This section provides a list of tasty Runner Bean recipes that we, our family and our friends have tried and enjoyed. There are also links to recipes on other websites to help you to get the greatest taste variety from your runner beans in or out of season. It is aimed at helping you to find some new and exciting ways to eat your runners, because when you have a glut of any fruit or vegetable it is easy to get bored with eating them presented the same way every day. 

Runner beans are a veg we tend to eat only when they are in season. This is not because we don't like them much, in fact we love them, it is beacause they taste just wonderful freshly picked off the plant. We really look forward to the runner bean season, when the beans are ready to pick it is a very special time of year. What I have found is that the tasty Runner is a forgotten veg when it comes to recipes. This has lead us to trying them as a subsittute in recipes calling for French or green beans. try it yourselves and see what you come up with. 

Runner beans do freeze particularly well and in any of these recipes you can use fresh or frozen beans, but fresh is best really! Remember, if you come across a recipe that calls for French or Fine Beans you can always substitute runner beans, we know they taste nicer!

Still waiting for the beans to grow so photo's will follow.

Happy eating!

Recipes eaten and enjoyed by us, our family and friends.

Running Mac and Cheese

Or Macaroni cheese with runner beans. Mac and cheese makes a great snack and can be volume up to a filling meal. Recipes for macaroni cheese are easy to come by but we have been thinking of how to use a glut of runner beans up. Give it a go.

 

 

Runner Beans in Tomato Sauce

Runner beans in tomato sauce provides a delicious vegetable side dish and gravy all in one. This recipe can easily be volumed up with your favourite veg for a vegetarian casserole.

 

Runner Bean Chutney

This is a really tasty chutney which improves with age, so make this year for next. However, if you really can't wait, it is good to get out on Boxing Day when there is a wealth of leftovers to use up.

 

Runner bean and bacon salad

In our everlasting hunt for interesting things to use Runner Beans for John came across this recipe. It is an adaptation of a French bean recipe and one of those that we make up to take to friends when we are invited to a BBQ. 

 

Runner bean and couscous salad with crumbled Wensleydale.

In this recipe the fresh green colour of the beans and peas makes the couscous look really appetising. It makes a great side dish at a BBQ or a tasty vegetarian lunch

 

 

 Runner bean spahgetti with Bolognaise Sauce

This is our take on a bolognaise Sauce served with runner beans instaed of spaghetti. Try other pasta sauces if you can't or don't eat pasta, runner beans make a great substitute.

 

 

 

 

Unconventional Salad Nicoise

A tasty version of the traditional salad nicoise arrived at through years of making it up, that works very well with runner beans instead of fine green or French beans.

 

 

 

If you like these recipes, we have a whole section dedicated to sharing recipes with you. Our recipe of the week is linked to our Facebook page so Like Us to keep updated of anything new. If you have a runner bean based reciepe to share, send it in, we would love to hear from you.

 

Links to other Runner Bean recipes

We have researched a number of Runner Bean recipes for you and have them stored on our Pinterest board "Recipes using Runner Beans". Follow this link to Pinterest and browse through for inspiration or follow the links below to other web sites.

• Everything Runner Bean
• Recipes 4 us
• BBC Good Food

Eat and enjoy!

When planning to grow runner beans there are a few things to bear in mind before you start. You will need enough plants to feed you but not so many you drown in them.  As a guide 16 plants will provide enough food for a family of 4 across a 5-6 week period and at the height of the cropping season you will have spare beans for storing. The plants grow to at least 2 meters tall if you let them so plant them where they will not shade out your sun loving plants. The plants will need watering regularly, make life easy on yourself if possible and think about how far you’ll need to carry a watering can. Check the seed packet for any special instructions.

To be truly successful it is best to do a bit of soil preparation. Runner bean plants are hungry and thirsty plants so get some compost dug in to the area you plan to grow them in, this will help feed your runners and hold water for their roots. Runner bean plants like a lot of water, especially once they start to produce the long bean pods, they may need watering daily when it is dry.

You will need a wigwam or double row of supporting canes. For a wigwam to support 8 plants you will need 8 x 2 meter canes or similar sized poles and some garden twine.  Evenly space the poles in a circle approx 1 meter in diameter and push them into the soil approx 20cm. Tie the canes together approx 20cm from the top using garden twine. For a double row to support 8 plants you will need 9 x 2 meter canes or similar and some garden twine. Mark out two rows approx 45 cm apart. Using 4 canes per row push the canes into the soil approx 20cm deep and 15 – 20 cm apart. Cross each pair, one from each row, at the top, lie the spare can along the crossover point of all 4 pairs and tie in each pair securely with garden twine.

