Too many beans

[Pumpkin Souper]

I am just about at the stage of harvesting enough french beans every day to feed the entire street. I am still going to be left with more than enough purple, green and yellow beans than a reasonable person knows what to do with. Does anybody have any innovatiev recipe ideas? I usually just steam 'em.

Almost everyone I know has wonderfully creative ideas for a glut of courgettes, but french beans seem to be a different matter.

[Millymollymandy]

How many plants do you have?!!! I have about 2 beans ready to pick so far. I shall be making potato and bean curry to freeze (gots millions of spuds ready to be dug up). It won't be quite so good as fresh because they loose their crunch a bit but what the hell! You can also cook them in a tomatoey sauce "a la grecque" like the Greeks do with runner beans.

[wulf]

How about making friends? Cheese is optional but perhaps there are a few people down your street who'd love fresh beans for dinner. Share around what would otherwise go to waste and everyone wins!

Wulf

[IrishAbroad]

I summer we normally use ours in a salad (boil beens for 15 minutes, allow to cool and serve with a mustard vinegarette dressing). They soon disappear. The rest we blanche and freeze for winter.

By the way (and completely off the subject) just made my first batch of Castille (pure olive oil) soap. It's the first time I've ever made soap and was surprised how easy it was. It will be "curing" for about the next four weeks and will have cost about 30p a bar.

[Millymollymandy]

Why don't you explain how you make it in a separate thread? I have absolutely no idea how you make soap!

[IrishAbroad]

Ok triple M, I've ten minutes before my train so I'll do it in the Tips section

[2steps]

I ahve an old cook book from the war and I'm sure I reda in there that beans can be preserved by salting or you could blanch and freeze some

[ina]

Let some mature and then pod and dry the beans. It might not work too well for all varieties, but if you have that many, it's worth a try. I also make a lot of salad, like IrishAbroad. The German recipe includes chopped onion, and you can add chives and/or parsley, and mix it with cucumber and/or tomatoes.

I wish I had some... My plants are about half a metre high now, so there's hope yet!

Ina

[Chickenlady]

Delia has a lovely recipe for runner bean chutney that I have made a few years in a row. I bet it would work OK for french beans too. (I know it sounds wierd, but believe me it is really nice!!
www.deliaonline.com/recipes/r_0000001290.asp