Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Warm Fresh Fava Bean Salad ... Perfection

Revisiting all those great Egyptian and Middle Eastern dishes I had in Vienna really got me craving specific foods and flavors. Things like garlic and olive oil and fresh vegetables. Beautiful cheeses and herbs. Something sort of Mediterranean. Then I spied fresh fava beans at the market,  and I knew it was time to return to an old favorite of mine.

I have been making this warm fava bean salad for so long that I don't remember the name of the cookbook where I first saw it. At that time there weren't even any food blogs - hardly a world worth living in! I barely knew how to cook anything in those days, and I thought this dish was incredibly fancy. In fact, it's the opposite of fancy, and that's what I love about it. The components - plum tomatoes, dill, garlic, oil cured black olives, feta, and, of course, those cute little fava beans - come together in one of those perfectly harmonious combinations that make you slap your forehead and exclaim, "Of course!"

This dish hinges on the fresh fava beans. You could use frozen if they're high quality, but whatever you do, do not go with canned beans. They have their place, but not here. Fresh beans are admittedly a bit more labor intensive, but they are worth every second. If you haven't worked with them before, it goes like this. First, you have to take them out of their pods:
Next, blanch them for a minute and immediately ice them down:
You're not done yet! Once they're cool, you peel off their little jackets and out they come - pop! Look at that color ... aren't they adorable?

Warm Fava Bean Salad


3-5 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3-4 plum tomatoes, quartered
6-8 ounces Greek feta, cubed and at room temerature
3 lbs fava beans, prepared in the manner described above (note: that weight is the weight in the pod, before you've shelled them)
1 large handful of fresh dill, chopped
10 or so oil cured black olives, pitted
salt & pepper, to taste

Combine the garlic and olive oil on very low heat in a deep skillet and allow the garlic to infuse the oil. Once fragrant, toss in the tomatoes and increase heat to medium low for about 30 seconds. Turn off the heat, add the rest of the ingredients,  and gently toss to coat evenly with the garlicky oil. Go easy on the salt - the feta and olives have plenty!  Serve this perfect warm weather dish with a hunk of rustic dark bread and a glass of wine. 






33 comments:

  1. Trixie! This looks to die for--so simple, yet so sublime! Would it work to use the Melissa's vacuum-packaged fava beans because that is what I had in my hands yeterday?! (I did not get them. Fear of the Fava.) That is the closest I've come to the fava recently. (I remembered your post from your travels and that lovely cream sauce with fava beans you made when you returned-YUM!) I would love to try this, too!

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  2. This absolutely the best looking and wonderful fabulous ingredients, I love everything in this fantastic... love this one!

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  3. You know our buddies at Whole Foods cruelly had frozen favas for a while and then stopped!!! I used them relentlessly because, well, I sometimes just don't feel like peeling their darn little coats off. You have a winner of a dish here, Trix... maybe I should suck it up and start peeling again.

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  4. This is an excellent, healthy salad..and what fantastic images...I am definitely making this one. :)

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  5. A lovely spring salad! The colors are amazing!

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  6. A very healthy salad. I love fava beans but have not seen such fresh ones. Hope to find it one day.

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  7. So healthy! And the colours of spring. envious!

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  8. A salad to die for!! Incredible flavours, sweet, savoury, tangy, hmmm love fava beans or as we call them in the UK broad beans!

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  9. We're harvesting tons of favas in our garden right now. They are definitely worth the effort -- although that's easy for me to say since my husband does all the cooking.

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  10. That is a great salad, all a harmony of flavors and colors, definitely my kind of dish!

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  11. We get tons of fava beans here till the beginning of summer! We get to freeze our own. We use them in a lot of dishes and salads but never seen them a warm salad before, I am a fan of warm salads kinda too, this one seems great! A definite try!

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  12. What a nice salad...love the ingredients in it...so pretty and healthy :-)

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  13. The first second I saw your salad I started to salivate!
    Check out my favorite springtime fruit I found at the palestinian grocer today (well in 6 minutes)

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  14. I absolutely love everything in this. EVERYTHING! My idea of simple perfection.

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  15. now, this my friend, is something I could go for, and I'm just not whistling Dixie - that Mediterranean flavor must be a killer with the freshness going on ... love it

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  16. Trixie..this is a beautiful and healthy fava bean salad. Love the combination of Greek feta and olive and tomatoes. Great one and thanks :)

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  17. That looks positively delicious!! I have never done much with fava beans...I will have to try this!!

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  18. Love fresh fava beans! This is one of those recipes that I like to make while the radio or TV is on.

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  19. Yummy-yum-yum! What a beautiful summer salad! I love that you added dill, I think it's so under-used and I adore the depth of flavour it adds to dishes. The taste of dill combined with salty feta and all of those veggies both looks and sounds mindblowing!

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  20. Never had a fava been before. That's a shame! Sounds like an easy dish to pull together.

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  21. 1 - Fava beans were the last thing on my mind before I saw your post. Now that's all I can think about.

    2 - Why the heck do I keep passing by the fresh dill at my green grocers?!

    3 - Thank you for a great idea to jazz up my weekend menu!

    Your fan always,
    ~Cleo

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  22. Oh! This is salad perfection. Great combo of ingredients (I'm there when there's feta!). Beautifully presented. I can taste it through those photos!

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  23. Strikingly fresh fava beans. I don't see them often around where I live unfortunately. What a wonderful salad!

    Nisrine

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  24. What a pretty salad! The saltiness of the feta and olives would be perfect with these mellow-tasting beans.

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  25. Its Ummm..... so tasty looks so Beautiful i will try it

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  26. Beautiful dish. I love the taste of fava beans. I used to find them here but now they're hard to find. Thanks for the recipe. It's really refreshing and healthy.

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  27. Thank you for commenting on Silvia's guest post. Look forward to following you here. Cheers!

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  28. This looks like a great salad!!! Can't wait to try it.

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  29. Just wanted to stop by and let you know I'm giving you the Sunshine award. Stop by my blog and pick up the picture.

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  30. We are super behind on commenting, you have so many great posts we've been missing! This fava salad looks so tasty!

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  31. i made this w/ broiled whole fava beans and it was SUPER yummy! thanks for a great recipe i'll make again and again :)

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  32. I stumbled on to your blog when looking for fava bean recipes. This recipe looked so pretty and sounded good so I tried yours. It was delicious, I loved the flavor of the garlic infused oil on the veggies and cheese. Thanks so much I will def make this again.

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