broad bean salad with bacon, spinach and red peppers

and everything else i could find in the fridge, quite literally.

another bag of broad beans came in the able&cole box this week. their boxes do make me laugh - the one we order is meant to feed a family of four for a week. i am not sure whether our vegetable consumption is off the scale but it never lasts for more than two or three days.

oh, i lie, i do have a cucumber left. (it might be there for a while: i confess i find cucumbers a bit pointless: too bland and watery. those small cucumbers at home were different, i think. their flavour was stronger, like a vegetable in its own right rather than anonymous salad fodder, though i might be looking at these mythical vegetables of my childhood with rose-tinted spectacles.

so. i had some small tomatoes, some naturally-cured bacon, some painstakingly podded and shelled broad beans, a bag of spinach and a jar of those flame-grilled spanish peppers. it's the kind of salad you can chuck anything into - some asparagus would have been nice, for example, or even some sweet roasted onions.

BROAD BEAN SALAD WITH BACON, SPINACH AND RED PEPPERS

for 1

2 rashers of bacon, cut into pieces

7-8 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

3 roast red peppers from a jar, sliced

1/2 cup or so of podded broad beans

200g or so of spinach or other leaves

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1/2 red chilli, chopped

a handful of parsley, finely chopped

seasoning

first, blanch the broad beans in boiling water for 3 minutes, then slip them out of their green outer shell. set aside.

fry the bacon pieces until they're starting to crisp. no need to add any fat to the pan, probably. add the garlic, chili, tomatoes and beans and fry for 3 or 4 minutes making sure the garlic doesn't burn.

add the spinach and parsley right at the end and stir through until the spinach is almost wilted. season and drizzle with some good olive oil if you wish.