Let the Runner Bean frenzy continue

Of course I am referring to those runner beans I harvested from the garden plot.

A day after making the spiced runner bean and chickpea salad I made this Spiced runner bean and chickpea stew. This recipe was inspired by Jamie Oliver's dish Sweet Runner Bean stew. His runner bean stew was not suitable for vegetarians or vegans as it contained anchovies, so I thought about replacing the anchovies with minced capers so that it would be reminisce of Puttanesca, but then decided not to. Instead I increased the quantity of chilli and introduced some chickpeas to the dish. Whilst the sauce thickened and bubbled away, I tasted it for seasoning and thought to myself it was rather flavourful. It was rich, spicy and saucy. In fact it actually reminded me a little of Arrabiata sauce.
Spiced Runner bean and chickpea stewServes 4
Ingredients500g runner beans, trimmed
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
2 red chilies, sliced
2 x 400g tins of tomatoes, crushed or blitzed in a food processor
1 long sprig of fresh rosemary
200g cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Feed the runner beans through a bean cutter. If you don’t have one of these nifty little gadgets, just run your speed peeler aka potato peeler down each side of the bean to get rid of the stringy bits and then cut them with a sharp knife into 1cm pieces at an angle.
Heat a large saucepan, big enough to hold all the ingredients, and the olive oil plus the garlic and fry them gently with the chillies until it goes soft. Pour in the tomatoes, the beans and the rosemary sprig. Season and bring to the boil. Place a lid on the pan and simmer gently for 15 to 25 minutes or until the beans are nicely cooked. When the beans are tender, add in the chickpeas and warm through for five minutes. If the sauce gets a little dry, add a splash of water and give the beans a stir. Remove the rosemary sprig before serving.

Serve with couscous, plain boiled rice, potatoes or even over some pasta.

Make time for the Runner Bean

Ah be warned - the next few days will feature recipes that include runner beans.
One of my fellow bloggers commented a little while ago and mentioned that he was not familiar with runner beans. So for those of you may be unfamiliar with it, may I give a very brief introduction.

Runner beans originate from South America, so its quite surprising to note that they are one of the most common garden vegetables in the UK. In fact they have been described as a quintessentially British vegetable. I have found runner beans extremely easy to grow. Before you know it, you'll have long, green runner beans varying from 3 inches to 8 inches to harvest. I don't think runner beans taste of very much, but I still like to grow them, especially for its red-orange flowers that the bees seem to love too. To prepare runner beans, you must top and tail them. I don't tend to remove the stringy bits running up the sides, but some people do using a small knife or vegetable peeler before cooking.

Runner beans can be boiled, roasted, steamed, stewed or stir-fried. They are best cooked until al dente. Over the next few days, I will be experimenting with them.
So this is my first dish. Its an recipe inspired by Denis Cotters Chickpeas with chillies and Nigella Lawson's chickpea with chilli and garlic. Oh I also used the the bolted Rainbow Swiss chard I picked earlier.
Here it is transformed, sauteed in olive oil with some garlic.
Spiced Runner bean and chickpea salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
200g - 250g runner bean, topped and tailed, sliced diagonally
1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 red chilli, finely sliced
2 tablespoon olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt to taste
Method
Steam the runner beans, until tender, then set aside
Mix together the garlic, chilli, olive oil, lemon juice and salt to taste. Add in the runner beans and the chickpeas. Stir well to combine. Leave aside for an hour or so for the flavours to infuse. Serve at room temperature.

For those of you with beady eyes, I did add some roasted cubed potatoes to the salad to make more of a meal of it.

Dwarf Variety of Beans

I picked a generous handful of beans for our meal tonight. These are hestia runner beans; purple Queen french beans; and speedy french green beans. All are dwarf varieties and early producing.
They all produce lovely flowers, purple, red and white. All of which I think should really be grown in pots, not direct in the ground, as the beans get slathered with soil and gushy mud when it rains.

The only one which has been a bit of a hit and miss, are the hestia runner beans – as you can see, instead of being flat, it has little humps like a camel. Tasted fine though.

Good things to come

The wind is howling outside, and the rain is crashing hard on the window panes. My hopes for a visit to the allotment may have to be postponed if the weather continues like this tomorrow.

To cheer me up and may be you too, here are some more pictures from my allotment last year. More good and delicious things to come.
scarlet runner beans - really pretty and delicate flowers

Tower sunflower

Sweet lightning pumpkins plants - from this to this.

Gorgeous. They were absolutely delicious!

Broad bean plants

Now ready to podded and eaten