This recipe was inspired by the Persian dish sabzi polo. You can use brown basmati rice instead of white basmati, just top with extra water and cook for 15-20 minutes more
Award-winning food writer Anna Jones is widely credited with introducing Britain to more modern vegetarian dishes.
See more of Anna Jones’s recipes
Anna Jones
Award-winning food writer Anna Jones is widely credited with introducing Britain to more modern vegetarian dishes.
See more of Anna Jones’s recipes
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Ingredients
200g basmati rice
200g shelled broad beans, fresh or frozen
50g cashew nuts, roughly chopped
50g pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
25g sesame seeds
2 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, peeled and finely sliced
½ tsp ground turmeric
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
a few sprigs each of parsley, dill, mint and coriander
a pinch of saffron
50g barberries*, dried sour cherries or raisins
about 1 tsp flaked sea salt
juice of 1 lemon
natural or coconut yogurt to serve, optional
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Soak the rice in a bowl of warm water for 15 minutes. If using frozen broad beans, put them into a bowl, cover in boiling water and leave to sit for a few minutes, then drain and pop out of their skins.
Meanwhile, warm a large frying pan (one with a lid) over a medium heat and toast the nuts and seeds without oil. Toast, shaking the pan every so often, until they’re golden and fragrant. Tip into a bowl and put the pan back on the heat.
Add the oil to the pan, then the sliced shallots, turmeric and cinnamon. Fry for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the shallots have completely softened and the spices have released their aromatic oils.
Pick the leaves from the stems of the herbs and chop the stems finely, then add these to the pan of shallots and cook for a couple of minutes. Put the leaves in a bowl and leave to one side for later.
Drain the rice in a sieve and run under the tap until the water runs clear. Add the rice to the pan and toast, stirring for a couple of minutes until it crackles and pops. Keep the rice moving to distribute the heat evenly so it doesn’t burn.
Add the broad beans, saffron and dried fruit. Add a generous amount of salt – I use about a teaspoon. You’re not cooking the rice in stock which adds saltiness, so be brave with the salt as it will help the rice take on flavour from the spices.
Cover the rice with just enough boiling water to coat (about 400-500ml, depending on the size of your pan). Put the lid on, turn the heat to its highest setting and follow this method: high cook, low cook, no cook. Cook for 5 minutes on a high heat, then turn it down to the lowest heat and cook for 10 minutes, then turn the heat off and, without peeking, leave the lid on for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, roughly chop the herb leaves, then stir them through the rice with the lemon juice and toasted nuts and seeds. Serve immediately and include yogurt for spooning over if you like.
Tip
*Dried barberries are a tart little fruit frequently used in Persian cuisine. Buy online at souschef.co.uk, £3.75 for 75g.
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These light and versatile beans are a perfect summer ingredient. Roast, sauté, stew or fry them until crispy. Blend or mash them to make fritters or a broad bean dip. Toss raw broad beans through a salad.
Roughly mash the blanched broad beans – you can do this with a food processor, chop them up with a knife or crush them in a pestle and mortar. Mix together with the small raw beans, the pecorino, lemon juice, oil and some of the mint, finely chopped.
Fava beans, or broad beans, are a type of bean that's eaten around the world. They're high in protein and other important nutrients. Eating fava beans can help with weight loss, aid in your body's immunity, and provide other health benefits.
So, what foods cause gas and bloating? Legumes (beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, broad beans) are at the top of the list of foods that cause bloating. The reason for this is raffinose, a complex carbohydrate composed of glucose, fructose, and galactose.
Soak your seeds for at least 12 hours before planting, I add a pinch of Epsom Salts to the water to speed up germination. Plant the seeds about 5cm deep, 15cm apart in double rows about 20cm between and 80cm between sets of double rows.
Soak in cold water: Soak the beans in cold water for 8 hours, drain, and then soak again. Soak in baking soda: Soak the beans in water with a small amount of baking soda for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Check if your beans need soaking overnight beforehand, and then simmer for around 7 minutes until they are soft with a little bit of a bite. You can then roast them as per the instructions for frozen broad beans. For this recipe, you will need around 140g or 1 cup of dried beans.
Fava beans or broad beans? Fava beans are the dried beans of the Vicia faba species of the legume family. They're the same species as the fresh or frozen green broad beans more familiar in British cooking but fava beans are the fully mature dried fruit of smaller seeded varieties.
The beans (also known as fava beans, or fave or baccelli in Italian) are eaten raw, skins on, straight out of the pods. The slight bitterness of that outer layer of skin on the beans, a little more balanced in small, sweet, young specimens, is balanced by the sharp saltiness of the accompanying cheese and prosciutto.
Tip the podded beans into a pan of boiling water and cook for two minutes. Drain and cover with cold water to cool, then drain again and peel the outer skin from the beans. Stir in the olive oil and add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.
Broad beans can be eaten raw, pods and all, but only if they are very young and small, and freshly picked, so unless you grow your own, cooking is the way to go.
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Prep time: 45 mins
