MoFo Day3: Tapas

 Still on my virtual tour to Spain and today I'm making tapas. I have 2 recipes today.

 I found fresh broad beans at the supermarket and decided to use them in a Minted Broad Bean (Fava Bean) salad. I found the recipe on the Vegetarian Times website. It brings together garlic, lemon and mint - a fabulous combination of flavours. I halved the recipe and made just one change to make it Eat To Live-friendly by replacing the olive oil in the dressing with vegetable stock. This worked surprisingly well as an adaptation. I really liked this recipe and will definitely  make it again. It would be great with edamame in place of the broad beans. I've never cooked or eaten broad beans before. I decided to remove the skins after cooking, because they seemed a bit tough and I've seen them being removed on Masterchef. It was a bit fiddly and another good reason to use edamame in the future!

Minted Fava Bean Salad

Juice of half a lemon
1/8 cup vegetable stock
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 cup of fresh or frozen shelled broad beans (fava beans) 
2 cups lettuce, torn into small pieces
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, cut into thin strips

Mix together lemon juice, olive oil and garlic, season with freshly ground black pepper and set aside. Cook the shelled broad beans for 3 minutes in boiling water. Drain, rinse under cold water and remove the skins (optional). Mix the broad beans and mint together and put onto a bed of lettuce. Toss with the lemon dressing.



My second recipe is Alubias con Salsa Vinagreta or white beans with a vinaigrette dressing. I found this recipe on a website for Spanish recipes after Googling for tapas recipes. Once again I replaced the olive oil in the dressing with some vegetable stock. This is a great recipe and will transform my salads from now on. One of the things I have really struggled with on Eat to Live is all of the raw vegetables I am supposed to eat. Adding some of these beans with their tangy dressing would liven up any salad.

Alubias con Salsa Vinagreta

1 can of cannellini or other white beans (1 cup of cooked beans)
1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1/4 cup vegetable stock
6 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Combine the drained and rinsed beans together with the pepper, onion and garlic. Mix together the vegetable stock and wine vinegar and pour over the bean mix. Season to taste if necessary.