English Peas, Spring Onions and Roasted Almonds

Just cooked English peas, sautéd spring onions and roasted, salted almonds are a delicious combination of tender sweet, sweet pungent, and crunchy just salty. You can set this side dish next to grilled fish or chicken or mashed potatoes and a roast. It's...

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Legumes Category Archive

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English Peas: Harvest and Cooking

How do you cook peas? Peas are cooked in the least possible amount of water and in just the time for them to become just tender. The French cook peas in the water it takes to moisten lettuce leaves. Line a saucepan with damp greens and a few pea pods, pour in the shelled peas and cover them with moist lettuce. Steam the peas over a high heat for about 3 minutes or until they are al denté, just tender.

Be careful not to overcook peas. Boiling or long steaming will increase water absorption and cause the peas to become soggy and mushy. Both flavor and nutrients are sacrificed when peas are overcooked.

When the peas are ready, the simplest way to enjoy them is with butter, salt, and pepper.

Pea, garden pea, English pea are all the same. The pea is traditionally the first kitchen garden crop planted each year. It goes in the ground as soon as the soil can be worked. So—depending upon where you live—you are either sowing peas now or harvesting them.

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Pea Planting

When the soil in your garden warms to 45ºF (7ºC), you can plant peas—snap, snow, and shell.

Peas are tasty shelled from the pods and used raw in salads. You can steam peas as a vegetable, or cook them in soups and stews.

Peas prefer cool weather. They mature in about 60 days. So time your pea planting so your pea harvest comes before the weather turns warm. That means plant peas in late winter and very early spring (February and March in the northern hemisphere) in regions where there is seldom snow. In snowy winter regions, pea planting can start in mid spring (April in the northern hemisphere). As a general rule, peas can be planted six weeks before your last spring frost date.

Site. Peas also like full sun. The only reason to plant peas in part shade is if you live in a region where the weather turns hot quickly. Afternoon shade in hot and arid regions will give peas the cool air temperatures they prefer at harvest time. Peas do not do well when the daytime temperature rises above 80ºF (27ºC), The sugar levels of peas are higher in cool weather.

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Black Bean Soup

The black bean--the black turtle bean--may be small but it is meaty and flavorful and can be nearly turned into a meal on its own. It is the same frijol negro of the popular Mexican-American black bean burrito. The black bean is a staple in Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian, Cuban, and Caribbean cookery as well.

The black bean--Phaseolus vulgaris--is kidney shaped and just short of blocky looking with a cream-colored flesh, and, of course, a matt to shiny black skin.

Why is the black bean found in so many cuisines? Two reasons: it holds its shape when cooked, and its floury texture absorbs the flavors of other foods making it an easy match and complement to so many other dishes: vegetables, beef, pork, chicken, and fish.

The flavor of the black bean has been described as both sweet and earthy, like a mushroom; you decide. The turtle bean's distinctive color definitely adds drama to soups, salads, and casseroles.

Besides black bean and turtle bean, you may find this bean called Mexican black bean, Spanish black bean, and turtle soup bean.

You will never be at a loss for a black bean soup recipe. There are many, and they are all variations on a theme. Some recipes include fresh tomatoes or celery: ideal for summer when those add-in vegetables are in season. In the winter, substitute a root vegetable.

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How to Prepare and Cook Dried Beans

Dried beans eaten fresh meaning during the season just after they have been harvested and dried--will undoubtedly be the best tasting.

But a big plus for dried beans is that they have a long shelf life if stored in a dry, cool, airtight container away from sunlight. Quite easily, you can keep dried beans on hand for more than just a season or two after they have been dried.

Beans are packed with protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber, and they are low in fat. Beans--which are also known as pulses and are the edible seeds from plants belonging to the legume family--readily absorb the flavors of other foods. That means you can use beans as the base for many cooked dishes. That's why beans have been adopted by so many of the world's cuisines.

The preparation and cooking of dried beans is not difficult. It's worth trying as many different varieties of dried beans as you can. They don't all taste the same!

Here's some starter tips for preparing, cooking, and serving dried beans:

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Dried-Beans

Beans are legumes whose seeds or pods can be eaten at various stages of maturity and belong to many different plant species. They have been used as food for thousands of years.

