Broad Bean Soup

Since we were asked to look after a friend's large garden while they are away, and were told to help ourselves to whatever we wanted. Well, actually we were encouraged to pick any vegetables that were ready. The garden is fairly big and varied, it includes peas, beans, lettuce, cabbage, rhubarb, carrots, squash, tomatoes, etc. Upon our last visit, we discovered that the broad beans were ready and plentiful, so we had to pick them. Now, what exactly do you do with pounds of broad beans, especially if you have never even eaten broad beans before? They aren't exactly the kind of vegetable you eat fresh and raw, they also aren't very exciting just boiled and served either. My father, who used to eat a lot of broad beans as a child, came up with the idea to make broad bean soup. My grandmother often makes a really good bean soup, not with broad beans but with other beans. So my father kind of used this idea to make something similar. He boiled up a lot of broad beans with some carrot, onion, sweet potato, and some other ingredients. Once cooked, he pureed it with a hand blender. The result was a thick, broad bean soup. It was relatively bland, a few garlic cloves, or other spices would have probably helped it out a bit, but we didn't have any on hand (this soup was a spur of the moment thing). Also, the chopped onion was added near the end, so it did not get pureed. I kind of like the little extra texture this added, but my father wasn't a fan of it. We also debated whether or not to add pasta, but as it was a side dish, decided against it. A little spaghetti or other pasta would have been good in it though. Overall, it's not a bad soup, just not one you can eat large quantities of in one sitting. And it certainly solved the problem of what to do with all of the broad beans. But we still have some beans left. Any ideas?