Runner beans as beans not pods

[Babru]

My runners are still in the ground, and have a fair number of pods still on the plants, though too woody to eat. I'd like to try the beans instead. Are they worth eating? Fresh or dried? I love all beans, so I'd be keen to give them a go.

[Plot70]

I have seen them cooked like broad beans.
Give it a try.

[Babru]

Should I leave the plants to grow? The pods look quite flat, not filled out like peas or broad beans. It's pretty mild at the moment.

[Plot70]

I have got quite a few pods with beans that are fully formed and visible through the pod.
They should cook off like broad beans.

[ameno]

I would advise not using them like broad beans. Mature runner bean seeds contain lectin, a toxic substance found in several other beans, too (including red kidney beans). This toxin can be destroyed by cooking the beans on a rolling boil for 10 minutes, but if you were to cook them like broad beans then I imagine you would cook them more gently than that, and thus the toxin would remain.
The toxin is not deadly or anything, or even serious enough to cause any lasting harm, but it will give you terrible gastric pain, vomiting and diarrhoea for 24-48 hours.

Don't let that put you off eating the mature beans, though. As long as you cook them on a rolling boil for 10 minutes they are completely safe and harmless. Remember, kidney beans have the same toxin, and we eat those all the time.
I'm growing over 50 runner bean plants this year, of three different varieties, exclusively for dried beans to last me through the winter.
I just wait until the pods turn brown on the plant, then shell the beans out, and lay them out in a tray in a single layer for about a week to make sure they are fully dry, before sealing them in plastic tubs. Then when I want to cook them, I just soak them overnight then the next day give them 8-10 minutes in my pressure cooker. If you don't have a pressure cooker, you will want to soak them, then rapid boil for 10 minutes, then turn them down and simmer for 30-40 minutes, until they are tender.
Personally, I think runner beans as dry beans are actually tastier than the normal varieties. They have a nuttier and sweeter flavour. They also produce larger beans and a far bigger crop per plant, at least in this country. I grow several varieties of climbing french bean for drying, too, and my runner beans give twice the yield the french beans do.

[Bren In Pots]

Good advice Ameno

I save runner, french and pole beans each year to eat over winter using the same treatment as in your post.

Here's an old link by Two_Sheds I've saved containing lots of bean recipes.

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...es-dried-beans

[Babru]

Thanks very much ameno and Bren. I'll take your advice. I'm looking forward to trying them as beans. I wonder why they aren't commercially available in the same way as other beans. Perhaps they were in times past.

[nick the grief]

if you watch Charles Dowdings video's he grows his runners (Czar) for beans and not pods and saves them dried and uses them like you would a butter bean or a borlotti ... Never tried it myself as I've not grown runners for years , Mrs G prefers french beans (Squeaky beans as the kids used to call them) so I tend to grow those instead. this also has the benefit of giving you your seed for next year (unless its an F1 of course)

[ameno]

Thanks very much ameno and Bren. I'll take your advice. I'm looking forward to trying them as beans. I wonder why they aren't commercially available in the same way as other beans. Perhaps they were in times past.

White varieties are grown commercially for dry beans in Spain and Greece. The famous Greek Gigantes bean is a giant-seeded white runner bean, and there are multiple varieties unique to Spain.
It just never caught on here, for some reason.
Although in many countries, runner beans aren't eaten at all. In the US, they grow them mainly as an ornamental for their red flowers, and because those flowers attract hummingbirds.

If you fancy growing the giant white ones, Real Seeds sell Gigantes seeds, and a couple of companies sell Spagna Bianca, which is a similar giant white variety (I'm growing that one, plus two other varieties). You don't get many seeds per pod (1-3 is most common, occasionally 4), but each seed really is massive, so you still get a generous crop of beans by weight.

[RedRuth]

My runners are still in the ground, and have a fair number of pods still on the plants, though too woody to eat. I'd like to try the beans instead. Are they worth eating? Fresh or dried? I love all beans, so I'd be keen to give them a go.

I grow Beans for beans as well as runners. Borlotti, Soissons Gros Blanc and Cannalleni, like ameno said fast boil them for 10mins then freeze them. I had some tonight in my 'allotment soup', which is basically a Ribollita or sometimes a Minestrone.