Category: Beans

This is my new favorite way to eat grilled vegetables. I love to eat with my fingers and I love to dip-dip-dip. This is so easy and fast to make. It’s just a sheet of Nori, some seeds and chili pepper flakes.

I used green beans here, but you could use any type of bean, or shishitos, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or Romanesco.

This is barely adapted from this recipe (second recipe down on that page) from Yotam Ottolenghi. He used shishitos in his recipe, and I didn’t have all the different seeds he used. This is what I had.

1 sheet of nori seaweed
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
1/4 cup of sesame seeds
1 tsp chilli flakes
Flaky sea salt
1 pound of vegetables to roast or grill. Like I said before have used several different vegetables. 
olive oil
mayonnaise, homemade or store bought.

Put a medium-sized frying pan on a medium heat, add the nori and dry-fry for six to seven minutes, turning once halfway, until it starts to brown and break apart easily. Break into very small pieces, either in a food processor or by hand (in which case the pieces will be slightly bigger) and put in a medium-sized bowl.

Return the pan to a medium heat, add the sunflower seeds and sesame seeds and toast them for three to four minutes, until they have turned golden brown. Put into a food processor or chop by hand. I  used a small food processor.

Put the vegetables you are using (in my case, beans) in a large bowl . Add some olive oil and a half-teaspoon of salt and toss to coat evenly. Grill or roast your vegetables until they have a nice char.

Remove and serve warm with a bowl each of mayonnaise and nori salt alongside, for dipping. You dip the bean into the mayo then into the seed mix, then into your mouth.

We had this along side this shishito dish and interchanged the sauces and vegetables. It was a delicious meal.

See you at pickup and hopefully the Farm Tour Thursday.

Mo

Here is a basic fava bean preparation for most any recipe calling for favas, save grilled favas.

There are three steps to preparing a Fava Bean:
1. Removing the beans from the pod.
2. Blanching the beans in boiling water, that you removed from the pod, to soften for easy removal of the outer shell.
3. Peeling off the outer shell before eating or cooking to end with a bright-green, tender-scrumptious bean!

In the picture you can see the steps, except I didn’t show blanching the beans. You know what boiling water looks like, right?

The bright tender inner bean is what you are after.

A pound of fava beans yields a heaping 1/2 cup of recipe ready fava beans. You can simply eat favas with a little butter and salt, or add them to almost any pasta dish or salad.
I hope you enjoy your favas, I know I will!!

If Fava beans seem a bit too fiddly for you, you might like to grill your favas.

Toss the fava bean pods with olive oil and salt and some herbs if you have some on hand. Arrange them in a single layer on a grill over medium-high heat. Grill until blistered on one side – 4 to 5 minutes, then flip and grill for a few minutes more on the other side. You want the fava beans to be smooth and creamy when you pop them out of their skins – not undercooked. They will keep steaming in their pods for a few minutes after they come off the grill. Season the grilled favas with a bit more salt. To eat: tear open the green pods, take a fava bean, pinch the skin and slide the bright green fava from its skin into your mouth. All the char, oil, herbs and fava juices stick to your fingers…so lick them. The whole experience is really tasty. I hope you try it.

See the bright green beans that have been removed from the pod and then the skin? That’s what you eat.

This week you will be getting edamame and shallots in your CSA share.
The word edamame means ‘on the bush’ or ‘twig plant’ according to different sources. It’s called that because when you get edamame fresh, that’s what you get. A bush. Ta Da!

Here ya go!!

Edamame is sort of unusual in that all the fruit on the plant ripens at once so it makes more sense, and more fun, to give the bush to you and you pull off the pods. So, that’s what you will be getting.
So bring a bag. :) You’ve been warned.

Wash the pods, and just steam them until they turn bright green.

Drain, salt, and enjoy. I like a little salt, lime juice, and red pepper flakes on edamame

Edited to add a little more information on 9/4/2017;

I was just at CSA pickup and there were a couple of comments about edamame.

1. how do you store edamame?

Take the pods off the plant and store the pods in a plastic bag in your refrigerator for 5-7 days.

2. is it too hard or time consuming to take the pods off the plants?

Not at all. I harvested this bowl of edamame off my bunch in less than 5 minutes. I put the egg in the photo for size reference.

I saw this recipe and had to try it.
It was really fun and tasty so I wanted to pass it on.

The beans are baked, not fried. The result is crunchy and still healthy.
I followed the recipe except I didn’t trim the beans. I figured that we could just eat the bean to the stem like you do jalapeno popper. It worked fine. I also used bread crumbs I made, not panko. It looks like mine were not as well coated as in the recipe made with panko. I am fine with the outcome and would make it again with my own bread crumbs.

Here is the recipe http://www.preventionrd.com/2011/06/baked-green-bean-fries-with-basil-aioli/

I want to try this with zucchini sticks too and I think I would add some parmesan cheese to the bread crumbs next time..

Submitted by Marilyn

• 2 lbs fresh unshelled fava beans, prepared as above and ¼ cup of the cooking liquid
• 2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds, toasted then ground, optional
• 1 Tbs minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• crumbled, grated or thinly sliced cheese such as feta, Manchego or Parmesan
• optional pita wedges, sliced raw carrots, or crackers for dipping, or toasted bread for spreading

In a blender or food processor, combine the beans, half of the reserved cooking liquid and the lemon juice. Add more liquid as needed while processing until the mixture is fairly smooth. Add the oil while continuing to process until smooth.Transfer to a serving bowl and season with salt, pepper and cumin. Sprinkle with the parsley. Serve with pita bread, vegetables, or crackers for dipping. Or spread on toasted bread (rubbed with garlic if you like), and topped with some cheese.

Here is the recipe I used, which is adapted from Sandor Katz’ book Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods.

You will need:

• Sealable canning jars (I used pint jars)
• A pot big enough to cover your jars with water

• String beans
• Garlic
• Salt (I used coarse Kosher salt)
• Whole dried chili peppers
• Celery seed
• Fresh dill (flowering tops if available)
• White distilled vinegar
• Water

Start by boiling your jars and lids for 5 minutes or so to sterilize them. While your jars are boiling, prep your green beans by chopping off just the very tips. Peel as many cloves of garlic as the number of jars you’re making.

For each jar, combine 1 cup of vinegar and 1 cup of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. While your vinegar and water mixture is heating up, place the following in the bottom of each jar: 1 garlic glove, 1 teaspoon of salt, one whole dried chili pepper, 1/4 teaspoon celery seed, and one flowering dill top (or a small bunch of dill leaves). Pack your jars full with green beans. (Note: I made one jar with the chili pepper and one without. Since I’ve never made these before I wanted to test the spice level this time.)

When your vinegar/water mixture has boiled, fill each jar, leaving 1/2 inch of space at the top. Seal up your jars and process them in a boiling water bath for 10-15 minutes. When they are done, your jars could take anywhere from 1 second to 30 minutes to seal. (You’ll know they are sealed when you press down on the middle and it doesn’t spring back at all.)

Give these about 6 weeks before opening for the flavors to meld…if you can stand to wait that long.