fava beans

Cheesy grits topped with a mix of spring vegetables sautéed with shallots in butter. A soft poached egg tops the whole mix.

Cheesy Grits With Spring Vegetables Recipe

Kosher salt

asparagus (green, white,

fava beans (unpeeled)

english peas

milk

water

grits

black pepper

cheddar cheese

Parmigiano-Reggiano

vegetable oil

mushrooms

shallot, finely minced (about 2 tablespoons)

lemon

chives

parsley leaves

tarragon leaves

kept

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and prepare an ice bath. Add asparagus to water and cook until bright green and tender-crisp, about 2 minutes. Transfer to ice bath until chilled. Drain and transfer to a paper towel-lined tray. Repeat with fava beans, snap peas, and English peas. Cafefully peel outer shells from each fava bean and discard. Set all vegetables aside.

Bring milk and water to a boil in a large saucepan over high heat. Whisking constantly, pour in the grits. Add 2 teaspoons kosher salt, reduce to a bare simmer, and cook, whisking every 2 to 3 minutes, until creamy and tender, about 25 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat. Whisk in 4 tablespoons butter, cheddar, and parmesan cheese. Season to taste with plenty of black pepper and more salt as necessary. Add water or milk to thin to desired consistency if grits are too thick. Grits should be loose enough to spread out on a plate slowly. Cover pot and set aside.

Heat vegetable in a large skillet over high heat until smoking. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring and tossing occasionally, until well-browned on a few sides. Add shallot and cook, stirring constantly, until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Add blanched vegetables, remaining 2 tablespoons butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and half of chives, tarragon, and parsley. Cook, tossing and stirring constantly, until any liquid in the pan is reduced to a saucy glaze. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside off-heat.

Stir remaining herbs into grits, reserving a bit for garnish, then divide grits between four serving plates. Top with sautéed vegetables, then with a poached egg. Garnish with remaining herbs, season egg with salt and pepper, and serve immediately. 

Spring-Vegetable Risotto

onion

carrots,

unsalted butter

Arborio rice

saffron

dry white wine

chicken stock,

fava beans, or peas

asparagus spears,

salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese

In a large frying pan, soften the onion with the carrots in one tablespoon butter. Add the rice and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes until the rice is well coated with butter and starts to turn opaque. Add the saffron and wine and stir thoroughly.

Add a cup of hot chicken stock and cook, stirring, until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Add one-half cup more stock and continue cooking, stirring frequently.

Add the fava beans and asparagus and another cup of stock. Continue cooking and adding stock until the rice is al dente. It is done when it is firm but tender and creamy. The vegetables should be barely tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Stir in the cheese and remaining butter. Serve immediately.

Foul mudammas recipe, made with hearty, creamy fava beans and loaded with flavor from ground cumin, fresh herbs, and a zippy lemon garlic sauce with hot peppers! Don't worry, the sauce is not spicy, but it adds just the right kick.

I use a shortcut in this quick fava beans recipe. Serve it with warm pita bread and sliced veggies. Or turn it into a big vegan feast with falafel and sides like tahini, hummus, and roasted cauliflower!

Foul Mudammas (Egyptian Fava Beans) 

plain fava beans

cumin

hot peppers, chopped (jalapenos will work here)

garlic cloves, chopped

lemon juice of

Extra virgin olive oil (Early Harvest)

parsley

tomato, diced

pit bread

tomatoes

cucumbers

onions

Olives

In a cast iron skillet or saucepan, add the fava beans and ½ cup water. Warm over medium-high heat. Season with kosher salt and cumin. Use a potato masher or fork to mash the fava beans.

In a morter and pestle, add the hot peppers and garlic. Smash. Add in juice of one lemon and stir to combine.

Pour the garlic and hot pepper sauce over the fava beans. Add a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Top with chopped parsley, diced tomatoes, and a few slices of hot peppers, if you like.

Serve with pita bread, sliced veggies and olives.

This was wonderful!! I adore the combination of cumin and lemon together, any day, and the inherent nuttiness of the beans, with which I was unfamiliar, really "popped" those flavors!

