Meatless Mondays: Fava Beans

The first time I tried to cook fava beans, something that is practically fetishized in the foodie world, I thought they were so not worth the hype.  They were chewy and not at all the harbinger of spring they were reputed to be.  (Plus I kept thinking about Hannibal Lector.)

What you buy in the store or market

After the first peel:  notice the white, leathery skin

Then I did some research and discovered where I went wrong.  It turns out that you need to peel fava beans twice in order to make them the delicious tender morsels they are meant to be.  This means that fava beans are a lot of work, but they are so very worth it!

Twice-peeled and blanched favas beans

Once you have your arduously prepared fava beans, there are so many yummy ways to use them.  The first night, I used about 2 cups to make a puree:  blanched fava beans, some water (chicken stock would be even yummier, but I didn't have any), a few grinds of pepper, a few tablespoons of grated pecorino, and half of a clove of garlic went into the vitamix.  The resulting puree was a gorgeous, vibrant green.  The bit of garlic added some warmth, the pecorino added some roundness and gentle salinity, yet the delicate flavor of the favas themselves were the star.  My middle daughter declared it a success.  The oldest refuses to try anything mushy, and the youngest refuses to try anything green.  I presented it as a side dish or as a topping for ciabatta.  There was none left over.

It might look like baby food, but it was much, much too complexly flavored for just a baby

The remaining half cup got folded into a salad with whole wheat fettucine (soba noodles would have worked well, too), scallions, grated carrots, leftover steamed broccoli, leftover roasted asparagus, leftover roasted chicken breast, and a sesame oil-soysauce-rice wine vinegar dressing.  For additional crunch, I tossed in some toasted sesame seeds.  This salad is a complete meal in a bowl (protein, starch, and veg), which just got better each day.
 

The beauty of this salad was that it could have been made with any leftover vegetables, and the fava beans still would have stood out.

Nutritionally, fava beans deserve their place on the spring table.  They are packed with protein and fiber.  They are low in fat and sodium but high in iron, calcium, potassium, manganese, magnesium, copper, and B vitamins, especially folate (essential for cell division), thiamine, niacin, and pyridixone (coenzymes for metabolism).  People with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), a rare genetic condition, should avoid eating fava beans as should people prone to developing oxalate kidney stones. Fava beans also are rich in levo-dopa (L-dopa), a precursor of some neurotransmitters.

If you've never tried fava beans, go try them now before the season is over!  If you love fava beans, how do you eat them?  I've seen recipes for grilling them, pod and all, but I haven't tried it yet.  The New York spring has not been cooperative enough for us to use our grill. How do you eat favas?