Broad beans and burgers

I sowed broad beans back in November last year on plot 67 and surprise surprise they flourished. I did plant broad beans on Plot 18 in November 2013, but then the hurricanes came and destroyed the blow-away poly and plot 18 flooded, so no overwintered broad beans for me. Last year I bought a tray at the garden centre and planted them out in April. They did well, but I wanted another go at over wintering my own hand sown ones. 

I was really pleased with them. They grew about 4ft tall and were really lush. I harvested bag after bag of them. My good friend who also has a plot had her crop devastated by some beastie so I gave her a good carrier bag full too. She has has raved and raved about Yotam Ottolenghi's broad bean burgers. So I gave the recipe a go. They were pretty good, but difficult to keep together (perhaps I didn't mash the beans enough). By far the best dish I created with mine was a tomato, onion and broad bean salad served with campaillette. I basically simmered the broad beans for about 5 mins, chopped a large beefsteak tomato and half a red onion. I crushed the cooked bean a little and added the tomato and onion with olive oil, some herb de provence and salt and pepper. It was totally delicious. 

The broad beans are all over now. I did think about ordering some autumn cropping broad bean plants, but I've had my glut of them this year and there's something wonderful about eating seasonally. I'm sure I'll still have lots of other produce to get through by then. Plus I have lots of broad beans in my freezer which still need eating. 

P.S. I really wish I could have posted some pictures of the full sized plants or the dishes...unfortunately my phone malfunctioned and keep restarting over and over. I had to reset it to factory settings and lost all my photos. I couldn't even back it up as it would restart before the backup was complete....sooooo annoying and I really need to get into the habit of carry my camera around with me.