Shelling Beans

As fall takes hold, one of my favorite ingredients is making its brief appearance; fresh shelling beans. They are definitely not to be found at a supermarket, they take as long as 15 minutes(!!) to prepare, but they are a delight. Grab them while you can.

Fresh shelling beans are the teenagers of the bean world—too old to be eaten as green beans and too young to be used as dried beans. You are probably familiar with fresh lima, soy and fava beans but perhaps haven't had the pleasure of trying other types of fresh shelling beans such as red hawk, black calypso, Jacob's cattle, cannellini, tongue of fire, flageolet or cranberry beans. Fresh shelling beans are taken out of the pod and then cooked much like other fresh vegetables. Eating fresh shelling beans is an entirely different experience than eating dried beans: Instead of starchy, they are creamy, tender and sweet.

When purchasing fresh shelling beans, the first thing you will notice is that the pods have a very different texture than those of green beans or sugar snaps. Shell bean pods are leathery and flexible rather than crisp and shouldn't easily snap in half. The beans inside the pod should be fully formed, bulging and firm when squeezed.

Once you get them home, you'll find that fresh shell beans need to be eaten within a day or two. The beans mold easily if they are stored in a moist environment, so keep them in a paper bag or a perforated plastic bag. If you've got more beans than you can use quickly, remove the beans from their pods and freeze them for later use. Even though you may be tempted, don't eat fresh shell beans raw. Cooking deactivates compounds that cause major gastric upset.

Once you have removed the beans from their pods, shell beans are quick to prepare. Unlike their dried counterparts, the beans don't need to be soaked before cooking and they cook in a matter of minutes.

I like shell beans best in their most unadulterated form, simply cooked to perfection and dressed with a bit of olive oil or butter, salt, pepper and some chopped herbs. They make a nice addition to tossed salads, can easily be mixed with other vegetables, strewn over grilled fish or sautéed with spinach or other greens.

The following recipes are re-printed with permission from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen (Houghton Mifflin, 2004) by Jack Bishop. Mr. Bishop is the executive editor of Cook's Illustrated and a principal cast member of the highly successful PBS television show America's Test Kitchen. His cookbooks include The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook and Vegetables Everyday. He lives in Sag Harbor, NY with his wife and children.