The Fava Bean Breakfast

Much to my delight, when we came home our vegetable garden was producing abundantly. Apparently none of the neighbors took us up on our offer to help themselves to anything they liked, as we have a full crop of peas (some of which are drying on the vine), fava beans, and lettuces. Perhaps they had a few ripe tomatoes, but otherwise it is untouched. Thus I have been busy picking & shelling peas and beans, plus figuring out how to serve them up for dinner in a way that my DH might actually eat them.

I had forgotten from my childhood exactly how tiresome a process shelling peas is. In the youthful exuberance of a five or six year old, I simply remembered the fun of picking and shelling your own peas, eating a few as you went. I did not remember having to pick off the little bits of stem still attached to the pea, nor did I remember the annoyance of pods that wouldn't fully separate, so you had to peel them around and around like an apple to get the peas out of the pod. Nonetheless, the "Little Marvel" peas that we ate with dinner on Saturday night were really sweet and yummy. They tasted a lot like sweet corn to me, except with a creamier texture. I ate them until they got cold on my plate, and then I wouldn't touch them (ditto with sweet corn, I'm afraid--just not as appetizing). The kids loved them and even our possibly-picky son enjoyed eating them raw from the pod, and then ate some cooked peas. My DH mixed them in with his spaghetti and ate them, which is a huge step for him. He did rib me about the peas I left on my plate--I don't think he believed me about them going cold.

Anyway, I also picked a bunch of fava bean pods and they were sitting there, waiting to be shelled. I did that last night, and had a bunch of fat fava beans sitting in a bowl to be cooked. However, we forgot to cook them and after I read that I had to peel the beans after cooking, well, I just wasn't too enthused for that chore last night. So when I got up this morning, I was confronted by my bowl of shelled fava beans, looking for a home. I figured the best thing was to cook them and eat them! I am not sure of the shelf life of shelled fava beans, and some were already discolored from their 12 hour time outside of their pods...so I forged on with cooking them for...breakfast! Hey, it's a high protein food, low fat, right? And my kids probably won't care, they will eat them anyway.

It took about five minutes to cook them in some salted water, and about fifteen to shuck them out of their outer skins. The kids ate some and I ate some, but I have to admit that a fava bean breakfast isn't so hot. As a side dish to a meal, yeah, these things would rock. But as a starring starter for the day...hmmm. I am going to cook some oatmeal now, and my cooked fava beans might be reintroduced in a salad later today. Or they might be tossed out. I haven't decided yet. Flavor, good. Looks, good. Timing, bad. My bad.