Tasty tasty fava beans

I’ve joined the endless number of blogger and twitter people in deciding to participate in meatless monday. For those who haven’t heard about it before you can check out the official Meatless Monday site. In reality I have about half of my days as meatless days so I can’t promise to make every monday a meatless one. It’s easy on the bank account and a great way for carnivores to get creative.

In my produce box this week I received a bag of fava beans. I don’t think I have ever had a fava bean, at least not that I am aware of. I had no idea at all how to cook them or what to put them in. Thank goodness for the internet and its endless ability to be a resource for great recipes. I was at work on my break playing around with my phone recipe apps when I came across Ricotta Gnocchi with Leeks and Fava Beans. Awesome because I had everything except for the ricotta.

I often don’t try recipes with such a low rating on epicurious but I decided that all those people must have faulty taste buds, I think I was right. I have a love for steamed dark leafy greens so I served this dish on a bed of green chard. I imagine it could go on a bed of pasta as well but that may get a little heavy in the stomach. I followed the recipe as is, next time I would start browning the butter before adding the sage and beans as my beans and sage got over cooked. At least they didn’t burn to the point of inedibility (is that a word? I don’t know). In the end I kind of liked the slight crunch they gave when eating them though. The texture reminded me a bit of toasted soya or garbanzo beans.

My favorite part of making this dish was all the steps that went into it. Shelling beans reminded me of shelling endless buckets of peas from the garden with my family. The inside of the shells were so soft and fuzzy. I’d now rather be two fava beans in a pod than two peas in a pod, they have way better pod interiors. And honestly who doesn’t like getting their hands all sticky and doughy when cooking, which is how my hands ended up after rolling all the gnocchi balls. Fun I say!

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~ by danasaur82 on 05/31/2010.