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Fresh Skinned and split Fava beans:
Pick over and wash beans.
Drain. Put in a pan with roughly double the amount of water. Cook gently for 40 to 60 minutes. The can now be seasoned
and mashed to a puree.
Dried with skins:
Pick over and wash. Drain. Soak over night in water covered by five inches or Quick Soak. Place beans in pot with water
1:4 ratio of beans:water. Bring to boil. Cover partially. Turn heat to low and cook gently 30 to 50 minutes or until just
tender. Drain. Cool slighly; Peel.
From Aaron:
"You first have to shell them, then blanch the shelled beans in water for a few minutes and shock them. Then, you
can remove the second skin, a tough greyer/browner coating that is unpleasant to eat. Simply peel it right off."
From Carswell:
"Really young favas don't need to be peeled. Just cook them as you would fresh peas. Among other things, they make
a very nice garnish for other spring delicacies like wild salmon and baby lamb.
Paula Wolfert has a net trick for peeling mature favas without blanching. Put the shelled, unpeeled beans in a tight-fitting
Ziploc bag and freeze (up to four months) until an hour or so before you plan to use them. Then, while the beans are still
frozen, slip them out of their skins. An alternate method she suggests (and that I haven't tried) is to steam the beans in
their pods and then double-peel them under running cold water, removing the skins along with the pods. The disadvantage of
this later method is that the beans have to be used immediately or they turn slimy."
Young favas, available at the begining of the season, are the size of an English pea.
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