"beam?"

A couple of weeks ago, Finley and I made a bountiful harvest from the Broad Bean (or Fava Bean) plants that he befriended a little bee amongst a couple of months back. Finley was fascinated with the little "beams" inside the pods and had a great time helping me shell them all. Needless to say, as is the way with 21 month olds, he insisted on the raw-bean-taste-test and when he discovered that they weren't to his taste he insisted on trying to prod them into my mouth... hmm, thanks sweetheart! (yuck!)

My favourite thing to do with Broad Beans (and the main reason we grow them) is to make Falafel. I use the recipe below, given to me by a kind friend.

Falafel

1 cup Broad (fava) Beans (frozen or fresh I have used both)

1 can Chickpeas or equiv. re-hydrated dried chickpeas

1/3 cup chopped parsley (italian is better, but english/curled is fine and is what I use most of the time)

1 small red onion chopped fine

1/3 cup plain flour

2 tsp dried coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 scant tsp baking soda

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor, roll into balls, drop into breadcrumbs if thats what you prefer (yummy!), refrigerate for an hour or so and then shallow fry in oil til golden.

I like to make a big batch and keep the flattened Falafel balls in the freezer. Unfortunately no photo's of my Falafel balls sorry... the freezer is exactly where they are, awaiting easy peasy newborn meals come january!

xx