If you have a veggie garden in your backyard, I think one of the veggies you can grow to amend the soil is the fava beans. They boost up the nitrogen content when mixed in the soil.
Having a hard time to find the real fresh ones in the store, that was one of my choices for winter veggies to grow. As far as I know there is no one around us that has favism — no body seems to have fallen sick lately!

Now that the time for putting the summer vegetables in the ground is about to knock on our door, I finally had a chance to pick some of the fava beans. Needless to say these are the freshest fava beans I have ever had and they taste amazing. Along with favas, I also used stalks of green garlic for added flavor. Unfortunately not enough green onions, so we resorted to medium onion from the pantry. All in all, it is one of the classic dishes you can find this time of the year.

One thing you may experience when dealing with fava beans is that they turn black when you cut them. There is a trick that I can share with you: make a flour & water mix (about a handful in a 3 - 4 liters of water) and use that water to put the favas as you cut their heads.

Sometimes finding those young, fresh fava beans is not the easiest. If that’s the case, you can shell the old ones to use the inside only. That also reminds me of my other favourite dish with favas and artichoke.

One thing that is a must when eating this dish is the dill. Topping the dish with garlic yogurt mix and sprinkle fresh dill over them when serving. Usually eaten cold, maybe you may like it warmed up a bit.

• 1 lb of fresh fava beans
• 5 - 6 stalks of green garlic
• 1 medium onion (or 5 - 6 stalks of green onions)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 cup olive oil

1. Cut the heads of the fava beans, trim the edges if hard, cut into two and dump into flour & water mix
2. Chop the onion into small pieces, cut the garlic stalks into 1cm (about 1/2 inch) diagonally.
3. Heat up the olive oil, add the onion and garlic pieces. Cook until onions are translucent. Was the fava beans thoroughly and add to the onion & garlic. Close the lid, turn down the heat and shake the pot every now and then and cook without adding water for about 5 mins
4. Add about 1 cup of hot water, salt and sugar. Close the lid and let cook with low heat about 30 - 40 mins. Every now and then give it a shake but do not open the lid to stir. After half an hour check if the beans cooked. If so, turn the heat off. Keeping the lid closed, let the dish cool down.
5. Only after the dish is cooled down transfer into serving dish. Add garlic yogurt and sprinkle with fresh dill when eating

Enjoy!

Many people do not know what to do with beets and for many it is something that they do not even want to taste. I think my husband belongs to both of these categories, leaving me more beets to eat in this household.  I am happy ;)

If you want to give this root veggie a try, try out this mix; beet and avocado for a colorful and nice salad. The contrast in the taste and texture of these two is amazing. By adding some nasturtium flowers I made it a colorful salad for a lovely evening. If you cannot find the nasturtiums, any strong tasting green would do. In fact the recipe I was loosely following was using watercress.

The beets came from our backyard. Poor things, since it has not been cold enough this year I think could not grow as much. They green leaves were so tender that I washed, dried and saved them for a later use. Similarly nasturtiums were right off the garden…

Careful when handling beets — they can stain your clothing.
Here is my version of the salad:

• 2 medium beets
• 1 avocado
• 25 - 30gr (about an ounce) goat cheese
• Handful of nasturtium flower and leaves — or watercress

For the sauce

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Boil the beets until tender when pierces (about 30 mins.) Cook, peel and cut into thin slices. Divide the avocado into 8 - 12 slices. Put the nasturtium flowers and leaves on the bottom of the plate, add the beet and avocado slices. Top off with crumbled goat cheese, drizzle with the sauce.