Nigel Slater’s recipe for broad beans with dill and bacon

A green and herby warm salad for warm daysPut a deep pan of water on to boil, salt it lightly then add 250g of podded broad beans. Cook them for about 5 or 6 minutes till they feel tender, then drain and plunge the broad beans into cold water. At this point you can either take a few minutes to pop the beans from their papery shells or not, as you think fit. If the broad beans are small and young, I usually leave the skins on, but as the season progresses (or if I’m using frozen beans) I squeeze them out of their skins.Remove the dark shoots from 4 thin spring onions and slice the rest very finely. Drop them into a small bowl. Take a small bunch of dill, about 7 or 8 stems and chop finely, then add to the bowl. Finely shred 10 mint leaves, stir them into the dill and spring onions then add 4 tbsp of white wine vinegar. Crumble in a little salt and grind in some black pepper then pour in 100ml of olive oil. Set the bowl aside. Continue reading…