The mighty fava
Fava is one of the few protein dense foods that can be cultivated overwinter in our region. We planted our crop at the Lents site in November, and delighted in watching these sprouts push up through the cold.
By mid May the stalks are growing tall and bedazzled by delicate white purple flowers. Fava roots help aerate and fix nitrogen in the soil, acting as an excellent primer for midsummer planted crops.
By June we saw significant pod growth, and couldn’t restrain ourselves from making a first harvest for dinner. The weight of the pods begins to pull the stalks to the ground—a good indication that they’re ready to be picked.
The first step is to remove the unhulled beans from their pods. This is a great activity to do with kids because the beans are easy to handle after a grown up friend opens the pods. Belmont the cat watches on approvingly.
We started with a little over 3.5 lbs of unhulled fava. After separating from the pods, we have approximately 1.5 lbs of unprocessed beans. This 3:1 ratio is good to keep in mind—and there’s more processing to do yet!
The unprocessed beans are added to a large pot of boiling water to be blanched. They only need 10-15 seconds of time in the water—once they started rising to the surface, you know it’s time to pull them. Immediately drain and soak in a colander with ice to prevent pre-cooking.
After the beans have cooled, it’s time for the final step of processing. The outer skins of the blanched beans peel off easily by hand. Within the skins are lovely, dark green fava beans—ready for cooking!
We stared with 3.5 lbs of raw, unprocessed pods. After blanching & peeling the outer skin, the beans weigh in at 13.7 ounces, or approximately 3/4 of a pound. This is more than enough for 2-4 servings as an added ingredient in most recipes. Total processing time = 20 minutes.
Fava beans are totally delicious in a broad range of dishes—we love to pair them with other late spring garden delights like garlic scapes and squash blossoms. Some of our favorites include variations adding whole fava to simple pasta dishes, or using the fava as a base medium for pesto—absolutely incredible with fish tacos.
All that processing effort is really worth it when you consider the nutritional benefits of fava. One cup of fava contains approximately 25% of your daily recommended protein intake. Fava is also an excellent source of folate—super important for pregnant people—as well as being a good source of minerals, iron, and calcium.
In our opinion, fava is really at its best when fresh. There are option to freeze and dry fava out there, but the flavor really suffers. Lucky for you, fava is one of those crops you keep growing year round. As soon as you pull the winter crop out of the ground, more seed can be planted for a fall harvest.