QUESTION: I have a girlfriend from India who makes (and taught me) a dish nearly identical to this, but she used cannellini (white kidney) beans and didn't put the lemon juice in with the garlic/jalapeno mixture, she squeezed it over the top of each bowl as she served it. Otherwise, when I ate your version, I would swear it was the same, served with pita and charred cauliflower. Have you ever heard of that?

I have been experimenting with foul for a long time and I can say that this recipe is just perfect! I use canned foul beans, sometimes with added chickpeas (I live in UAE, here you have a big choice of canned foul beans). I also like to add 2 tbsp of tahini and mix well, which adds some creaminess and a nice taste (tip from a good Yemeni restaurant).

This is sooo simple yet so flavorful and healthy, thank you for helping me decide what to do with fava beans! Awesome.

Delicious!! I cooked the beans from dried and peeled them before cooking. I almost threw them out before finishing the recipe because they seemed overcooked and waterlogged. But went ahead and finished the recipe and the extra liquid cooked out AMD it wad AMAZING!! I served this with a meal of roasted chicken, roasted cauliflower and warm pita bread.

This is one of the most delicious dishes I have ever made! Thank you. My family said it was better than what we have at our favourite hadramawt.

What a quick, easy and delicious recipe! Was looking for something more wholesome, flavouful and tastier than regular baked beans. Came across your recipe. Exactly what I was looking for. So easy to put together. I used pento beans (I think that's what they're called). Would use a little less lemon next time. Passed on the olive oil to keep it healthy. Went deliciously with my breakfast of egg, cheese and toast. Also used my favourite baby vine tomatoes which have a very earthy punchy taste adding that extra burst of flavour. Recipe took me right back to my holidays in Egypt. Thank you for sharing ? this will become a regular part of my brekkys no doubt ?

My first time making foul and I loved it! The recipe is super easy to follow and the dish tastes great.Thank you so much!!

Great recipe! So simple and yet so delicious!

It is very helpful and interesting . Thank you for sharing a great information .


DELICIOUS!!  Could not find Fava beans so I substituted with canned butter beans.  Also, I used a Serrano pepper, just preference.  Its came out fantastic.  Easy recipe and great for vegetarians.  Served with sliced cucumber and pita bread.  Next time, I will double the sauce mixture.  Highly recommend!

Definitely a good way to describe "foul" and a very nice recipe.

This looks wonderful! 
I received fresh fava beans in the pods from my CSA this week.
Can I use them as they are? How can I substitute? 
Thanks for this and all your amazing recipes!

I remembered my college days in Manchester UK, it was the summer of 1978 and my Lebanese friends treated me to this meal, they made it exactly the same, I love this food. A friend from South Sudan adds crumbled Feta cheese on top. Wonderful recipe. 🙏🏿❤

Harira, a savory Moroccan soup made with dried legumes — lentil, chickpeas, fava beans — is traditionally cooked with lamb or lamb broth, but this version is vegetarian. Though it is typically eaten to break the fast during Ramadan, it is served throughout the rest of the year as well. The soup tastes best the following day, when flavors have melded, but may thicken when refrigerated. Thin with water or broth when reheating, and adjust the salt.

Harira Soup

olive oil

onion,

garlic cloves,

ginger

turmeric

cayenne

(3-inch) piece cinnamon stick cinnamon

celery leaves

cilantro

Salt

brown lentils,

red lentils,

fava beans (or substitute 1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight)

angel hair pasta

Lemon wedges,

Put olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened and lightly colored, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in garlic, ginger, pepper, turmeric, cumin, cayenne, saffron and cinnamon. Cook for about 2 minutes more.

Add tomato, celery leaves and cilantro and bring to a brisk simmer. Cook, stirring, about 5 minutes, until mixture thickens somewhat, then add 1 teaspoon salt, the brown lentils, red lentils and dried favas. Add 8 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer, covered with the lid ajar.

Let soup simmer for 30 minutes, then taste broth and adjust salt. Cook for 1 hour more at a gentle simmer, until the legumes are soft and creamy. It may be necessary to add more liquid from time to time to keep soup from being too porridge-like. It should be on the thick side, but with a pourable consistency. (With every addition of water, taste and adjust for salt.)

