I took my friend, her husband and their son, we’ll call him Bear, fruit picking a few weeks ago. I expected to be picking raspberries, broad beans and gooseberries so was pleasantly surprised that there were also strawberries still ripe for the picking.
Bear was far more excited by the strawberries and raspberries as I had expected so I left him happily stuffing his face with various red fruits while I went to pick broad beans. One of the guys at the farm had said that the broad beans were nearly over so I was so pleased to see rows and rows of newer beans still ready to be picked. There’s nothing wrong with the older, slightly yellow pods with white skinned beans inside – they just aren’t as tender as the greener pods with green skinned little gems inside. I wanted really young green broad beans to make falafel. If you can’t get them fresh then frozen is fine and if they are on the older side just blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes before using in falafel.
Ingredients
250g broad beans (ish – it really won’t matter if you have 50g more but ideally not 50g less!)
Handful of coriander
Slightly smaller handful of mint
Zest of a lemon
red chilli (mine was huge and spicy so I used half, if it had been a fruitier chilli I would have used a whole one)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon of flour (you can use plain flour, millet flour, teff flour – whatever you normally use at home)
Salt and pepper
Method
Pop all ingredients except flour into a food processor and pulse, scraping the sides at intervals. Add the flour and pulse again. Form the mixture into small balls or quenelles and deep fry until brown.
I served these with yoghurt mized with za’atar and drizzled with pomegranate molasses (and a huge bowl of my sort of tabbouleh).