Sewing the seeds

There are 4 ways to get your plantlings going;

1. The seeds can be started off indoors if you want to get your crop off early. It is best to use a deep paper pot or loo roll middle filled with compost. Stand the pots in a tray on a sunny windowsill and keep the soil damp, the plants will soon start to show.
2. If you want to plant outdoors and there is the risk of frost put the trays of pots in your greenhouse or a cold frame, the plants will be slower to germinate and slightly later to flower than the indoor seedlings but just as healthy.
3. Sew your seeds directly where you want them to grow after the risk of frost has passed, sew 2 seeds per cane. These plants will bear flowers and fruit later still and is a good approach if you want a second crop, just don't have space to grow the seeds indoors/under cover or don't get around to sewing your seeds until later in the season
4. Take the more expensive route and buy seedlings from the garden centre or farmers market. This is particularly necessary if you have a healthy crop and it suddenly gets ravished by the local wildlife

Maintaining healthy plants

Plantlets grown indoors will need to be hardened off when ready for the big outdoors. They are ready once they reach approx 15cm tall. Put them out in a sheltered place and protect or bring back indoors over night for a week or so. Plant them next to their supporting pole and loosly tie them to it, at this stage it is worth putting a few seeds in the soil just in case you loose a few plants. When sewing seeds directly into the soil loosely tie the young plantlet to it’s pole when it is 10 - 15 cm tall if it has not started twining on it's own, N.B.the tips sway as they grow and twine around anything they come across so you may find they don't need help.

Your plants will be fairly self sufficient until the flowers have been fertilised and the young beans appear. At this point you will need to start watering regularly, every day if it is really dry.

Hints and tips

• If you want to watch the plantlings grow roots with your children use a clear glass jar or container lined with blotting/absorbant paper, place the seed between the glass and the paper and place in a light warm place out of direct sunlight, keep the paper damp at all times and see what happens.
•  If you are looking for plantlets rather than growing from seed check out your neighbours, the local car boot sale or plant sale. Keen veg growers usually have spare plants to sell or pass on, we hate throwing healthy plants away.
• The biggest risk to your young plants are slugs unless you have rabbits or deer living nearby. Plant a few extra seeds to in fill any gaps.
• If you really love runners and have space for two batches plant an early crop and then a late crop three to four weeks later, this extend your picking season.
• The sooner the young plantlets start to twine the earlier they will gain height up the support and produce flowers, so if they don't twine tie them in.
• Runner beans are thirsty plants, once the pods start to show you should water the plants regularly, especially if there is little or no rain.
• Pick regularly as once the seeds start to ripen in their pods the flowering mechanism switches off and your plants will stop producing.
• The roots hold nitrogen, feed the soil when the plants have finished by digging in the roots and base of the plant stems.

Happy growing!

The part of the runner bean plant we usually eat is the bean pod containing immature beans. The trick to having tasty runner beans is to harvest them regularly whilst they are young, biggest is not best in a runner bean unless you want to enter into the local show.

• If you leave your beans to grow to the size you buy in the supermarket they will be old, stringy and unpleasant.
• The beans will grow in bunches, pick off the bigger pods and leave the smaller for another day.
• You will need to hunt amongst the leaves as they like to play hide and seek, by picking regularly any you miss should be spotted next time round.
• Once they get going you may need to pick daily or every other day. Try not to miss a picking as once the pods ripen the flowering mechanism switches off and you’ll get no new beans.

Harvesting hints and tips

• The ideal bean pod size for my dinner plate is approx 1.5 cm wide, length is unimportant.
• Curly beans taste just as good as straight ones.
• You may get uneven pods, narrow at the top and wide from a third of the way down, don’t worry they taste great too.
• As you get to the end of harvesting time leave a few pods to mature for next years seeds.
• If you miss your picking and end up with a sizable crop of inedible mature bean pods don’t panic. The mature beans inside the pods can be used in cooking like Haricot beans.

Storing them

• Fresh - runner beans keep well in the salad drawer of the refrigerator for 4 or 5 days. If they go soft they will crisp up if you put them in cold water but either way they are fine once cooked. Always use your oldest beans first, if you start to drown in fresh beasn consider freezing the newer ones.
• Frozen - runner beans freeze well. Always use the freshest beans for freezing, slice them, blanch them in boiling water for 2-3 mins and then dunk them in ice cold water. Bag the prepared bean pods in portions and put them in the freezer labelled and dated. They will be fine for 3 – 6 months.
• Dried - The beans within the pod can be used like Haricot beans in soups and stews or as a vegetable.  Allow the pods to dry in an airy warm place, remove the beans and store them in an airtight container. When ready to use treat in the same way as other dried beans Pickled or chutneyed - runner beans make a good chutney and are delicious in piccalili

Remember all parts of the plant can be composted as well as the pod trimmings from the kitchen. The roots of runner beans store nitrogen and will help your soil grow more healthy food next season. When your plants have finished producing beans and are dying off either cut the stems approx 10 cm above ground level, put the plant in your compost and dig the roots in or lift the whole plant and put it all in your compost bin, you may need to cut it into smaller bits first.

Happy harvesting!