Welcome back! I hope you’re having a great week.
It’s time to pick up where we left off talking about fava beans.
Last week, I spent a good deal of time working with fresh fava beans. Here’s a quick recap: while I thought the fresh fava beans were delicious, it’s hard to make a case for them. Try as I might, I have not been able to come up with a way to eat the pods that I can stand, given the textural issues; also, the fresh pods are labor intensive and take an inordinately long time to process. Unless you’re a professional or you just have a lot of time on your hands, processing a bucket of pods for the cupful of beans you get is hard to justify. And then there’s that mountain of spent pods left that unless you have a drift of pigs at the ready, are bound for the compost heap.
This week, I explored the world of dried fava beans to see if there’s a more convenient way to enjoy this ancient food staple. But first, let’s talk a little more about this complicated legume:
Favas have been around for thousands of years and are eaten all over the world, and are particularly popular in mediterranean diets. They are revered as a “magic bean,” prized for their nutrition. Many cultures will leave a bag of fava beans in the pantry at all times, believing that a pantry with favas in it is good luck. Sicilians still use them as an offering to St. Joseph for saving them from famine in the middle ages, when the Sicilians prayed to St. Joseph for rain that made the fava beans grow.
They are also super good for you–and I mean super good for you. They’re high in protein, fiber, folate, manganese, iron, thiamine, and the list goes on. They are good for your immune system, bone health and may help with weight loss and high blood pressure.
I really want to find a way to incorporate this magic bean into our diet, and was ready to jump right in!
After a little searching, I was able to find a bag of dried fava beans at one of my local speciality markets, but it wasn’t easy. However, while dried fava beans may not be readily available at your local market, they are available on-line.
First thing I did was read the instructions on the bag: Wash them, soak them and then cook them for 45-60 minutes. And then you have to shell them. Wait…what? I still have to shell them?? That’s right. Ok…well, I’m going to try them and see how it goes, but I wondered if there were already shelled favas out there. A quick look on-line revealed that they do exist, and I ordered them, too. There are also canned favas, but I was unable to find them without lots of added ingredients, such as tomato puree, cumin, etc., so I decided against trying those and focused only on the dried favas.
My plan was to make fava hummus, fava salsa and pasta with favas.
I succeeded in making exactly none of these dishes. Here’s why:
I think dried fava beans are just disgusting! This is what happened to the pre-shelled beans after soaking them and then cooking them:
Not only did they disintegrate, but the texture of the beans was not tender and silky like the texture of the freshly shelled beans–rather, they were mealy–almost like mulching very, very fine sand–I thought they were just…gross. Now…I didn’t expect the dried beans to be exactly like the fresh beans, but other dried beans I have used, for the most part, at least have a creamy texture. For me, the texture of the reconstituted, dried favas was unpalatable.
Undeterred, I decided to experiment with the unshelled beans. Here’s what the beans looked like after being soaked overnight:
After soaking, they needed to simmer in fresh water for 45 minutes to an hour. After cooking, they needed to be peeled:
This was not hard to do, but it was tedious. On the upside, using the unshelled beans allowed the beans inside the hulls to stay intact instead of dissolving like the preshelled beans did in the previous picture. On the downside, I thought the beans inside were also absolutely disgusting–mealy, weird, sandy texture. They also tasted like nothing. I hadn’t soaked or cooked them in anything but plain water, but when cooked the same way, other dried, reconstituted beans will have a distinctive taste to them. The favas had absolutely no flavor, which was a little surprising. All they had was a weird, mealy texture. I cannot image using them in anything. For me, even mixed with other things, I’d still have that texture to deal with. I threw all of it out.
So…bottom line: fresh fava beans, even without any seasoning have a slightly sweet, earthy flavor and a silky, creamy texture. But they are a pain in the butt to process. And because I considered my experiments with dried fava beans an epic failure, dried fava beans have now officially been evicted from my kitchen. Well…ok…maybe I’ll keep a bag in the pantry for good luck. I will probably cook with fresh favas once or twice a year in the future, but even a famine or flood will not get me to eat dried favas.
As for my week’s menu, I had to fall back on some basics because I had to scuttle my plans of adding favas to various dishes:
Saturday: Meatloaf, roast potatoes, green salad
Sunday: Split pea soup, bread
Monday: Leftover meatloaf spaghetti, salad
Tuesday: Seared salmon, roast potatoes, celeriac salad
Wednesday: Roast chicken, rice, asparagus
Thursday: Chicken stew, bread
Friday: Pizza with asparagus and burrata, salad
Thanks, as always, for tuning in. Although this week’s experiments with dried favas were an epic failure, I did learn a lot! And I’m looking forward to what I know will be a slam-dunk next week: carrots! I have lots of fun and delicious recipes to share using carrots for next week!
Until then–peace, love and good food,
Keri
