Article: Gastro pods ; One of summer's most versatile vegetables, the broad bean brings a fresh touch to classic dishes, says Mark Hix. Photographs by Jason Lowe

I find podding broad beans quite therapeutic - although it's always a bit disappointing when you discover that the yield amounts to less than a third of what you bought; a carrier bag full of broad beans will barely feed six people, and if you also have to shell them, then you can halve that amount again.

But you don't have to remove every shell from every last broad bean (unless they are enormous). Obsessively shelling broad beans for the sake of it is a cheffy kind of thing, and guess what - I've even seen chefs removing the outer skin from peas, which is crazy, in my view. But I like a combination of tiny beans with the skin left on and larger ones with the skin removed; you get two ...

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