I grew my own fava beans this past winter because I’d never eaten a fava bean and I was mighty curious. I planted the fava beans in the fall expecting them to bloom and get seed pods before winter fully set in. In the beginning they grew well, and they flowered. They have quite a pretty flower resembling a sweet pea. Then winter set it and it set in with a vengeance. Well, a vengeance by Arizona standards. Here’s how winter sets in with a vengeance in Arizona: it went below 32 degrees for days on end. So, I put up a makeshift greenhouse to protect my favas from the cold and it worked. But then it didn’t work. It got too cold for too long. Eventually the tops of the plants went black and withered so I chopped off the black parts and waited to see what would happen. There were still some of the green plants left low to the ground. I did not have much hope.
And then…
It started to warm up and the plants started coming back! They re-bloomed and seeds pods started to grow and last week I harvested. A miracle! My tough little favas. I love them so.
So, I looked around for a recipe that intrigued me, and I found one on Jamie Oliver that is the bomb! I modified it some because I didn’t have all his ingredients. I didn’t have the feta cheese he suggested so I used parmesan. I also didn’t have sourdough, so I used a baguette. I didn’t have fresh rosemary, so I used dried. I was too lazy to make his dressing, so I just added tomatoes to a balsamic vinaigrette I already had.
Here’s my version.
Try it. You’ll like it. You can leave off the chianti and liver.
Fava Bean and Peas on Toast
About ½ cup good homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing
2 spring onions
4 ripe cherry tomatoes
EVOO
Bunch of fresh mint
1-2 cups broad beans (frozen or fresh) (if you haven’t grown your own most Mexican markets have fresh)
¼ to ½ cup peas (frozen or fresh)
2-4 slices of bread (sourdough or baguette sliced in half lengthwise as to be toastable)
Clove of garlic
Rosemary (1 sprig of fresh or a ½ teaspoon of dried)
Parmesan or Feta cheese
Chop the cherry tomatoes into your balsamic dressing. Let set at room temp to marinate. You can add a bit of fresh lemon juice for piquancy.
Pick the mint leaves off the mint stalks, set aside, and tie the stalks with a string. If you’re lazy like me just add the mint stalks to a pan of boiling water and blanch the prepared fava beans for a minute.
Fava Bean preparation
OK, I admit it. Fava beans aren’t the easiest in the world to prepare but they’re not the hardest either and they’re so worth it, I think. If using fresh pick some plump pods, trim them and remove the green outer husk to get to the big seeds inside. I discovered how to get the outer husk off the big seeds by accident. I was going to just blanche the big seeds and freeze them for later and then I looked and saw that the big seeds were wrinkling. Whoops! The outer husk almost slides right off and there inside are the most delectable little green interiors. Once you have about a couple cups, put your bean interiors in a pan of water and boil for a minute to blanch.
Fava beans blanched and unpeeled on left. Fava beans blanched and peeled on right.
After the minute, using a slotted spoon, scoop out the blanched beans and put ¼ to ½ cup of frozen peas in the mint water and blanch them, too. Add the blanched beans to the dressing and then drain the peas and add them to the dressing, as well. Finely slice the mint leaves and add to the dressing/bean/pea/tomato mixture. Toss well to combine. Toast the bread and take a garlic clove, cut it in half and rub it all over the toasted bread. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and a little good olive oil. Pile the beans on and shave parmesan or sprinkle feta over.
For a little extra oomph, you can sprinkle extra chopped mint, a drizzle of lemon juice and chopped green part of green onion.
R L Benoit - Writer/Artist 