Just before serving, add pasta and let cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Ladle soup into small bowls and pass lemon wedges for squeezing.

“Sometimes the simplest paellas can be the most satisfying,” David Tanis wrote in 2012, when bringing this recipe to The Times. Here, fresh, wild-caught shrimp are peeled and deveined, the shells saved for a broth to flavor the rice (though a chicken broth can also be used, if you’re short on time). The shrimp is then marinated, and cooked separately, layered over a bed of rice, fava beans and chorizo.

Paella With Shrimp and Fava Beans

shrimp

garlic cloves, sliced

bay leaf

thyme

Salt and pepper

pimentón (spicy smoked paprika)

onion, diced small, about 2 cups

Spanish chorizo, diced small

short-grain rice, preferably Bomba

peas

shrimp broth (steps 1 and 2) or chicken broth

Make the shrimp broth: in a medium-size pot put the shrimp shells, sliced onion, sliced garlic, bay leaf, thyme sprig and 1 teaspoon salt. Add 7 cups water and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes, then strain. Taste and adjust for salt; the broth needs to be well seasoned. Yield should be about 5 cups. Reheat just before using.

Rinse the shrimp briefly in a bowl of cool lightly salted water, blot the shrimp with paper towels and put in a bowl with 1 tablespoon olive oil, the minced garlic, 1/2 teaspoon pimentón, and a little salt. Mix well to coat with seasonings and let marinate at least 15 minutes or up to 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. In a 14-inch paella pan, earthenware cazuela or cast-iron skillet, add 5 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add the shrimp in one layer and cook very briefly, about 30 seconds per side. Remove shrimp and set aside. Add the diced onion and chorizo to the pan along with a pinch of salt. Let the mixture cook in the oil, stirring frequently, until well softened and barely colored, about 15 minutes. Add the saffron and remaining 1/2 teaspoon pimentón and cook for a few minutes more.

Add the rice and raise the heat to medium high. Stir well to coat with the onion mixture. Add the fava beans and season with salt and pepper. Add 4 1/2 cups hot shrimp broth and bring to a brisk simmer, stirring once or twice only to distribute the fava beans. Taste broth and adjust seasoning if necessary. Simmer, uncovered, until most of the broth has been absorbed, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and arrange the par-cooked shrimp over the surface in one layer.

Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and cover with a clean dish cloth. Let the rice rest for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with homemade garlic mayonnaise or aioli if desired.

Lighten up! Reduce Parmesan, pistachios, and olive oil each to 1/3 cup, add 1/4 cup water, and substitute in low-fat feta. Total savings? 110 calories and 12 fat grams per serving.

Fava-Bean Pasta Salad with Garlic-Scape Pesto

c. garlic

Parmesan

c. pistachios

salt

pepper

lb. gemelli

Crumbled feta

Good fresh burrata — mozzarella’s luscious, creamy-centered cousin — really needs no adornment, just good bread to accompany it (and perhaps a drizzle of olive oil and few arugula leaves). To make it more festive, add a quickly made seasonal vegetable topping and serve the gilded burrata as a salad or antipasto. Bright green fava beans, celery and fennel make a lovely rendition for spring.

Burrata With Fava Beans, Fennel and Celery

shallot,

lemon juice

celery (tender inner stalks)

fennel

arugula leaves

burrata

Mint

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil, and fill a large bowl with ice water and keep it nearby. Meanwhile, shuck the fava beans from the pods. Plunge beans into boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes. Drain beans, then cool in the ice water to stop cooking. Blot beans on a clean kitchen towel.

Remove outer gray skin from each bean: Pierce with a thumbnail or paring knife and squeeze to pop bean from skin. Your yield should be about 2 1/2 cups peeled beans. Discard skins. (If desired, beans may be peeled several hours ahead or a day in advance and refrigerated. Return to room temperature before proceeding.)

Make the dressing: Put diced shallot in a small bowl and cover with lemon juice. Add a good pinch of salt and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Whisk in olive oil.

Place fava beans, celery and fennel in a mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add dressing and toss well.

Place burrata in the center of a platter. Arrange arugula leaves at edges of platter. Spoon fava bean mixture and dressing over and around burrata. Garnish with roughly chopped mint or torn basil leaves and serve immediately.

