Sunday, May 31, 2009

Parmesan-Crusted Fava Beans


We love fava beans, but the laborious shelling often deters us from actually dealing with them, especially on a weeknight. Enter this ingenious idea passed along to us from several of our friends at the Riverdog farm stand: blanch the pods and broil them with garlic and parmesan, rendering the entire vegetable edible! So if you love fava beans but have a mortal dread of shelling, try this (or get some therapy).

1 lb fava beans, tough strings removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
Salt
Pepper
1/4 cup grated parmesan or asiago cheese

Blanch the fava beans for 5 minutes in plenty of boiling water, then drain and transfer to a large pan (or cast-iron skillet). Toss with the oil, garlic, pepper and salt, transfer to the oven and broil for 5 minutes, or until burnt spots appear. Flip, top with the cheese, return to oven, and remove when cheese is bubbly and browning. Eat pods and all, keeping an eye out for any tough strings that you may have missed.

4 comments:

Sara K said...

So.. I just read almost all the archives of your blog and I love it! That India trip looks amazing and all your food looks so good! I love the flavors you use and it's given me so many ideas for new things I can do! (The Peep Cupcakes were incredibly cute too...)

I Heart Kale said...

Thanks for visiting, Sara! (Although I don't think we can claim credit for Peep cupcakes?)

Shaheen said...

Not sure about eating the skin of the fava/broad bean, but it does sound tasty, I think I will just have to try it out to find out.

I Heart Kale said...

At first we were skeptical about eating the skin too, but blanching the pods and removing the tough strings seems to do the trick!