Fava Beans Are Here for a Short Stay
Fava beans are one of those crops that feel like an event.
They arrive in big, padded pods, not quite like anything else in the box. Inside each pod are bright green beans, and around each bean is a thin outer skin that can be slipped off after blanching. It is a little bit of a project. Not a hard project, but a project.
And then you taste them, and the whole thing makes sense.
Fava beans have a creamy, nutty, tender texture with a fresh green flavor that reminds us a little of edamame. They are rich and bright at the same time, which makes them especially good with lemon, olive oil, garlic, herbs, salty cheese, crunchy bread, and bitter greens.
They are also very seasonal here.
Favas prefer cool, steady spring weather, which, as you may have noticed, the Mid-Atlantic does not reliably offer. In places with long, cool springs — the Pacific Northwest, for example — favas can keep flowering and setting beans for a much longer stretch. Adam has fond memories of harvesting favas all season long when he worked on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.
Here, we are usually racing the heat. A hot stretch can quickly bring the season to a close, so our local fava window tends to be short. We are very pleased with the bean set this year, though, and we expect a bountiful harvest next week. Honestly, without that 90-degree week in April, the abundance might have been a little overwhelming.
We are pleased with how the whole fava season went, really. We direct seeded them in early March, and the stand was strong, though we did have to reseed a few holes where no plants emerged. Then we started finding fava plants in random places. It turns out mice had been running off with the seeds and stashing them for later.
All of this to say as part of why local favas can be expensive when you find them. They take time to grow, time to pick, and time to prepare, and they are only here briefly.
But that is also what makes them fun.
Seasonal eating is not just about abundance. Sometimes it is about paying attention to the thing that is here right now, making something good with it, and then letting it go and looking forward until next year.
How to Prep Fava Beans
The classic way to prepare favas is:
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Shell the beans from the pods.
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Blanch the shelled beans in boiling salted water for 1–2 minutes.
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Drain and cool them.
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Slip off the pale outer skin if you want the most tender texture.
That last step is the one people sometimes complain about. Removing the outer skin, or pericarp, does make the beans more delicate, creamy, and tender. It is not always obligatory, especially if the beans are young and you do not mind a little more texture. We let our fava beans mature fully, so we do recommend removing the outer skin.
Put on a podcast and settle in for a little pod-casting. 😉
For a bolder version, you can also grill the favas in their pods until the pods are charred. The beans steam inside their own pods, giving you the same creamy, nutty preparation as blanching, but with a smoky edge.
What to Make
Our favorite way to eat them right now is with a bright zhug-style herb sauce: garlic, parsley, cilantro if you like it, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. Toss that with the blanched favas, then serve them with chopped endive and croutons for crunch and volume.
Or keep it even simpler: spoon the favas and herb sauce over toast and finish with crumbled feta.
Both versions are the same idea: creamy beans, bright herbs, lemon, olive oil, salt, and crunch.
A short-season crop deserves a simple recipe that lets it taste like itself.
Recipe: Fava Beans with Zhug, Endive & Croutons — or Fava Toast with Feta