Beans can be divided into three broad categories:

• Edible pod beans can be eaten fresh seed, pod and all. These beans are often called green or snap beans.

• Fresh-shelled beans are harvested and shelled when their seeds are full-sized but have not yet dried. These beans are sometimes called shellies or shuckies.

• Dried beans are beans whose seeds are dried and shelled after reaching maturity. Before shelling they are often left to mature and then dry on the vine. After shelling, dried beans are usually dried again.

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Chickpeas

The chickpea can be used in appetizers, mixed salads, soups, main dishes, puréed, and ground and made into flour.

Garbanzo bean in Spain, pois chiche in France, ceci in Italy, hummus in the Middle East, gram in India, chickpea in the United States: by any name, the chickpea is a staple in cookery throughout much of the world.

The nutty flavor and creamy texture of the chickpea make it a robust and hearty addition to many dishes.

Whole chickpeas can be fried, roasted, and boiled. Fresh or dried chickpeas can be used like peas or beans, added to soups and stews. Shell then steam or boil chickpeas like peas or roast them like peanuts. Chickpeas can be used with grains as a protein-rich substitute. They are the main ingredient of hummus, the thick sauce usually served as a dip with pieces of pita.

Split chickpeas are known as chana dal in India. Mature chickpeas are canned in brine and used in salads in the United States, usually called garbanzo beans. The chickpea has more texture than other legumes and does not fall apart as easily.

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Piquant Wax Beans

Piquant is a flavor that can be spicy, tart, or pungent.

In this recipe that combines wax beans with chopped pimiento, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, and dry mustard, I think we are on the border between spicy and pungent.

The wax bean is a pale yellow variety of green bean. Sometimes called yellow snap bean, the wax bean gets its name from its waxy textured skin.

There are two varieties of wax bean you might want to try in your garden: ‘Mellow Yellow’ is crisp and sweet tasting—it’s not a big plant either; ‘Gold Mine’ is ultra-sweet and a big producer. Both produce beans that measure from 5 to 6 inches (13-15 cm) long.

The pimiento is a red heart-shaped sweet pepper that is sweeter, more succulent, and more aromatic than the red bell pepper.

Both the wax bean and the pimiento are late summer and early fall vegetables so they should be easy to find at your farm market this weekend.

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Green Beans with Garlic

Here is a simple recipe for les haricots verts à l’ail or green beans with garlic.

Both fresh green beans and garlic will be an easy find at the farm market this week. Serve this simple side dish with pasta, chicken, steak, or salmon.

This recipe comes from La Cuisine du Comté de Nice by Jacques Médecin. If you are from Nice, France the name, no doubt, rings a bell. Médecin was the mayor of Nice and also a chef in that city for many years. (We won’t go into politics, but Médecin did spend some time in prison after being mayor. He died in 1998.)

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Beans

green bean

Beans, beans, beans!

If there were a "best of beans" award, which would you pick?

End of summer is truly the culmination of bean season. Even the wax bean--which prefers cooler weather than most other beans--is about at the farm market now.

How to make sense of all these beans and all those bean names? Here's a bean primer to help you through bean season:

Beans are legumes whose seeds or pods are eaten, but are not classified as peas or lentils (which are also legumes). For the record, legumes are plants with double-seamed pods containing a single row of seeds.

Beans can be divided into two main groups: those that can be eaten pod and all, called green or snap beans, and others that are shelled for their seeds and eaten either fresh or dried, called shell or dried beans.

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Snap Beans

Fresh, tender snap beans have a delicate flavor that is delicious eaten raw or just lightly cooked.

You can serve fresh, raw sliced snap beans with a dipping sauce or you can sauté them and then toss them with diced potatoes and a little onion and bacon for a hot bean salad.

Simpler yet, just top and tail snap beans and cook them in boiling water for 5 minutes and serve them as an accompaniment to meat or poultry or fish. You can go wild by just adding a dab of butter.

When you look for snap beans at your farmers’ market, you will find considerable variety. There are many types of snap beans including purple, yellow, creamy white, and green, and snap beans can be flat or round.

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