Fava bean help?

[weizenwind]

I just bought fresh fava beans for the first time, and I find that I'm not sure how to prepare them.

My questions:

The beans are attached to the pod by little green connector pieces. Do I need to take those off, or can I eat them?

Each of the beans appears to have a fairly thick, lighter-green skin around a darker/brighter-green center. Do I

Comments

[ex_serenejo]

Especially this late in the season, you'll need to blanch them for a minute or two (drop them into boiling water, bring back to a boil, drain, poor cool water over them) and then peel off that inner shell/skin. Then you can cook them however you want. I just like to sautee them in a little olive oil and green garlic and salt. Mmmmm, yum. They cook pretty quickly, but taste one every couple of minutes to see that they get done how you want.

[weizenwind]

Good lord, that's a lot of work. I'll give it a try, though. Is that outer skin just tough, or is it actually inedible?

[ex_serenejo]

Early in the season, it's not very tough, and you can eat it. This late, It gets really tough, and I've never tried to eat it.

It's actually, while it takes some time to do, not unpleasant work. I sit at the table with a bowl on my lap and the beans on the table, and I shell them into the bowl. It's meditative. :-)

Of course, I'm nuts, and I did it with garbanzos once, too, which is pretty much unnecessary.

[uchikikun]

@the picture - oh god : )

[ex_serenejo]

*laugh* I know. The hummus came out really smooth, though. :-)

[weizenwind]

Yeah, I know. I think it's also just the reminder of how little food you get out of that huge volume of pods. Whatever. I'm sure they'll be delicious.

The thing that's amusing me now is how much the discard bowl of leathery pale skins reminded me of empty snake eggs that we used to find back home.

[campofiorin]

I got such a kick out of that picture - mainly because I've done the same thing. It's very meditative, and smooth hummus is perfect validation for putting off writing a paper. :)

[ex_serenejo]

Yay! Someone else who's nuts in the way I'm nuts. :-)

[greenanimal]

What is green garlic?

[ex_serenejo]

Essentially, young garlic; more at the link.