To your door!

To the shop!

THIS WEEK’S BOX AND BROAD BEAN, CARROT AND SPINACH SOUP

Matt in the veg roomby Matt in the veg room, 11 m, 3 wk ago in Blog
Comments | Tags:

Every year our best broad beans come from St Helens farm in Tadcaster. Jonnie Watson the grower lets us know as soon as they’re ready and we buy them for our boxes for as long as we can, which is usually only for two or three weeks. That way they’re really sweet and tender, as the beans toughen if left hanging around on the plants too long. From the same supplier we have some beet spinach and the cauliflowers in the large boxes; the mini cucumbers are from Yorkshire too and the red batavia lettuce is from our own field in the Moss Valley, Sheffield. These lettuce are officially ‘organic in conversion’ which means the land is in its final year of the conversion period, although fully organic growing methods are used. Fingers crossed, we should have our own courgettes in a fortnight. In the fruit boxes look out for a gold kiwi. We don’t get them often, and they’re expensive, but a bit of a treat.

BROAD BEAN, SPINACH AND CARROT SOUP ... This week’s beans are lovely and tender but if you make this with larger, tougher beans it’s worth taking the trouble boil them for five minutes, cool them under the cold tap and pop the largest from their grey skins. Add them to the soup at the last moment ... For 4.

  • 500g broad beans (total weight pods and all),
  • 50g risotto rice
  • 250g carrots diced
  • 2 medium onions choppe
  • 1 clove garlic finely chopped
  • 200g spinach shredded
  • 1.2 L vegetable stock
  • 1 glass dry white wine
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1 tbsp chopped mint
  • parsley or basil
  • 75 ml single cream
  • 50g butter
  • salt and pepper ...
  1. Pod the beans.
  2. Melt the butter in a pan and add the onions, fennel seeds and garlic and cook gently for about 10 minutes.
  3. Add the carrots, rice, stock and wine and simmer until the rice and carrots are just tender, then add the beans and spinach.
  4. Check the seasonings and cook for a further 5 minutes before stirring in the cream and herbs.
blog comments powered by Disqus