Broad Bean Chickpea Penne.
I’m late to the party in posting this recipe (the season ended in September) but the broad bean has to be one of my favourite beans (closely followed by the butter bean).
Also called the fava bean, it packs a fertility nutrition punch in terms of an inexpensive plant protein. Plus, they add fancy touch to many a dish with their vibrant green hue. Broad beans are a good source of fibre too, a winning combo if you ask me!
Broad beans can be a bit of faff to prepare (double-podding, IYKYK) but if you make a big batch then they’re easy to throw in to quick-cook pasta dishes like the one below. Making a batch of the pesto ahead of time is also a post-work dinner time saver.
Broad Bean Chickpea Penne
Ingredients
- 15 large broad beans
- 1/2 avocado
- 1 small yellow courgette, sliced into courgetti
- 4 radish
- 160g chickpea pasta
For the pesto
- handful each of basil, mint, coriander, parsley
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 lemon, zest and 1/2 juice
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- olive oil to blend
Instructions
to prepare the broad beans
- Bring a pan of water to the boil and prepare a separate bowl of cold water.
- Remove the beans from each pod and place in the boiling water to cook for around 2mins.
- Once cooked, drain the beans and add to the bowl of cold water.
- Carefully squeeze each bean to separate the bean from its skin. Discard the skins.
for the pasta dish
- In a dry pan, toast the pine nuts over a medium heat until golden. 3-4mins. Keep stirring so as not to burn. Leave to cool.
- Add to a blender the avocado, pine nuts, herbs, garlic, nutritional yeast and salt. Pulse until mixed but keeping a texture crunch from the pine nuts.
- Keeping the blender running, add in olive oil slowly until you have a pesto consistency. Season to taste (with more lemon or salt) then set aside.
- Bring a pan of water with a pinch of salt to the boil. Add the chickpea pasta and simmer for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until "al dente".
- In a medium frying pan, add 1/2 a tbsp olive oil and gently stir fry the courgetti and radish for 5 minutes.
- Drain the pasta, add to a bowl with the courgetti and radish mix, the broad beans and pesto, mix well to coat the pasta. Plate up and serve topped with crumbled feta if you're a cheese fan.