Green beans with garlic and Serrano ham

Green beans with garlic and Serrano ham – sounds odd right? Not anymore! I went on a trip to Murcia with a group of ladies back in December. We were heading for IKEA and Primark (and other outlet stores)… but I was more interested in lunch! Yes, I love my food!

My starter was a plate of broad beans and slivers of Serrano ham, tossed in olive oil and garlic. Now I’m not a fan of those grey fat bitter broad bean things that used to find their way onto my dinner plate as a child… but these were small, sweet and the dish tasted beautiful! Alan loves broad beans – so this is a great way to please both of us. The dish works equally well with runner beans too – hence the piccie on the right.

Ingredients (per person)

• Handful of broad beans (shells discarded if you want to) or a handful of runner beans (chop the ends off)
• a few slivers of Serrano ham (bacon lardons also work if you can’t get Serrano)
• A good glug of olive oil
• 1 large garlic clove, finely chopped

Method

• Heat the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat
• Throw in the beans and garlic
• Do not stir this – you want the beans to brown on one side.
• Stir gently after about 5 minutes, just as they are softening.
• After a minute more, add in the ham
• Serve hot.

Elle Draper

Elle, along with Alan, is the owner of Spain Buddy and the busy web design business – Spain Web Design by Gandy-Draper.
Born a “Norverner”, she then spent most of her life “Dann Saff” before moving to Spain in 2006. Elle’s loves are Alan, the internet, dogs, good food, and dry white wine – although not necessarily in that order.