Hi All
I've got a glut of them and would appreciate any ideas....apart from the obvious.......freezing
cheers

My mum makes a really lovely chutney with them!

Runner beans can be so versatile, make a salad with cooked runner beans and potatoes, smoked makerel, onion, parsley, mayo and yoghurt all mixed together with a squeeze of lemon juice.
Or, cooked runner and broad beans mixed with lightly fried onion, parsley, marjoram, fennel tops, garlic and natural yoghurt.
Or, just cooked runner beans with a lemon or vinegarette dressing, you can add cucumber, tomato, watercress, maybe even olives and feta cheese too. Anything that takes your fancy.

To go with grilled meats, fry some bacon then add onion and a green pepper, a couple of tomatoes, garlic, olives, capers, and dried oregano, add about a quarter of a pint of water and about 1lb of runner beans, cook gently for about 20 mins then season with salt and black pepper.

I used to make a bean "cake" Blanch runner beans for about 5 mins and drain then, saute a little celery and onion in some butter, add the beans then cover and cook gently for about 10 mins. Meanwhile make a well flavoured sauce by mixing the normal roux method then add about 4oz cheese, I like gruyere. Drain the bean mixture and add to sauce then mix in 3 lightly beaten eggs. Spoon into an ovenproof dish and cook in a bain marie for about half an hour in a med hot oven, then reduce the heat and cook until a knife comes out clean. Turn it out if you like or just spoon from the dish.

Another idea is any left over roast meat or sausge, minced up and layered in a dish with runner beans then topped cheese sauce then breadcrumbs.

Then if you have any left over you can freeze or pickle them!

My ma in law puts them in a green salad - just cooked, and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Delicious! I've used them in stir frys before too which worked well...

I grew some runner beans, had 6 plants in total, 3 in the ground, 3 in pots. potted beans were a disaster! got some good beans from them, but then the plants turned yellow and died! now we have alot of beans from the other plants, which are still going, with even more beans coming! you could always try what i do with mine... give some to the neighbours!

This is a nice recipe off the Delia site. for spiced pickled runner beans. Worth trying and it uses 2lbs of them.
[link]

Not a food recipe but you can make runner bean wine!!

3lb runner beans (or trimmings)
3lb sugar
8 oz raisins
sachet wine yeast
campden tablet


Boil the runner beans until tender in as much water as possible, up to 8 pints. In a large bucket pour the strained liquid over the sugar, raisins and campden tablet and leave to cool to blood heat. Add the yeast and cover , leave to ferment for 1 week. Transfer the wine into a demi-john (through some muslin if possible) and fit an airlock. Leave to bubble away and siphon off a couple of times until clear. Siphon off into sterilised bottles and leave for a few months to mature. It turns out like a dry sherry with quite a kick, don't try drinking it by the bottle!! Very nice chilled.

I was invited on to Good Food Live (as it was called then) back in April 2002 with my home made wines, It was brilliant fun, but I didn't get to meet Jeni as she was on holiday - would thoroughly recommend it.
Janey Cox

rowen - might just have to try that wine idea! Thanks for that.

The farm shop that I use has started a thing for customers who have excess veggies - they will either buy them from you or swap you for good from the shop.