Chef Thomas
Baked Onions with Cream and Thyme
Whole onions surrendered to a low oven with cream and thyme until they collapse into something golden, sweet and yielding, the kind of side dish that quietly upstages everything else on the table.
Culinary Explorer
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Buttered Broad Beans with Summer Savory
Created by Chef Thomas
Fresh broad beans turned through foaming butter with summer savory picked from the garden, the kind of side dish that arrives in July and is gone before you've had your fill.
Side Dishes
British
Weeknight
Quick Meal
20 min
Active Time
5 min cook•25 min total
Yield4 servings as a side
The pods appear all at once. One week the plants are flowering, and then suddenly the kitchen table is buried in broad beans and you're shelling them into a bowl every other evening, trying to keep pace with the garden.
This is the simplest thing to do with them, and the best. Podded, blanched for barely two minutes, then turned through foaming butter with a handful of summer savory leaves. The herb has a warm, peppery bite that meets the sweet, green softness of the beans exactly where it should. Five minutes of actual cooking. The shelling takes longer, but that's part of it. Sit down. Put the radio on. There are worse ways to spend a quarter of an hour.
I grow summer savory in the herb patch for this dish alone, and it earns its place every year. If you can't find it, a few thyme leaves will do, or nothing at all, just butter and salt and the beans themselves. But if you can get it, fresh, from the garden or a good greengrocer, do. It's the reason the recipe exists.
I wrote it down in the notebook years ago: broad beans, butter, savory, Tuesday. That's the whole recipe, really. The rest is just detail.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
broad beans
Quantity
1kg in their pods
podded, roughly 300g shelled weight
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
fresh summer savory
Quantity
a few sprigs
leaves picked
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
lemon juice (optional)
Quantity
a squeeze
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| broad beanspodded, roughly 300g shelled weight | 1kg in their pods |
| unsalted butter | 30g |
| fresh summer savoryleaves picked | a few sprigs |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| lemon juice (optional) | a squeeze |
Equipment Needed
- •Large saucepan for blanching
- •Colander
- •Wide frying pan or sauté pan
Instructions
- 1
Shell the beans
Sit down with a bowl and the bag of pods. Run your thumbnail along the seam and split them open. The beans inside should be bright green and no bigger than your thumbnail. If they're small, young, and tender, that's all you need to do. If some are larger and their skins have gone pale and leathery, you'll want to double-pod them: blanch those ones in boiling water for a minute, drain, cool under the tap, then slip the grey skins off to reveal the vivid green bean inside. The small ones don't need this. Don't make extra work where it isn't wanted.
The shelling is the longest part of this recipe. It takes ten or fifteen minutes and is better done sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea than standing at the counter in a hurry. - 2
Blanch briefly
Bring a pan of well-salted water to a rolling boil. Drop the beans in. They need two minutes, three at most. You want them just tender, still with a slight bite at the centre. Drain them well and shake the colander so the water runs off. Wet beans and butter don't mix.
- 3
Butter and savory
Melt the butter in a wide pan over a gentle heat. When it foams and starts to smell sweet and warm, add the summer savory leaves and let them sizzle for a few seconds, just long enough for the butter to take on their peppery, thyme-like scent. Tip in the drained beans and turn them gently through the butter until every bean is glossy and coated. A minute, perhaps less. Season with salt and a squeeze of lemon if you like. Taste one. Adjust. Serve straight from the pan.
Summer savory has a natural affinity with beans that borders on the inevitable. The Germans call it Bohnenkraut, the bean herb. They worked this out a long time ago.
Chef Tips
- •Young beans the size of your little fingernail don't need double-podding. They're tender enough in their skins and the colour is already bright. Save yourself the trouble and keep it for the bigger, starchier ones that appear later in the season when the plants are tired.
- •Don't cook the beans ahead and reheat them. This is a five-minute dish and it tastes like one, in the best way. The freshness is the point. Cold, reheated broad beans have a mealy sadness about them that no amount of butter can rescue.
- •If you've got more beans than you know what to do with, crush half of them roughly with a fork and spread them on toast with good olive oil and a grating of pecorino. A different meal entirely, equally worth your time.
Advance Preparation
- •The beans can be podded several hours ahead and kept in a covered bowl in the fridge. The cooking itself cannot be done in advance. It takes five minutes and should be done just before serving.
- •If you're double-podding larger beans, this can also be done ahead and the bright green inner beans refrigerated until needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 85g)
Calories
100 calories
Total Fat
7 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
3 g
Cholesterol
16 mg
Sodium
290 mg
Total Carbohydrates
8 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
4 g
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