How to Prepare Fava Beans
If you’ve never prepared fava beans, it can be a little intimidating. Fair warning, it’s pretty time consuming, too. But don’t let that stop you from trying! These small green pods are nutrient-dense and packed with fiber, protein, magnesium, and potassium. They’re beneficial for bone health, boost your immune system, and because of the fiber, can help lower cholesterol. Below, we’ve tried to break the process down, simple and sweet, so you can keep on adding these to your CSA box (until we run out, of course).
Step 1: remove beans from pod
Grab a friend, a couple chairs, and take you and your beans to a seat on the front porch. Each pod usually contains 4-5 beans, so it takes a bit of time to work through your pile (hence the friend and the chairs!) Find whatever de-shelling method works best for you: either popping of the top and squeezing out one bean at a time, or using the stringed side to ‘unzip’ your pod and let the beans fall out. Separate your beans from your pods and make sure the thin white film layer stays on the outside of your beans (these will come off much easier after boiling).
step 2: Blanch the beans
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add your shelled beans. Boil them anywhere from 2-6 minutes, depending on how cooked you want them. If you’re wanting to add them to a stir fry dish, for example, you’ll only want to blanch them for a couple minutes so you can keep cooking them with your other food later. If you want to immediately eat them with some salt and butter, cook them fully for 5-6 minutes. As soon as you’ve cooked them to your desired amount, immediately strain them and pour them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Once cooled, you’ll notice now that the outer skin has separated from the bean itself. It will be able to slip right off, as pictured.
step 3: remove the white outer layer
Now that the fava beans are blanched, slipping off the white layer or shelled “skin” will be pretty easy to do, but depending on the amount of beans, might just take a little time. Grab a large bowl and begin peeling off this thin outside skin (great for compost along with the pods!). The bean should look much greener without the outside layer.