Fast and Healthy, Spiced Roast Favas. You Snooze, You Lose.

      
   Somebody told me once years ago," if you miss something don't sweat it, it's not leaving the planet." That's a maxim I've always believed until a couple of weeks ago when I attempted to buy fresh garbanzo beans. I'd never seen fresh garbanzos before, though I'd heard of them, and when they showed up in my local Whole Foods Market, I was shocked. I wanted those garbanzos badly. I hadn't even been able to find them at the Organic Farmers Market, no matter how many times, I'd asked. Nobody seemed to know nothin', then, Bam! There they were right in front of me and like a dope I didn't buy any. My excuse was I didn't have the time that day to cook them, I figured I'd come back the next day and pick some up. After all they weren't leaving the planet, right? Wrong. After that day, I never saw them again. No matter how many people I asked, it was a lost cause. As fast as they appeared they were gone. It seemed they had left the planet. My plans for spiced, roast, fresh garbanzos seemed gone forever. It was my first time discovering that sometimes stuff actually does leave the planet. Then I thought, wait a minute, hold the phone, fava beans!
 
   Now, a lot of people have never tried fava beans. All they know about this delightful legume comes from Hannibal Lecter.

    
  
But this is fava bean season, and if you haven't tried them you really should. They're inexpensive, readily available, and delicious. So that's what I did. I bought some fresh fava beans and decided to pretend they were fresh garbanzos. After all a bean is a bean is a bean, right? Right. The recipe worked beautifully with favas, and would work with garbanzos, and yeah...fresh garbanzos too, if you are one of the  lucky people able to find them. This recipe can be made with frozen favas, but if you use fresh here's how to prep them no matter what you're using them for.

Spiced Roast Fava Beans

 

Here's What You Need:

1 lb of fava beans
3 Tbs of olive oil
3 Tbs of spice mix (your choice of mix, and I'll show you what I used)

Here's What To Do:

Wash the fava beans.

Shell the fava beans.

Boil some salted water in a pot. When it's boiled, toss the shelled favas into the boiling water for about 2 minutes.

Drain them.

 Plunge them into an ice water bath so that they stop cooking.

Take them out of the ice water, drain them and pop them out of their skins.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with paper towels, and place the skinned fava beans on it to thoroughly dry.
While they're drying, prep your spice mix. The spice mix, can be anything you'd like. Just think of the favas as popcorn and go from there. I decided to go with an Iranian spice mix,  called Advieh Khoresht  from Raw Spice Bar also this link for subscriptions

In case you've not heard of them, Raw Spice Bar is a company that delivers small batch, freshly ground spice blends to your door for 6 bucks a month. For that price they also give you about 3 or 4 spice blends from a given region, enough to be used in 3 dishes that serve between 8-12 people. They also include all the info on the spices and recipe cards that show you exactly how to use them.What could be easier? When they asked me if I'd like to try this out, of course I said yes!

I received 3 packets of spices used in Iranian dishes. Advieh Koresht is a blend of organic rose petals, cinnamon, green cardamom,angelica,Persian lime powder, coriander, cumin, and ground black pepper. These spices are traditionally used in bean stews, so I figured, bean stews, roast favas, how could I go wrong?

Once the favas are dry, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Line a flat cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the favas on it. Roast them in the oven for 15 minutes.

Then take them out, turn them over and roast for another 10 minutes. The favas should be nice and crispy.
In a bowl mix together 3 Tbs of olive oil and 3 Tbs of spice mix.

Mix the oil and spices together then add the roast favas...

...and stir them around well to coat them.

Pop the coated favas back into the oven for another 4 minutes. Then take them out, sprinkle with kosher salt to taste, and serve them up.

Sweet, and savory , these favas make a wonderful party snack, fast, simple, tasty, and healthy. Try this with favas, try this with chickpeas, try it with peas, and if you can find fresh garbanzos, definitely try this with them.

   Coming up next, having learned my lesson with the fresh garbanzos, I saw  organic red corn, and rather than waiting, I bought some, sure enough today it was gone! So I learned my lesson, you snooze, you lose. What do I have planned? Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Fun With Favas.

One of the things I like the best about this time of year are all the vegetables that are suddenly available. One of my favorites is the Fava bean. Favas are a big part of Italian cooking, especially in Tuscany where my family is from. When I see those big old bean pods sitting there at the farmers market I just can't help myself. The fact that they're also 79 cents a pound doesn't hurt. Yes, I am cheap but the cheap never seems to hurt the delicious as long as one can buy fresh and locally.
  Last weekend I decided to include Favas in my Tuscan dinner. I'd also seen beautiful spring onions on sale at 99 cents a bunch. That sealed the deal. I knew I'd have something simple, inexpensive and great to eat.
I quickly scooped up 3 lbs of Fava beans to feed my five guests. I shelled them and tossed them in boiling water for 2 minutes to blanch them. Then plunged them in ice cold water to stop the cooking process. Then I remembered something. I was going to have to hand shell 3 pounds of Fava beans!
  Right now I have to make something clear. This recipe can be made with peas, fresh or frozen, or lima beans neither of which have to be helped off with their little vegetable coats. Fava beans can also be gotten at Whole Foods frozen, shelled and all ready to go. So, unless you want to feel like you are back in the village sitting in some sunny doorway, don't try this at  home kids.
 Purist that I am, I was resigned to about an hour of Fava bean peeling. I put some opera on Pandora and got down to it, and it all turned out for the best. This is a dish that like revenge, is best served cold. Well, not really, because it can also be served warm or at room temperature. It's one of those winners that can be made ahead, most likely at a time when hand peeling Favas might seem like a great idea.
  Whether you peel or not, this is a dish well worth the work put into it.
  Start with 3 lbs of Fava bean pods. This serves 5 people.
Shell the Fava beans
After they are shelled, put them into boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Take them out and plunge them into ice cold water to stop them from cooking.
  When they have cooled, peel them by removing their little skin jackets. This will be pretty easy and they should slip out quickly.
In a heavy skillet drizzle a bit of olive oil. When it is hot toss in:
3 thinly sliced spring onion bulbs
Saute them  for about 4 to 5 minutes til they soften a bit then add in:
The shelled Fava beans
Let them cook for about 2 or 3 minutes then add:
1 cup of chicken broth

Bring the mixture to a boil then lower the heat and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
 Now here comes the part that Patsy likes best. The Pancetta. Patsy is a fan of anything bacon related and she waits eagerly in the kitchen for one false move on my part. She is a very dedicated little sous chef.

Chop 1/2 cup of pancetta. Saute it until it's nice and crispy, then drain it on paper towels. This part can be done ahead of time. In fact I recommend doing it this way as it saves a load of time and is a lot easier.
 Add in the Pancetta and let the whole thing cook for about 15 minutes longer until the beans are nice and tender.
Mix in 2 Tbs of fresh squeezed lemon juice. Salt and pepper to taste.
These tasty little Favas can be made ahead, chilled then served at room temperature or warm right out of the pan, as I did.
  My husband loved these Favas. As a matter of fact, he's right behind Patsy in his love for anything bacon related. He does stop short of crouching under the kitchen table waiting for me to drop something however. Later that night after all the Favas had had been eaten. He told me how much he'd loved them. He also said he didn't expect to love them.  I guess love is never having to say you don't like Fava beans.