Roasted Fava Beans

Here in the northern hemisphere, summer is approaching and that makes it the perfect time to start thinking about snacks to eat during all of those wonderful outdoor activities.  Since I'm not quite ready to share my fantastic trail mix recipe (the recipe needs some work because I had an allergic reaction to one of the ingredients), I'm sharing a great recipe for roasted fava beans.

This recipe does require use of an oven, which kind of sucks in the summer, but the extra heat is  absolutely worth it. 

Ingredients
Fava Beans
Seasonings (eg. salt, pepper, paprika, or chili powder)
2 Tbsp Olive oil (optional)

Soak dried fava beans for 8 hours.

Drain and rinse the beans.  With a paring knife, remove the black tip of the bean.  Soak the beans for an additional 2-3 hours.

Rinse the beans again.  If any are still hard, they should be discarded.

Roast the beans at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately one hour.  Keep an eye on the beans to make sure that they don't burn.

This is where things get a little tricky.  I actually enjoyed the fava beans naked, but I did season one batch.  It didn't go well.  The seasonings don't stick particularly well if the beans are dry, but if you toss them in oil (either before or after roasting), they tend to get soggy within a couple of hours.  You can get around this by tossing the beans in the olive oil and seasonings right before snack time. 

I also roasted a batch of chick peas.  They needed less time in the oven and let you know that they were ready through a series of tiny explosions.  The shrapnel was a pain to clean up, but they were equally delicious.  If I lower the temperature of the oven, it may solve this problem.

Oh, and a word of warning.  This is a delicious, high fiber snack.... be prepared to the repercussions if you eat too many in one sitting.......