When it comes to cooking simplicity often tends to yield the best results. This broad bean bruschetta recipe is based on a few similar recipes I’ve seen over the years, mainly originating from Italy.
In early summer there is nothing more satisfying than picking and eating freshly grown broad beans. We didn’t grow any this year but are lucky enough the farm shop down the road ell massive bags of beans for only £1 each. While i guess you could use frozen broad beans I don’t think the taste would be anywhere near as good. This is one of those recipes you have to make a couple of times a year in that golden period when the beans are young and tender.
If you don’t have enough beans you can bulk the mash out with a few (not too many) new potatoes.
Broad Bean Bruschetta Ingredients
- As many broad beans as you can get hold of!
- Bead (preferable our amazing homemade bread recipe)
- 1/2 clove of finely grated garlic
- handful of fresh thyme
- 1 fresh red chilli
- 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- shavings of pecorino cheese
- handful of fresh cherry tomatoes
- salt and pepper
Method
Depending on how young your broad beans are you may want to blanche them in boiling hot water for 30 seconds before plunging into cold water. When cooled you’ll be able to easily peel of the outer skin which can be a bit tough and bitter in taste.
Once the beans are prepared mash them in a large bowl along with the olive oil, grated garlic, thyme, chilli, salt and pepper. Next grill your toast on both sides (it somehow tastes better than cooking it in a toaster) and lightly rub with a clove of garlic.
Spoon on a generous helping of the broad bean mash then add a spoonful of chopped tomatoes and some pecorino gratings. Drizzle over a little olive oil and serve with a nice glass of wine.
The weather at the minute is very changeable to say the least. After a heat wave in March we had a very wet and cold Easter and it seemed summer was never going to arrive. Chillies flourish in consistent growing conditions so such variable temperature of Spring pose a bit of a challenge to us growers.
I recently scorched a few of my seedlings after leaving them in the chilli house all day with not enough ventilation. While i don’t usually bemoan good weather it is a bit frustrating to lose some plants to an unexpected sunny day. My undoing again was not hardening off the seedlings.
We usually associate the process of ‘hardening off’ with getting used to the cooler conditions outside, particularly at night. As I found out here young seedlings are also sensitive to strong direct sunlight.
For us working folk, it’s not always possible but ideally you’d harden off young seedlings by giving them direct sunlight only in the late afternoon for a few days before gradually increasing the length by 1/2 an hour or so a day.
Personally at this time of year I have a daily debate with myself after checking the weather forecast. Plants indoors or out? Greenhouse windows/doors open or shut? Heater on or off? It seems I get caught out at least once every year. Last year I scorched a few seedlings just after germination.
Out in the chilli house the plants are doing pretty well. Maybe I’m being a bit impatient but growth seems to be a little slower than expected this year. I suspect it is the cool nights that are impeding growth rates. As a result I’ve started heating the grow house at night with my little electric Parasene greenhouse heater.
Chilli Light Cycles
It is important to alow young seedlings some break from grow lights. As a result I’ve got the plants having about 5 hours darkness each night, followed by about 6 hours under the CFL grow lights followed by the daytime on a sunny shelf inside.
Hopefully this new routine and extra night time heat will help to speed up growth. Also, the nice sunny weather we’ve been having has helped to really up daytime temperatures to over 30 degrees.
The One that doesn’t give up
Lurking in the back of the chilli house I spotted the Super Chilli F1 plant that got scorched early on last year. When I over wintered a selection of plants last year I also left a few plants in the grow house with full foliage and fruit on.
This Super Chilli has been watered and just left to it. It’s looking a bit sorry for itself right now with dried up fruit from last autumn, dead leaves and even a nice collection of aphid eggs but remarkably it is sprouting lots of new growth.
This just goes to show the resilience of chilli plants. Despite a severe scorching last Spring and being heavily neglected all winter it looks like this plant will reward me with another season of pods. I must get round to giving it a good tidy up as a reward for making it through the winter.
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