Fava bean

About

Fresh fava beans have a mildly mineral, faintly meaty and slightly cheesy character that becomes more pronounced and pungent as the beans mature, thicken-skinned, or are canned or dried. Like other strongly flavored foods such as aged cheese, truffles or fermented tofu, dried or mature fava beans pair best with subtle partners that let their intensity stand out, similar to classic lamb pairings, while fresh green fava beans suit salty, dairy-based or other young-vegetable partners.

Pairs well with fava bean

• EaPotatoDried fava beans and potatoes together have long served as a subsistence staple, though the beans' flavor tends to dominate the potato.
• SuEggIn Turkish cooking, sliced fava bean pods are cooked with onion, garlic, chili and mint before eggs are stirred in (yumurtali bakla…
• SuGarlicFul medames, Egypt's national fava bean dish, cooks dried fava beans and mixes them with crushed garlic and olive oil, with tomato,…
• BeMintA Neapolitan dish combines fava beans and mint in a vinaigrette.
• ChCheeseFresh, young fava beans with pecorino cheese, bread, and olive oil is a classic simple pairing, traditionally eaten outdoors in Rome on…
• EaCuminCanned cooked fava beans (ful) are a Middle Eastern pantry staple with regional variations: Egyptian ful is seasoned with cumin, Lebanese…
• SuCornFava beans, often assumed to be an Old World ingredient, are in fact popular in Ecuador.
• GrParsleyFava beans are often served in a creamy parsley sauce, or, in warmer weather, dressed with salsa verde.
• EaChickpeaThe two meet in dobara, an Algerian stew of dried chickpeas and fresh fava beans with tomato, garlic, chiles and spices such as cumin,…
• GrFennelIn Greece, fresh fava beans, pinched from their pods, are a traditional snack alongside iced ouzo.
• GrChileFava beans and chiles combine in doubanjiang, a fermented Sichuan chili-bean paste made simply from beans, chiles, flour and water, best…
• SpAllspiceGround allspice is a key seasoning in vegetarian versions of haggis, where dried, skin-on fava beans stand in for offal and contribute a…
• EaBarleyThe Roman physician Galen recorded feeding gladiators at Pergamon a diet heavy in boiled barley and fava beans, which he noted made them…
• GrLettuceVignarola is a braise of young spring vegetables, traditionally including fava beans, lettuce, peas and scallions, cooked slowly in butter…
• SuChiveFresh fava beans' mildly cheesy note pairs well with chives in a salad, spring vegetable braise or soup; adding small pods to a simmering…
• WoWhole grain ricePersian cooking pairs fresh fava beans with rice in baghali polo (cooked, skinned fava beans, rice, fried onion and dill) and dried, split…
• GrChicoryFave e cicoria, a classic Italian dish, pairs dried, skinless fava bean purée with cooked bitter greens, chicory or a substitute like…
• MaSea beanFava beans, whose skull-like shape in the pan echoes old superstitions linking the bean to the human head, pair well with the natural…