Learn how to cook fava beans using the blanching method. Check out this step-by-step guide for how to remove them from their pod, cook, and peel.

How to Cook Fava Beans

fava beans (fresh)

Water (as needed for boiling and chilling)

salt (for seasoning water)

Ice (as needed for chilling)

Remove the fava beans from the pod by carefully breaking the tip off the stem end and pulling it down the pod. Use your fingers to open up the pod along the seams to remove the beans. Alternatively, make a shallow cut down the seams using a paring knife, being careful not to cut the beans.

Fill a medium-sized saucepan halfway with cold water. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Once the water is boiling add the beans to the water. Cook for 1 minute for a quick blanch to add to other dishes. Cook 3 to 5 minutes, depending on size, for a fully cooked and creamy textured bean.

Immediately transfer the beans to a medium bowl filled with ice water. Chill until completely cool, about 5 minutes.

Use your nail to begin the peeling, then your fingertips to gently pop the beans out of their white-colored skin and discard.

Eat the beans or use them in a salad, soup, stew, sauce, appetizer, or side dish.

This delightful combination was a result of having enough leftover uncooked cod, aioli and cooked shelled favas for one person (me) the day after I’d made a fish soup for a dinner party. Now I think I might serve the improvised dish at my next dinner party.

Steamed Cod With Favas and Aioli

fava beans,

aioli

Season the cod with salt and pepper. Place in a steamer over an inch of boiling water, cover and steam the cod for 5 minutes, or until it flakes easily. Remove from the heat.

Warm the favas. If using whole fillets of fish, break them into smaller pieces and toss with the favas and aioli in a bowl. Serve right away. You can also serve the fish without breaking it up and the favas on the side, spooning on the aioli, but I like everything tossed together.

Peeling fava beans is a fiddly task that includes removing the beans from their pods, blanching them and then peeling off the skins. But for a light dish of pasta, peas, cracked black pepper and cheese, it’s well worth the effort. Favas can be found in farmers markets in the spring and summer. This dish is one of their highest uses.

Cacio e Pepe with Peas and Favas

English pea pods, shucked (about 2/3 cup peas)

fava bean pods, shucked (about 1/2 cup peeled favas)

spaghetti

Romano,

Coarse kosher sea salt,

Extra virgin olive oil,

Freshly snipped chives,

Bring a medium saucepot of salted water to a boil. Fill a medium bowl with water and ice and set a fine mesh strainer in the bowl. (Be sure to keep ice out of strainer.) Blanch peas for 30 seconds and use a slotted spoon to transfer peas to strainer in ice bath. Let sit for 5 minutes and pull up strainer to drain peas. Repeat process with fava beans, cooking for 1 minute. (You can use same pot of boiling water that you used for peas.) When fava beans have been blanched and cooled, slip off peels.

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until 1 minute shy of al dente. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking water.

In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter. Add pepper and sauté for 1 minute, or until fragrant. Add 1/4 cup of the cooking water and the remaining butter to pan. Stir until butter is melted and sauce begins to thicken, about 30 seconds.

Add cooked pasta, pecorino and Parmesan and toss until cheese melts, about 30 seconds. Add peas and fava beans. Toss very well to coat, adding more pasta water if pan seems dry. Season with salt to taste. To serve, sprinkle each portion with more pecorino and drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with chives.

Fuul is a beloved fava bean stew that has long been woven into the culinary fabric of East Africa, North Africa and the Middle East. It’s also known as ful medames or foul mudammas. This comforting stew is served in a variety of ways: slow-simmered whole beans topped with juicy tomatoes and olive oil, or simply crushed and spritzed with lemon juice. This recipe is for Somali-style fuul, which consists of smashed fava beans and receives its intoxicating smell from the Xawaash mix. Fuul is eaten for breakfast alongside eggs and fresh anjero, and is perfect for suhoor or iftar.

Fuul (Somali-Style Fava Bean Stew)

garlic

tomatoes,

fine sea salt

coriander

cinnamon

cardamom

(14-ounce) can small fava beans, rinsed

tomato sauce

cilantro leaves, washed and roughly chopped

Anjero or other flatbread,

In a medium pot or deep skillet over medium heat, warm up the olive oil. Once the olive oil is hot, add the onion and stir. Let the onions cook, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and almost translucent, about 5 minutes.

