Big, gnarly fava bean pods are in season right now, just as winter gives way from cool nights to bright, warm days. Heaps of the greens loved in the Middle East appear in the shouks (Arabic word for market): peas, string beans, asparagus, and for a short while, these fresh fava beans.

Somehow vegetables with short seasons excite the imagination and appetite more sharply than produce that’s available all year around. Good Middle Eastern cooks have many recipes for delicate fava beans, and this turmeric-fragrant soup is one.

Fresh beans are peeled twice: once when when you slide them out of their pods, and again when you squish each bean out from its rubbery covering. True; a little extra work. But it’s a restful task, and the soup is wonderfully herby, and redolent of green Springtime.

The preparation time listed relates to fresh beans. Frozen beans won’t need the peeling.

You’ll notice that the recipe calls for a fair amount of cilantro, but you can easily swap parsley for it if you prefer.

Fava Bean Soup Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups fresh or frozen fava bean pods
1 large leek, well washed and sliced ​​into thin rings (about 2 cups)
2 celery stalks sliced
2 carrots, sliced thinly
2 zucchini, diced
2 large potatoes, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
A bunch of coarsely chopped cilantro (about a cup)
8 cups/2 liters water or more as needed

Pull the strings off each pod and open it along the slit to expose the green beans. Use your thumbnail or a small knife. Push the beans out. Make a small cut in each bean, along the black stripe on its side, and squish it free of its sheath.

If using frozen beans, skip this step.
Heat olive oil in a deep pot over medium heat. Add the leeks, celery, carrots, zucchini and potatoes. Add turmeric, salt and black pepper, stir and let the vegetables cook gently for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add 8 cups of water, stir and bring to a boil. Cook, covered, for 45 minutes over medium heat until all the vegetables are tender.

Add the peeled fava beans, bring back to a boil and continue cooking for another 45 minutes. Check the soup once or twice: if necessary, add a little water.

Using a potato masher, mash the vegetables very coarsely.

Taste for seasoning and add a little more salt and pepper if needed.

Turn off the heat and add a bunch of finely chopped cilantro or parsley.
Serve right away, and enjoy.

Love fava beans and want another recipe? Try this fava bean Iranian salad

The post Fresh Fava Bean Soup, A Vegan Springtime Recipe appeared first on Green Prophet.

Most often, they are used in their dried form: rehydrated and simmered until tender, and then prepared in a host of ways. But fresh favas are wonderful – toothsome, nutty, tasting like something halfway between a pea and bean.

RELATED: first cultivated fava beans found in ancient Israel

Though they are often referred to as the ugly duckling of the bean world, we find them rather fascinating to behold…

Fava beans come in giant, oversized pods about 20cm long. If you split one open, you’ll see that the inside is white and fuzzy. Though this may seem alarming, that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be. The beans themselves are nestled in little indentations in the fuzz, each encased in a skin.

When the pods are young and small you can eat the beans as they are, but in mature favas the skin is too thick to eat comfortably and must be peeled off. A bit labour-intensive, but entirely worth the trouble when they come into season.

Fava beans make a fantastic addition to almost any salad you can think of, but they certainly deserve centre stage every so often. This dish is extremely simple – it barely qualifies as a recipe at all – and is made with ingredients you’re likely to have on hand. Serve as a side-dish, part of a buffet, or with bread as a light supper.

RELATED: Fresh fava bean salad from Persia

Fava Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad Recipe

• 1.5 kg fresh fava bean pods
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• a couple of glugs of olive oil
• juice of half a lemon
• some fresh chives, a couple of green onions, or a shallot, finely chopped
• a small wedge of your favourite hard/grating cheese (sheep’s milk cheeses, like Pecorino or Manchego, work especially well), shaved into thin strips
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 

1. To prepare the fava beans, set a pot of water on the stove to boil, and fill a bowl with ice-cold water. While the water is heating up, shell the beans.* Once the water starts bubbling, add the favas and blanch for 2-3 minutes, until just tender. Immediately drain, and pour them into the ice water (this halts the cooking process and keeps the beans from getting mushy); drain again.

2. When the fava beans have cooled down a bit, remove them from their tough outer skins: slit each one with your fingernail or a paring knife, and let the beans slip out into a bowl.

3. Add all of the remaining salad ingredients to the bowl with the beans and toss gently. Taste, and adjust lemon juice, salt and pepper as needed.

Serves 4 as part of a meal, or 2 (generously) as a main course.

*Unlike green peas, these pods are inedible except when tender and very young. Send them to your compost heap.

The post Fresh fava (ful medames) beans for salads appeared first on Green Prophet.