There are many reasons to be full of summer beans. If it's elegance and ease you're after, long french or fine green beans take just minutes to cook and require no chopping, podding or shelling. If it's something more rustic and robust you're after, runner beans are the answer: as well as being the essence of summer, they are also resilient enough to take on heaps of flavour when slow-cooked and still hold their shape and freshness. For sheer vibrancy and versatility, though, Ialways go for broad beans. Sure, they require a bit of work, but once you have your bowl of jewel-like grass-green beans, the options open to you are many. Leave them whole in a herb-packed frittata or salad – they look stunning alongside thin slices of pink radishes and a few crushed pink peppercorns – or crush into fritters, or mash with lemon juice, olive oil and garlic to spread on bruschetta, or blitz in a yoghurt and broad bean dip. And dried, theybecome the fava beans we enjoy all year round.
Nicoise eggs
This standalone brunch or lunch dish, inspired by the famous French salad, can be happily bulked up into something more substantial: some good-quality jarred tuna, poached salmon or smoked haddock would go well here. The potatoes, tomatoes and beans can be prepared a couple of hours ahead, left in an oven tray and warmed up before serving. Serves four.
300g french beans, trimmed
3 medium waxy potatoes, peeled
75ml olive oil
Salt and black pepper
5 medium plum tomatoes, cut into 1.5cm slices
40g Niçoise (or kalamata) olives, pitted and halved lengthways
15g tarragon leaves, roughly chopped
4 eggs, poached just before serving
1 lemon, quartered
For the anchovy hollandaise
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ tsp black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 egg yolks
125g unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp lemon juice
5 salted anchovy fillets
First make the hollandaise. Put the vinegar, peppercorns and bay leaf in a small saucepan on a high heat. Simmer for two minutes, until just a tablespoon of liquid is left, set aside to cool, then strain into the small bowl of a food processor (discard the peppercorns and bay). Add the egg yolks, turn on the motor and slowly pour in the butter until a thick sauce forms. Transfer to a bowl, stir in the lemon juice and finely chopped anchovies, cover with clingfilm and set aside somewhere warm.
Bring a medium pan of water to a boil, add the beans and cook for four to five minutes, until cooked but with a bite. Tip into a colander, refresh under cold water and set aside.
Refill the saucepan with water and return to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook for 20-25 minutes, until almost cooked. Drain and, once cool enough to handle, cut into 1cm slices.
Put a large frying pan on a medium-high flame, heat two tablespoons of oil, then add the potatoes and half a teaspoon of salt. Fry for eight to 10 minutes, turning once, until golden-brown and crisp. Lift from the pan and keep warm.
Put another tablespoon of oil in the pan, add the beans and a pinch of salt, and cook, stirring, for a minute. Remove and keep warm.
Add the remaining oil to the pan and, once hot, add the tomatoes and a sprinkling of salt. Cook for two minutes, turning once, until starting to caramelise, then remove from the pan and keep warm.
Split the potatoes between four plates and top with beans, tomatoes and olives. Season, sprinkle with tarragon and lay a poached egg on top. Pour the sauce on top and serve at once with a wedge of lemon.
Baked halibut with ful medames and fresh broad beans
Dried broad beans are known as fava beans (in the US, though, all broad beans are called fava beans, just to confuse matters). Once soaked, cooked and crushed, they make a hearty dish called ful medames that's a staple in Egypt and Sudan, where it's eaten as a snack with bread, or as a main meal with rice and, often, hard-boiled eggs. The cooking time of the beans varies depending on size: small beans can cook within an hour and a half, while larger, older ones can take up to four hours. Whether you need to skin them depends, again, on size: the skin of small beans is tender, and it isn't practical to peel them, anyway, because they tend to disintegrate in the cooking; larger beans often have tough skin and require peeling. Serves four.
200g fava beans, soaked overnight in plenty of cold water
4 150g-200g halibut fillets, skin lightly scored
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp cayenne
1 big garlic clove, peeled and crushed
60ml olive oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
20g parsley, finely chopped
Salt and black pepper
220g fresh (or frozen) broad beans, blanched for 30 seconds, drained and shelled
¼ small red onion, peeled and finelysliced
30g unsalted butter
Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Drain the soaked fava beans, add to the pan and cook on amedium heat for anywhere between an hour and a half and four hours, depending on the size and quality of the beans – they need to be soft and starting to collapse. Keep an eye on the beans while they're cooking, and top up with water, if necessary, so they do not dry out.
About an hour before the fava beans are ready, put the fish in a bowl and sprinkle with the lemon zest, half a teaspoon of cumin and half a teaspoon of salt. Stir, cover and put in the fridge to marinate for an hour.
Once the beans are cooked, drain and, if the skins are tough, remove and discard them, much as you would fresh broad beans. Return the shelled beans to the empty pan and stir in the rest of the cumin, the cayenne, garlic, three tablespoons of oil, a tablespoon of lemon juice, two tablespoons of water, half the parsley and half a teaspoon of salt. Mix and set aside somewhere warm.
Put the fresh broad beans in asmall bowl with the onion and remaining parsley. Mix and set aside.
Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Pour the remaining tablespoon of oil into a large ovenproof frying pan and put on amedium-high heat. Add the fish, skin side down, and cook for three minutes. Flip over, add the butter and cook for another two to three minutes, basting the fish with butter throughout. Transfer to the oven and roast for three to five minutes, until just cooked through.
Divide the ful medames between four plates and spoon over half of the fresh broad bean mix. Top with afish and finish with the remaining fresh beans. Return the frying pan to the heat and, once the butter in the pan starts to sizzle, add two tablespoons of lemon juice and warm through. Pour the lemon butter over the fish and serve at once.
Slow-cooked runner beans in tomato sauce
Served with brown rice, this manages to be both summery and light and comforting and hearty. Serves four.
2 tbsp olive oil
6 shallots, peeled and roughlychopped
2 large garlic cloves, peeled
2 tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp cayenne
1 tsp paprika
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp tomato paste
500g runner beans, trimmed and cut on the diagonal into 2cm pieces
6 medium tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
500ml vegetable stock
Salt and black pepper
For the gremolata (optional)
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
10g parsley, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
Put the oil into a large lidded saute pan on a medium-high heat. Add the shallots and fry gently for eight minutes, stirring, until they start to colour and soften. Add the crushed garlic, cumin, cayenne, paprika and nutmeg, and cook for two minutes, stirring. Add the tomato paste, cook for a minute, then add the beans, tomatoes, stock, half a teaspoon of salt and some black pepper. Turn down the heat to medium, cover the pan and leave to simmer for an hour (remove the lid for the final 15 to 30 minutes), until the liquid has reduced to a thick sauce and the beans are soft. Serve warm, topped with gremolata (just mix the three ingredients together), if you wish.
Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.
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