I’ve been growing fava beans on my balcony all winter. Planted in November, and beginning to harvest at the end of May. I didn’t think I would be harvesting so late, but it is so worth it! The beans are creamy and have lovely flavour. And check out the photo at the bottom of the page to see the gorgeous green of the bean after shelling!
This recipe is more of a guide. What I thought was going to be a massive crop, ended up being only 8 pods (for now), which yielded 18 beans. So I ended up making a really small portion of this spread, using less than half of an avocado.
In the photo I’ve got some delicious corn crackers, but we actually preferred the fava-cado spread on a piece of bread. The crackers had a lot of flavour on their own, so the milder bread allowed the flavours of the fava and avocado to shine through.
A word on growing fava beans: Yes, you can grow them in summer, but when I did that they got infested with aphids. Growing them over winter, in Vancouver, was pretty easy. I just had to wrap them up a bit when we had a cold snap. So after half a year of growing, I finally get to eat them! This is the first harvest, but there are a lot more pods still growing . . . hmm, what should I make with the next harvest?
What you need:
- avocado
- fresh fava beans
- lime
- salt
- bread or crackers
What you do:
- To prepare the fava beans, get a pot of salted water boiling. String the pods and remove the fava beans. Boil the beans for 3 minutes. Drain the beans and then put them in a bath of ice water right away. This will help them to stop cooking, and retain their gorgeous bright green colour.
- Now you can slide the beans out of their skins, revealing the gorgeous green colour!
- Mash the fava beans together with some avocado (I used more fava than avo). Use an immersion blender if you like. Season with a little bit of salt and a squeeze of lime.
- Serve with bread or crackers right away. Not as good after refrigeration.
Trust in Kim (she will guide thee) 