32 broad bean recipes for all your spring cooking needs

Spring's hero ingredient is at home in salads and braises, crushed and spread on toast or pulsed and turned into falafels and dips. Get shelling.

Casarecce with spring vegetables and pancetta
Broad beans are the harbingers of spring. Sure, all that podding (and double-podding) is fiddly, but the results, we think, are well worth the effort. They work beautifully in spring-ready salads and longer-form braises (Greg Malouf's broad bean and chickpea stew is especially good), or crushed on toast for an easy breakfast or lunch solution. Plus, they're an essential ingredient to falafel. Time to get shelling.