Sunday, October 5, 2008

shelling bean mania

the shelling bean is something new to me this year, but i've become pretty enamoured of them. just look how pretty!
i've seen them described as "teenage" beans - not young enough to eat the pod, ala edamame, or old enough to keep like dry beans, but just old enough to mouth off and get into trouble. i mean, old enough that you just simmer them for 20 or so minutes for creamy delicious beany delight.
at first, i thought i'd do a soup with these tonight, but i couldn't think of any grains we had on hand that would go well. so i decided on beans and rice, but we were out of rice. so pasta it was. the pictures don't really do it justice - we had green spinach, red peppers, and these purple-ish beans that held their color fairly well. throw in some garlic, red pepper flake and lemon juice, and you've got yourself a meal. all the produce was from yesterday's farmer's market except the lemon. yum.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

mmm sounds delicious! I've never really cooked with those pod types of beans and am going to look for them at the market.

Maggie said...

I have been eyeing these at the farmer's market, but the last time I got them it took SOOOO long to get them all out of the shell.

Frisky said...

foodhoe: you should! they're only available for a short time in the fall. should have mentioned that they're best eaten soon after purchase - within a say or so.

maggie: i do enjoy shelling peas and beans. and i got less than a pound since we were going to be out of town for the evening, but i think it's less work than cooking dry beans.

susan said...

I had to laugh at the teenage bean comment - LOL! The soup looks yummy. I am hoping to add beans to our garden next year. Thanks for the post; I am enjoying your blog :)