If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my photo of my CSA share haul. But if you don’t, you can see it here. In Washington state (and other states around the nation), small organic farms group together and offer ‘fresh from the farm’ produce groupings as a subscription program. We pick up a full box of veggies every week and have more vegetables than we can eat weekly.
Since eating fruits and vegetables is a proven anti-cancer strategy AND (darn), vegetables have less calories than cheese (double darn), while there are fresh veggies, I am taking advantage of them.
I have never eaten a Fava Bean before. I’ve seen them (in that movie ‘Silence of the Lambs’ but that counts, right?). And, you’ll have to forgive me, I started taking photos with my iPhone after I tasted how delicious the dish was (whoops).
So Fava Beans – they’re these large large large bean-like things. You have to get the beans peeled before you make this. I found the easiest way to do this was to slice the tip off the beans (horizontally) and then peel the beans out.
Recipe:
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 – 2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano
1 1/2 cups chicken stock (canned is fine)
salt & pepper
2 cups peeled fava beans
3/4 pound dried fettuccine
2 oz. piece of pecorino cheese or Parmesan cheese
1. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan until hot. Add the garlic and saute briefly until just before the garlic turns brown. Stir in oregano and then add 1 cup of stock. Bring to boil, season with salt and pepper and add 1 1/2 cup of fava beans. Simmer to blend the flavors for 5 minutes.
2. Dump this into a heat safe blender container and puree with an additional (remaining) 1/2 cup chicken stock until smooth. Return to the sauce pan and add the remaining 1/2 cup favas. Simmer gently and add salt and pepper to taste.
3. At some point in this process, bring another pot of water to boil and add salt and a teaspoon of olive oil to the water. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and mix with the sauce. Toss well. Serve immediately and grate cheese over the top.
Quick! It’s Fava Beans are in season now. Get thee to your Farmer’s Market and find some fresh Fava Beans.
This recipe sounds delicious! I grow these and I highly recommend growing them to any gardener! They are super easy to grow – aphids love them but insecticidal soap and lady bugs usually do the trick. TIP: Large beans like the ones pictures are generally shelled twice, once for the pod and twice to be taken out of the white casing. You can blanche them, then ice them, and the green inner bean will slip out, or you can pick the broad beans when they are young you do not have to do this. Basically the bean should be bright green when you use it. This is the best source of protein in the garden and I love them!
Looks So yummy! Fava beans are fantastic and yummy! they are delicious in soups, salads, pasta and anything you can thinik of, you can even make falafel if you chopped them in the food processor.
Thank you for sharing!
They are soooo different in taste though. Surely your boys will be all over that … right? =))
Never had these before, but may have to try some; if I like them, I may have to persuade dh to grow some next year. I get the feeling our boys aren’t going to be thrilled with shelling the beans though…they usually have to snap about 50+ pounds of green beans each summer for processing already. LOL!
The pasta sauce is fantastic too. There’s no cream in it so it’s fairly healthy in the grand scheme of things. =)
Looks yummy. I have only heard of them from the movie, lol.
Have never seen them in person, so I will have to check out our health food store as we have changed our habits and incorporating less processed foods and more veggies…this should be a good fun addition. 🙂