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Beans in primeur

As I write this, it is the beginning of the short season for fresh beans. If you've never made them before and you're just starting out (and that's a great idea) you'll find that it's a bit time consuming to prepare, you have to shell them once, remove the beans, scald them to remove the skin (and the germ for the purists) and then only use them in a recipe.

It's hard work, but it's delicious...

This being said, there is a little known aspect about beans, they are the so-called "primeur" or "en primeur" beans, which are prepared in a very different and much faster way.

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Last modified on: June 4^th 2022

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Beans in primeur

In early season?

This is said of beans at the very beginning of the season, when they are still small, 8-10 cm maximum, and very tender.
If you find some of this size, you often have to ask the farmer, it's quite surprising but you should know that everything is eaten in the beans at this time, the beans of course (not very big at this age), but also the pod that contains them.

How to do it ?

The trick is to work them a bit like green beans:

fèves entières
1) We break the 2 ends of the terminal by pulling to remove any wires, but there are very few in general.

fèves lavées et séchées
2) We wash and dry them.

fèves taillées
3) We cut them in small pieces, to your taste.

fèves en cuisson
4) We cook these small pieces as you are used to with other green vegetables, I like to cook them first in English (boiling salted water 3-4 minutes) and then cooled and drained, returned with a knob of butter or a little olive oil.

You will be surprised by the taste, something between snap beans and peas it seems, and the texture, very soft.

Don't hesitate to mix these beans with other vegetables for a varied and colorful dish.

To sum up: You can enjoy early beans, at the beginning of the season, by treating them a bit like green beans, which allows you to eat the whole pod, it is both delicious and very economical.

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