[Clarebelle]

Has anyone got any good recipes or ideas for using up broadbeans? They are coming out my ears, dread to think how many I'd have had if we had actually had decent weather this year! ?

[claire]

they freeze well and you will be very glad of them next Feb/march. I just like them as themselves.

[Cosmore]

Yes, I'm with Claire on this one, definately freeze 'em for later, you'll be glad of them in stews etc., in the winter months.

[Fleecewife]

I asked the same question a few weeks back.  It's been an excellent year for broad beans but sadly I've wasted lots as I wasn't able to freeze them all.
I tried a recipe for veggie burgers using broad beans, and apart from it being slightly too sloppy to make into burgers, it was scrummy.  I baked it.  I think you could also make a good meat loaf type dish using broad beans with plenty of herbs and other veg.
Broad bean soup, made like pea and ham, tastes surprisingly good, and pretty much like pea and ham.  I use a ham bone to make the stock, or if I'm stuck then fried smokey bacon in the pot before I add veg stock, onions, beans and whatever else I'm putting in.
As you can see, I don't use recipes, just add whatever I've got, and whatever I think will taste good 
If you google broad bean or fava bean recipes, there tend to be a lot from the US, also north Africa and the Middle East, where it seems broad beans are very popular.

I make sure I only pick the beans before the scar on the bean starts to darken.  If you leave it later than this then you have to take off that horrible thick skin.  I grow green seeded beans, as they seem to be more tender than the white seeded ones.

[Carse Goodlifers]

I mixed some beans up with chopped bacon and diced mushrooms in the frying pan and had it as a side - it was nice.
You could dry them and add them to stews and soups over the winter too.

[cloddopper]

If you dry the beans and keep the dried beans in air tight jars they will see you through year .
Simply take a handful out and boil them in a very lightly salted water on simmer for an hour or so .
Let them cool ....there will be a gloopy gel form , skin them , mash them to a rough paste ,then fry them to have with Mexican type Taco food.
Any beans not eaten can be re-fried the next day for another Mexican food side dish .

[Clarebelle]

thanks everyone! some good ideas to keep me going. Made broad bean and pea soup at the weekend