Seasonal local food recipe No.326 – Hugh’s bruschetta with broad beans and asparagus
I might have been tempted to make this recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg Every Day! for lunch today had we not already eaten the broad beans out of this week’s box!
Serves 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
12-15 asparagus spears, trimmed
200 g baby broad beans (podded weight)
A bunch spring onions, trimmed
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 large slices sourdough bread (or other robust bread)
1 garlic clove, halved (optional)
Extra virgin olive oil, to trickle
50 g mild, crumbly goat’s cheese
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the asparagus spears and blanch for two minutes. Scoop them out and drain. Let the water come back to the boil. Now add the baby broad beans and blanch for 30-60 seconds until tender, then drain.
Slice the spring onions on the diagonal into 1-2 cm pieces. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, add the spring onions and fry fairly gently for 2-3 minutes, until just beginning to soften. Cut the asparagus spears into 2-3 cm pieces and add, along with the broad beans, to the spring onions in the pan. Add salt and pepper and toss the whole lot together over the heat, for just a minute, then take off the heat.
Meanwhile, toast the bread. Rub very lightly with the cut garlic clove, if you like. Trickle the toast with a little olive oil. Crumble the goat’s cheese over the veg in the pan and stir very lightly again. Pile this veg mixture on to the toast, trickle with a touch more olive oil and serve.
