Recipe: Roman-inspired fava beans are good as side dish or on crostini
![]() |
Late-season fava bean pods are long and fat. (Photos: Debbie Arrington) |
Our mild (and wet) spring elongated the season of one cool-weather favorite: Fava beans.
I’m still picking favas and I know I’m not alone. By late season, favas produce huge pods, 6 to 8 inches long and fat as thumbs. As big as they are, these pods contain only four or five beans. It usually takes 2 pounds of pods (or more) to produce 2 cups of beans.
Favas rank among the most time-consuming beans to prepare. First they must be shelled. Then, the individual beans should be skinned, especially when fully mature. (The skin has a bitter aftertaste.)
![]() |
Those big pods yield this many beans. They still need to be skinned. |
But the result – the naked, emerald-green inner bean -- melts in your mouth.
To remove the skins, use this method: Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Plunge shelled beans into the boiling water. Boil for 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove the beans from the boiling water and plunge them into a bowl of cold water. Wait a few minutes, then peel the beans. Use your thumbnail or a paring knife to nick the bean’s skin, then the skin will slip right off.
Even with this trick, expect it to take 20 minutes or more to peel 2 cups. Is it worth the effort? If you love favas, yes!
This is my favorite way to cook fava beans. Besides serving as a side dish, it also doubles as fava spread for crostini.
The romaine lettuce blends with the bright green of the beans and provides some extra moisture as the vegetables cook. If substituting scallions, use the green parts, too; it just intensifies the green.
To be truly Roman-style fava beans, add ½ cup chopped prosciutto with the beans. Otherwise, consider these favas Roman-inspired.
![]() |
These are shelled, skinned and ready to cook. |
Roman-inspired fava beans
Makes 4 side-dish servings
Ingredients:
![]() |
Ready to serve. |
Comments
0 comments have been posted.Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
Food in My Back Yard Series
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
Sites We Like
Garden Checklist for week of June 8
Get out early to enjoy those nice mornings. There’s plenty to keep gardeners busy:
* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal or rock phosphate can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.
* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don’t let them dry out completely. Inconsistent soil moisture can encourage blossom-end rot.
* It’s not too late to transplant tomatoes, peppers or eggplant.
* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.
* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.
* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias.
* It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.
* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.
* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.
* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.
* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.
* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.
* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.