Broad beans on toast
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.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of shelled broad beans
- 1/3 cup of cubed feta or other favourite cheese
- Lime or lemon
- 1 fresh peppadew or other mild chili, or a good shake of red pepper flakes
- 1 TBSP of your favourite herbs such as sweet basil, parsley or mint
- 3 TBSP olive oil
- Pinch of salt unless using a cheese like feta
- 1 clove of garlic
- Slices of your favourite artisan bread
Go for it
- Boil your broad beans for 2 minutes or more in salted water until tender.
- Pop them out of their husks if they appear old and hard.
- Chop the beans and add them to a small bowl.
- Shave off some of the lime zest, and then squeeze a teaspoon of the juice onto the beans.
- Add a tablespoon of the olive oil, the finely chopped spices and herbs, salt and red pepper, cheese.
- Grill your artisan bread.
- Brush with the remaining olive oil, smear with the cut side of the garlic and top each slice with the broad bean mix.
Keep it simple, Stupid
Which of the top three forms of broad beans are you going to use?
- Removing first the shell and then the husk removes the fibre, means they are highly refined, and is the reason why it is reported that the glycemic index of fava beans is very high. It also means a lot more time to prepare.
- Half the nutrients in citrus are found in the pulp; using only the juice discards much of the vitamin C, lemonin and other phytochemicals; and the fibre too.
- Using the grill instead of the toaster takes much longer and wastes electricity; it contributes in some small but accumulative way to greenhouse gases.
- Brushing the toast first with olive oil and then with the cut garlic is tiresome, time-consuming and wastes much of the nutrition in the rest of the clove.
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.
Let your food be your medicine
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.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of young broad beans, freshly picked, top and tailed
- 1 hard boiled egg or 100g of your favourite cheese, cubed.
- Lime or lemon.
- A fresh mild but piquant chili. Or red pepper flakes.
- A pinch of turmeric.
- 1 clove of garlic.
- 1 TBSP of your favourite herbs such as sweet basil or parsley.
- 1 TBSP of olive oil.
- Pinch of salt.
- Slices of artisan bread.
Go for it
- Boil the young whole broad bean pods in salted water for 2 minutes or until tender.
- Drain and chop and add to a bowl.
- Cube your feta cheese, or crumb the hard boiled egg, and add to the beans.
- Shave off some of the lemon zest, peel the lemon and then cut a slice to include the pulp. Chop it up.
- Add the finely chopped herbs, including the garlic, chili and olive oil.
- Toast your artisan bread well, even slightly burned so it is crisp.
- Top with your broad bean mixture and serve while still warm. You could put them under a hot grill for a few minutes.
If raw garlic gives you indigestion, drop the clove into the boiling water for 1 minute.
Broad bean pods and shells
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.
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.
Time
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
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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