Recipe 5: Fava Bean Salad

Call me crazy but I’ve never heard of fava beans before reading this recipe. I have since discovered that fava beans are also known as “broad beans” which I have heard of. Why confuse everyone like this?? Oh, just me? Ok. Moving on.

Since this recipe a healthy dose of cheese and included something I really like but don’t eat often: roasted red peppers, I was pretty excited to taste this.

The Shopping Experience

Oh, fava beans, first you confuse me about what you are and then you were exceptionally elusive in all my local grocery stores. The recipe called for “fresh podded or frozen” beans but no such thing was available in all 5 places I checked for the beans. Eventually, I intended to just settle for a substitute of canned lima beans and lo and behold, a can labelled “broad beans” was next door so I successfully got the right beans but just not in the form we originally wanted.

I was nervous about being able to find the Manchego cheese because I’ve never noticed it in any of the speciality cheese counters/sections of my grocery store but I’m usually making a beeline to the more basic cheeses like feta and goat cheese so I don’t think I register anything else.

To my happy surprise, while I was hovering over a bunch of Havarti cheese, my boyfriend found the last package of Manchego cheese nearby!

This recipe also called for jars of roasted red peppers, which I had never heard of before. I never knew roasted peppers could then be put into jars to be sold in brine. The idea seemed unusual to me but they were surprisingly easy to find as well! I ended up getting two jars just because one wasn’t quite enough. Not sure what I’ll do with the leftovers so I’ll keep you posted if I use them for something else or if I throw them away!

The Cooking Experience

Unfortunately, unlike substitutions I have made in the past, the substitution of using canned beans instead of fresh or frozen may have made a pretty big difference this time. I say this because the rest of the recipe suggested pinching the skin off of any “larger beans” only, after boiling them. However, for myself, I had to pinch of the skin every bean because the skins of my beans were so tough that you completely missed the fluffy texture of the actual bean; making the eating process practically intolerable. Because of this, my cooking time was exponentially increased and I needed to enlist the helping hands of my boyfriend to participate in the skinning so our starving stomachs could finally eat.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I made a choice to not buy a grill pan when I started cooking from this cookbook. This recipe is one of the few that requested using one to grill the peppers. Instead of running out and buying a grill pan I just used as regular non-stick pan and cooked the pepper skin side down. Because the jarred peppers were roasted once before, resulting in some nice blackened skin, and needed to be sliced after cooking, I really don’t think a grill pan would have made much of a difference.

The recipe didn’t specify but a little tip I have is to let all the cooked ingredients cool for a little while before combining everything. This way the parsley won’t wilt too much and the Manchego cheese won’t melt immediately when shaved on during plating.

The Eating Experience

As a not-huge fan of almonds, they really added a great crunch to the softer beans and peppers to create a great overall texture.

I never had a salad where the primary green was a herb like parsley before but I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the flavour. I never thought too much about the flavour profile of parsley but it was so earthy and not too intense. In fact, the earthiness and sour brine in the dressing from the peppers was a great combo! I’ve noticed that Jamie always does a great job of mixing tanginess and richness. Hats off, Mr. Oliver!

Speaking things I’ve never had before, the Manchego cheese was really good! I can picture shaving some over other salads and even in pasta. It tasted like a cross between Swiss cheese and Parmesan.

Final Thoughts

This was super tasty so I would definitely want to make it again but because of the whole “pinching the skin off dozens of beans” situation, I don’t think I would actually make it again until I can find some fresh or frozen fava beans to try it with.

Total estimated cook time: 15 min
Total actual cook time: 45 min (damn you, fava beans!)