathing; savouring the senses as you plant and nurture, compost and harvest your food. Those who enjoy life this way have little need for gyms for exercise, psychiatrists for anxiety and stress and doctors for their medicines.
"When the world wearies, and society ceases to satisfy,
there's always the garden."
Broad beans on toast makes a wholesome meal in ten or fifteen minutes.
We add just a little turmeric to many dishes; it adds a little distinctive flavour whilst contributing in the fight against many serious diseases. Simply the existence of anti-inflammatory compounds that inhibit the nasty COX-2 enzyme is sufficient reason; it causes pain and swelling in joints and has been linked to colon tumours[1].
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