Once the onions have cooked, add in the garlic and let it cook until it softens, about 2 minutes. Add the roughly chopped tomatoes and let them cook, stirring occasionally, for 7 to 8 minutes or until they start to break down. Add the salt.

While the tomato mixture cooks, prepare the Xawaash mix: Add the cumin, coriander, black pepper, cinnamon and cardamom to a small nonstick pan. Toast over low heat, stirring continuously, for 1 minute or until the spice mix becomes fragrant.

Add the Xawaash mix to the simmering tomato and onions. While the tomatoes finish cooking, add the rinsed fava beans to a medium bowl and use a pestle to mash them until there are almost no whole beans left. Stir the mashed beans into the tomatoes.

Stir in the tomato sauce, 1 cup of water and the chopped cilantro leaves into the bean and tomato mixture. Cover the pan and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Stir in up to an additional ⅓ cup of water if the stew gets too thick.

Serve the fuul with anjero, if desired. Leftovers keep for about a week in the refrigerator.

A popular and beloved stew from northern Iran, baghali ghatogh is an ambassador of early spring produce. Earthy, bright-green fava beans, fragrant dill and an assertive amount of garlic are combined with eggs for a comforting meal. Although shelling and peeling fresh favas is a rite of passage (see Tip), it’s a time-consuming task, given the amount needed here (but if you have the time, go for it!). Frozen fava beans are a worthy substitute, but if they aren't available, you can use canned butter beans or frozen lima beans. Just enough eggs are used to give the stew some heft, but they shouldn’t overwhelm the vibrant flavors of this verdant stew. The eggs can be incorporated two ways: cracked in and poached, or stirred in to break apart. Baghali ghatogh is typically served over rice with a side of smoked fish and pickled garlic, or with bread. 

Baghali Ghatogh (Fava Bean Stew)

beans

dill dill

salt (such as Diamond Crystal) and black pepper

eggs

Add the oil and garlic to a medium pot, then set it over medium-low heat. Cook the garlic, stirring often, until fragrant and cooked, taking care not to burn it, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the turmeric, stir and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the beans, dill, 1½ teaspoons salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Stir gently so the beans don’t break, and cook for about 3 minutes, just so the flavors meld and no longer taste raw. 

Increase the heat to medium-high, add enough water to cover the beans, about 2 cups (or more as needed, if you’re using cannellini beans, which absorb more liquid), and bring to a gentle boil. Partially cover with the lid barely ajar, reduce the heat to medium-low, and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender, but still maintain their shape (no mushy beans please), and the flavors have come to life, about 12 minutes.

Taste the beans and liquid for salt and pepper, and adjust as needed. The stew should be juicy enough to serve over rice, but if it seems too liquidy, remove the lid and cook a little longer to reduce it, keeping in mind that the eggs will also thicken it up. Add a little more water if the stew is too thick.

Increase the heat to medium and add the eggs one at a time. If poaching whole eggs, use 4 eggs and make individual wells in the stew before adding each egg. Cook, uncovered, until the whites set and the yolk is cooked to desired consistency, 3 to 5 minutes. (Alternately, you can stir the eggs in: Add 3 eggs, then run a spoon through each egg to break them apart and cook, slightly covered, until the eggs set, about 3 to 5 minutes.) Taste, add more water if the stew is too thick, adjust seasoning and serve.

Learn how to cook all varieties of fava beans to prepare them for use in recipes. Includes storage and freezing techniques.

Fava Beans - How to Cook, Soak, Peel and Freeze

salt (optional)

Fresh fava beans are large and come in a pod. The pod must be removed and the beans must be peeled to enjoy them in recipes.

When you look at the fava bean pod, you will notice that the edges have a seam. To open the pod, snap off the tip and pull down; the seam will open like a zipper. If you have trouble "unzipping" the pod cleanly, don't worry. Once the pod is open at least somewhat you can easily tear it open the rest of the way with your hands.

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Top Tags

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