Three summer crops

Three regular HCF summer crops burst onto our list of available produce this week. Find out more about the broad beans, pattypans, and fennel and let us know if you’ve got a favourite seasonal recipe.

Broad beans

These beans are on Pick Your Own. Their season is short so fill a bag or two now and enjoy them fresh or freeze them for the months to come.

Gently peel the pods away from the stems of the plant. (If you yank them, you risk breaking the stem or even uprooting the plant.)

To prepare them, slit the fat outer pod and run your thumb along the furry inside to pop out the broad beans. You can use them like this but they are even better if you go on to double-pod them – removing the thick skin that encases each individual bean. Blanch the beans for a couple of minutes, let them cool slightly, then remove the outer skin to reveal the tender, bright green bean below. Smaller beans are more faff to pod but they’ll pay you back in sweetness; the bigger beans can get mealy over time.

Broad beans are a good source of protein and vitamins A & B and super versatile. You can eat them in salads, crushed into dips, stirred into risotto or summer casseroles… You’ll find dozens of recipes online; here are a couple to get you started:

• New potato, broad bean and chorizo salad
• Smashed broad beans on toast

Fennel

Every part of this plant is edible, from the thick, crisp bulb to the feathery leaves. It has a fresh anise flavour – very present if you eat it raw, fading to a mellow backnote if it’s cooked. To have fennel through the winter, blanch and freeze it. It won’t keep the crisp texture of fresh raw fennel but it’ll do just fine in a cooked meal. Fennel is high in fibre, potassium and vitamin C.

Simply slice raw fennel into salads or prepare slices or chunks for cooking. You can grill it, fry it, roast it, blend it into soups … try these ideas:

• Fennel and celery salad
• Roasted fennel with tomatoes, olives, and potatoes

Pattypans

These odd-looking vegetables are summer squash. Their scalloped edge and slightly flattened shape get them comparisons to flying saucers or flattened brioche.

Their taste is similar to courgettes, perhaps a little sweeter. Unlike their winter cousins, you don’t need to peel them – eat the skin as you would with a grilled or roasted pepper. They are super versatile, working well grilled, stuffed and baked, and roasted.

Pattypans are loaded with fibre and a great source of vitamins A and C. Here are a couple of ideas:

• Mexican stuffed pattypans
• Pattypan summer panzanella salad

What do you do with these summer veg? Let us know how you make them delicious.