The Spanish have a curious habit of serving vegetables as a starter and serving the meat as a main course on its own. This classic combination of broad beans and Serrano ham is one of my favourite Spanish starters.
Broad beans are an excellent source of protein and fiber, which makes this bean a perfect weight-loss food. They’re best when they are relatively small and new; they become duller tasting and more like dried pulses with age. Legumes are rich in a range of vitamins and minerals, as well as potentially bioactive nutrients. There is growing evidence that their regular consumption can reduce the risk of developing a range of chronic diseases including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.
Broad beans with spring garlic and crispy serrano ham
The Spanish have a curious habit of serving vegetables as a starter and serving the meat as a main course on its own. This classic combination of broad beans and Serrano ham is one of my favourite Spanish starters.
Ingredients
- 1 spring garlic
- 1 spring onion
- 1 cup of broad beans
- 1 tsp. olive oil
- 1 bay leaf
- A sprig of thyme
- Dash of white wine or sherry
- 1 slice Serrano ham
- A few mint leaves
Instructions
- Thinly slice the spring garlic and onion and pod the broad beans.
- In a pan, heat a little olive oil and sweat the garlic and onion until slightly translucent.
- Add the bay leaf, thyme and broad beans and add a dash of white wine or sherry. Cover and leave to simmer for 10 minutes or until the beans are tender (older beans may require a little more liquid and a longer cooking time).
- Meanwhile, place the slice of Serrano ham between two pieces of kitchen paper and cook in the microwave for 30-60 seconds; the ham should come out crisp. If you don’t have a microwave you can place the ham under a grill or fry it.
- When the broad beans are tender, mix in a few mint leaves, transfer to a plate and break the crispy ham over the top.
Notes
Try to buy baby broad beans, as the thick skin that covers each bean is the tenderest in very young beans. Older broad beans can benefit from having this skin removed before cooking. Baby broad beans are available frozen.
About cured meats: meat or fish is cured by the addition of a combination of salt, nitrates, nitrite or sugar. Although nitrates and nitrites must be used with caution during curing (they are toxic when used in large amounts), it is not just these compounds that make cured meats a “do-not-overindulge” food: it is their high saturated fat and salt content that places them low on the nutritional totem pole.