Pureed broad beans topped with garlicky courgettes and tomatoes – and the solution to an old mystery
I have found them under both the counter and the fridge. Every week, I prise a flat, hard thing from the bottom of my foot, wondering what it is, and then I remember. At the end of spring, I bought a few kilos of broad beans in their pods, because they were going cheap. Cheap because the pods were huge and knobbly with beans the size of small kidneys, and whose skins were like leather and seeds well on the way to being dried. I decided this was the summer to keep beans, so I sat watching a film on my computer while flicking the beans out of their pods, levering off their wretched coats and laying out the dozens of ivory pairs on three wooden boards to dry.
It was satisfying, for a day, but after moving the boards around our small flat and terrace, it quickly felt like an annoying game. Moving meant the boards were increasingly messy, with the beans sliding and falling, which, I suppose, is why I kept finding them in plant pots or in the sink, a testament to my aggressive moving. They seemed fewer as I tipped them into a jar, glad to see the back of them.