+ today’s lunch + a good book
new to fava beans
Today was the first day that I’ve ever eaten a fava bean. We received a pound of them last week from our CSA share and I’ve just gotten around to preparing them. The first step of shelling the fava beans was straightforward: remove the beans from their “wooly husk.” Easy enough! But then I was confused. The directions that I had been given by our CSA said that the next shell around the bean itself, hugging it like a Speedo, er… wouldn’t need to be removed if the beans were young. Well, just how young were my beans??
the second shell
After attempting to wrangle one larger bean from this whitish shell and finding it too labor intensive and kind of messy, I decided to parboil the beans as they were. And I’m glad that I did, because after only 4 minutes of boiling, and a bit of cooling off, this inner shell slips right off the bean! It feels a lot like eating edamame, or soy beans out of their pods. But my CSA’s directions were also accurate: the smaller beans don’t require this extra shelling. Their inner shells are tender and easy to eat. Greg, being the eater that he is, even ate the larger beans’ white shells. I ate a few. They tasted fine, just required some extra chewing. I prefer the more mellow experience of the shelled bean.
If I had realized all this before I served myself this plate full of food, I would’ve kept the fava beans separate from the gravy, because shelling them with my fingers got a little messy!
But I give fava beans lots of thumbs up. They are smooth little beans — good cold or hot, plain or in salads or in soups, I imagine too. And they rounded out our meal of boiled potatoes, steamed yellow bell pepper, steamed Italian kale, and my beloved gravy. I feel like these beans are something that kids would really enjoy eating.
nutritional info on the fava
Fava beans are also known as broad beans. One cup of these ladies will provide your happy body with 13g of protein, 2.5mg of iron (14%), 177mcg of folate! (44%), 9g of fiber (37%), and a bunch of phosphorus, manganese, magnesium, and copper. Also, they provide 6% of your recommended calcium, which I think is significant to note! (nutritiondata.com)
Dax’s reaction to lunch
was very good! It might just be timing, but I feel like when I sit down and eat wildly nutritious things, Dax gets excited and starts poking around gently. When I eat not so nutritious things, he just stays asleep. Like, Wake me up when you get more of that kale.
On a side note, I purchased a month pass to pool as I do most months, but this one is special because it ends on my due date, and even if we go beyond that date, I won’t be purchasing another full month’s pass until after Dax is born! (And I get the okay to start exercising again.) Swimming + Pregnancy has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I cannot overstate this fact. I feel very very fortunate.
fava bean friends
Sarahfae over at Addicted to Veggies just announced that she will be doing amazing things with raw fava beans this week. So stay tuned to her blog and her twitter for updates!
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Comments About Fava Beans
// 2 comments so far.
Sarahfae // June 08th 2010
yippie!! I’m gonna edit my recent post and link to this.
kristen // June 08th 2010
Oh, cool! Thanks Sarahfae! Fava bean friends! I linked back to you too!
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