We had a farm tour yesterday and we peeled and ate favas we picked from the field on the hay rides.

Favas are yummy raw and fun to eat. But cooked, favas are heaven. If you haven’t had favas, or haven’t prepared them yourself this might seem like a lot of work. Really it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes or so and the yummy, nutty result is more than worth the effort. You probably will only do this once or twice a year so, enjoy the time you spend preparing this fun legume.

Here is a basic fava bean preparation for most any recipe calling for favas, save grilled favas.
Check the recipe index for the grilling favas blog.

There are three steps to preparing a Fava Bean:
1.Removing the beans from the pod.
2.Blanching the beans in boiling water, that you removed from the pod, to soften for easy removal of the outer shell.
3.Peeling off the outer shell before eating or cooking to end with a bright-green, tender-scrumptious bean!

In the picture you can see the steps, except I didn’t show blanching the beans. You know what boiling water looks like, right?

The bright tender inner bean is what you are after.

A pound of fava beans yields a heaping 1/2 cup of recipe ready fava beans. You can simply eat favas with a little butter and salt, or add them to almost any pasta dish or salad.
I hope you enjoy your favas, I know I will!!