rosie's seasonal stars - Broad beans

Rosie Birkett shows us how to use these robust beans

- Rosie Birkett

I once spent an entire day podding broad beans during one of my stages in a restaurant kitchen where I had gone to observe and learn. Even though the task was monotonous and repetitive, there was satisfaction to be taken in the job, which was clearly going to lead to all sorts of glorious things on the restaurant’s menu. I remember a tangible sense of collective excitement among the brigade at the sight of crates of the bulbous green pods (and perhaps also a collective sigh of relief that I was there to pod them all). But, it wasn’t until one of the chefs took me aside and showed me a trick for podding the beans more efficiently that I really got into my stride with it. The trick is to feel for where the bean is in the pod and pinch either side of it, in the space between, then twist the bean out. It then pops out easily from the foamy confines of the pod – it’s a game-changing tip.