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| Vica faba or broad beans, known in the US as fava beans. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Darn! Once again I forgot to take a picture!
We've had a great season of produce from our farmers' market so far this summer. We've had fresh peas, strawberries that put the plastic packaged varieities to shame. Last week we had some amazingly dark raspberries.
For us the challenge is not letting our love of fresh produce go crazy. There are only the two of us, and there is only so much we can eat at one time.
This week I have some onions, fennel, swiss chard, and fresh fava beans. Favas, so meaty and rich, are my favorite legume. My style is to use what I have and adapt.
I wanted something fast and not fussy. People were coming by to drop things off and I wouldn't be able to watch this constantly. When they arrived I turned off the heat. They thought it smelled great! I was in a hurry because my husband was getting home early.
I started with 135 grams of fresh, shelled fava beans. I boiled those in water for about 8 minutes, drained them and set them aside.The favas have a pod and then a thick skin. Unless it's funky, leave the skin.
on hand, dry white wine, water or chicken broth to use a minimum of oil in the saute.
Saute in cooking spray or in some oil
1 onion, chopped
Add
A diced sausage of preference. I used a spinach and feta chicken sausage. I imagine most others would work fine as long as they weren't sweet.
Add
a handful of fresh herbs, I had parsley, basil and oregano
1 carrot, minced or in mirepoix
1/2 clove (or more) garlic minced or pressed.
1/2 large or an entire small bulb of fennel sliced length wise and then in half. When you prepare it remove the tougher outer leaves.
Cook, covered, stirring often until the veggies are softened adding liquid as needed.
Meanwhile clean, remove tough stems, and chop about 3 cups of swiss chard. Add it to the saute pan on top of the other vegetables while it is still wet. Turn the heat down and cook covered until wilted. Mix the whole kit and kaboodle up. Salt and pepper to taste. If you have it, a bit of fresh parsley and basil on top is nice. If you were a TV chef you would add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Serve on spiral or penne pasta or oven baked polenta (the stuff in a tube is fine slice it and bake it on a sprayed or oiled cookie sheet at 350 in a convection oven or about 400 in a regular oven).
With a good helping of parmesan or mixed Italian cheeses. If you aren't on a diet chunky pieces of Blue cheese or gorgonzola would be heavenly.
If I had pre-cooked some fresh baby artichokes and more time I could use them in place of the chard.
I served this up with a sliced tomato drizzled with buttermilk dressing* and fresh basil leaves
*Buttermilk. To 2/3 to 1 cup buttermilk ad a chopped garlic clove, some chive or fresh scallion, salt, pepper, herbs of choice, and let sit. Before serving add some lemon juice or a light colored vinegar. Let it sit. I leave the clove in the bottle removing any that slips onto whatever. But, if you like garlic puree the whole thing in a blender. I use a tarragon vinegar, lemon or whatever strikes my fancy. This is my favorite dressing and I use fat free buttermilk so it's guilt free!
