Salad crazy

Broad beans, bobby beans, french beans, runner beans… all are in season at the moment; looking fantastic and tasting delicious.

Full of cholesterol-busting fibre, energy providing B vits, potassium and a whole host of other phytochemcials; they are a really beneficial addition to the diet.

When I was younger, my mum continuously tried to feed my sister and I broad beans, she couldn’t understand why we always turned our noses up at them – pretty much, the only vegetable that we refused (she trained us from an early age to eat what we were given or there was nothing for pudding), however many times she tried to sneak them on our plates!

We would happily shell peas (eating half of them as we went); top and tail bobby beans and slice runners, but broad beans – absoutely not. They were sharp & bitter and looked grey, shrivelled and horrible on the plate when cooked – unlike their bright green companions.

It was only recently that I found out why they tasted so damn nasty, she’d neglected to remove the skins after cooking. Now it all made sense… I was able to include them into my meals and make Mum happy at the same time.

I bought a mixture of different type of beans from my fave veggie stall (opposite Monmouth Coffee shop on Stoney st) planning some sort of market-fresh salad. And special it certainly was.

I boiled some water and when bubbling away I chucked in the broad beans, letting them cook for about 30 secs, drained them and splashed some water over them to cool them down. Then I could remove their skins revealing the gorgeous green bean inside. I mixed them with raw peas, ripped up lettuce leaves, finely chopped raw carrots & golden beets, spring onions and radish. Added some ripped up nori seaweed plus a sprinkle of sunflower and pumpkin seeds and dressed with the juice of a lemon and lime plus a few glugs of flax oil and some braggs aminos (tastes similar to soy sauce).

It seems a lot I hear you cry… well, its wasn’t just for me! I had a couple of friends popping over for lunch so I added a little feta for my veggie guest and some Serrano ham direct from Portugal for the non-veggie.

“Crunchy, fresh, with a great flavour” was the response.  Just as well I had enough to make more tonight!

Go crazy with your salads – you can add anything you want – you don’t have to stick to just lettuce, cucumber and tomato – the salad police are not going to bash down your door because you’ve tried something different. The more variety you have the more array of nutrients you will digest and absorb. the only vegetable you can’t eat raw is (white) potato, and I wouldn’t do aubergine either, both members of the nightshade family and well, more trouble than its worth!

Summer is only here for a short while, before we know it, its going to be back to hot food – grabs it while it lasts.