Broad Bean Hummus

Broad beans are the finest food in the world, unless you have that strange and mutant gene which makes you think that they are not the finest food, like my brother in law and his daughter, who really need to be sent to re-education camp anway, for a myriad of reasons, but should be sent there specifically for saying that they don't like broad beans. Because, I mean, who doesn't like broad beans?

OK, fair enough, end-of-season broad beans are a little bit like middle-aged Hell's Angels; a little bit dressed-up in their leathery jackets; a little bit nobbly around the edges but then, even then, all you need to do is double de-pod* them to reveal the still-boyish hearts within. Inside every bearded rocker three days away from his last bath is a little boy who still wants his mum. Remember that; only misfits and social outcasts don't like broad beans and only someone without a heart would reject a little boy who wants his mum.

Enough.  For this hummus, you will need:

• 1 kg of broad beans
• tahini
• smoked garlic, if you can find it; ordinary garlic if you can't
• a lemon
• cumin powder. I actually make my cumin powder fresh from seed each time I use it, but cumin powder that hasn't been at the back of the store cupboard for over a year should be fine.
• olive oil
• salt - crystals of sea salt if you have them, ordinary salt if you haven't
• pepper - I actually think that black pepper in a grinder is necessary.  Pre-powdered pepper is not great.

First, de-pod the broad beans.  Here is what 1 kg of late-summer broad beans look like de-podded:

 

Here, you will see that I have covered them in cling film.  This is because to cook them I have splashed about two tablespoons of water in there (or two quick passes under the cold-water tap) and am about to put a couple of holes in the cling film to let steam escape.

So, put two splashes of water into your broadbean bowl, cover with cling film, pierce in a couple of places and microwave on 800W for about four minutes. Adjust the timing according to the amount of hummus you are making - if I was doing half this amount, I would probably do 3 minutes. I could probably have done a minute more because these are late-summer broad beans and a little tough.

Then, after four minutes, put the bowl in a colander and run some cold water over the beans until the beans and the bowl you microwaved them in are room temperature.  Be careful removing the cling film, because you have effectively steamed the beans, and that steam is still hanging around.  You'll see that some of the jackets have split to show the bright green insides.

To double de-pod the beans you are going to need three bowls (I didn't take a picture of this bit because I needed two hands to do it and another to hold the camera and the cats were refusing to co-operate).

Put the bowls in a row with the bowl full of microwaved beans on one end. Pick up a bean, and if the jacket isn't split, make a nick in it with a small knife. Squeeze the bean so that the insides squirt out into one bowl, and discard the jacket into the other bowl. Repeat for all of the beans. See footnote.** This takes less long than you would think while actually not taking long enough, on another level. 

Here's a picture of all of the things I am going to add to the double de-podded broad beans, not including the salt and pepper:

Did you know that you should store your tahini upside down in the fridge?  Obviously, it's the right way up, here, but the seedy / corn-floury part of it slowly sinks to the bottom and you need that as much as you do the oil; if you store the jar upside own, when you take it out and put it the right way up, all the tahini mixes up ready for you to use it. HANDY HINT NUMBER 113.

I've got a lemon and a lime there, because the lemon was quite small and the broad beans quite old and I wasn't sure that I would have enough liquid. The end result was too citrusy, this time, so I could have done with one lemon or perhaps even less - maybe nine tenths of a lemon.

Now, I used a stick blender for this next bit, but you could also do it in a food processor. I was simply trying to save on washing-up. 

In the bowl with the double de-podded broad beans, put four or five chopped cloves of smoked garlic - or more if you want.  If you are using real garlic, it's stronger so use a little less. Add the juice of a lemon (I warmed the whole lemon in the microwave on 800W for 20s first, to get more of the juice out), a tablespoon or two of tahini (I used two tablespoons, but I think that is too much because then you can't taste the broad beans; one is probably better), and two tablespoons of oil (use more oil if needed), a good pinch of salt and a crunch of pepper.

Also add cumin. If you are making the cumin powder fresh, toast about two tablespoons of the seed in a very hot pan for about five minutes, stirring and shaking continually until the seeds darken in colour and start 'steaming' and giving off a strong cumin / menthol smell. Then, grind them up in a coffee bean grinder you have bought just for this purpose. A tablespoon of seed turns into about a two teaspoons of powder and you'll need roughly a rounded teaspoon of cumin powder.

Here is a picture of two tablespoons of cumin seed roasting in a pan. They are about halfway through the roasting:

My bowl looked like this: 

Now blend until you get a smooth, green paste. Your final hummus should look a little bit like this:

If you have done this right (and not overdone the tahini or lemon, like I did this time), you should get a lovely garlic and cumin flavoured dip which goes brilliantly with things like spring onions and celery.   Or, more realistically, crisps. 

** Not this footnote.  That* footnote.

* It's very therapeutic, double de-podding broad beans. It's better than squeezing blackheads, certainly, although  very similar in some vital aspects.