Fava Bean Puree
This purée makes a great spread for toasts and is perfect with a glass chilled white wine before a meal.
Ingredients:
2.2 lbs (1 kg) fava beans, podded yields about 10 ½ oz (300 g)
Coarse sea salt
1 large thyme sprig
1 ½ tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ garlic clove
½ tsp fine sea salt
¼ tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/3 cup (75 ml) plus 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Baguette slices, toasted
Preparation:
Cook the beans in boiling salted water with the thyme sprig until very tender about 8 minutes, depending on the size of the beans. Refresh the beans in cold water and then slip them out of their skins.
Place the beans in a food processor with the lemon juice, garlic, salt and thyme leaves. Process until pureed and then with the motor running slowly add 1/3 cup (75 ml) of the olive oil. You can vary the texture of the spread by adding more or less olive oil. Check the seasoning and then spread the purée on a dish and drizzle with the remaining olive oil.
Serve with toasts.
Servings:
Makes about 1 cup (250 ml)
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Jennifer McLagan
Jennifer McLagan has been called courageous, a contrarian and even a little crazy. Well in these dietarily correct times, she is definitely a provocative iconoclast who challenges us and makes us rethink our relationship to what we eat. And while she creates delicious recipes she believes that food is more than recipes. So equipped with a quirky sense of humour, a taste for the bizarre, and bowerbird tendencies she delves into food’s history, myth and culture adding to the literature of food and cooking. Her books garner prizes everywhere, BONES won the James Beard Best Single Subject Cookbook award, was a winner in the Gourmand World Cookbook Award, and a finalist in the IACP cookbook awards. FAT won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best Cookbook Cover, the Silver Sprout Award, and both the IACP and James Beard Awards for Best Single Subject Cookbook. It was also named Cookbook of the Year 2009 by the Beard Foundation and is short listed for Cuisine Canada awards. But her publisher just wishes they’d sell better.