Until last night, I had never had bean stew before. Growing up, my only memory of beans comes from the servings of sweet red bean soup that my mother would occasionally make. Then there was her “healthy eating” phase when I was older; lentils are what I remember most from that era.
So whenever I would see a recipe for a bean stew, I found myself with two conflicting reactions. There’s a part of me that seems to have unconditionally relegated the idea of beans to the health food arena (as in, it’s good for you but it probably doesn’t taste good). Then there’s the part of me that keeps thinking, “there must be something to these bean stews. So many countries have them, and the descriptions of them in all the cookbooks always make them sound so delicious and full of flavor.”
I was paging through the May 2008 issue of Saveur the other day, and came across a recipe for Fava Bean Stew in one of its feature articles, on the food of Cyprus. The introduction to the recipe talked about using freshly baked bread to “sop up the aromatic broth”.
This was starting to sound good.
It turned out Ward was planning on preparing the Souvlakia Hirina (Pork Kebabs with Cucumber-Mint Yogurt Sauce), also from the same article, sometime on the weekend anyway, so I convinced him to make the bean stew as a starter.
It took a minor bit of pleading - it turns out that, much like my own thought associations with the word “beans”, when Ward thinks of beans, the first thing he thinks of is lima beans, which still remain on his “foods I really don’t like” list.
When we sat down to our meal, I looked at my bowl of fava bean stew and thought to myself, “I did ask him to make this. I’d better taste it.” Bean stew doesn’t have the most appetizing look, it turns out (at least, not to me).
Then I took my first spoonfull - and I realized why it is that so many countries have some version or other of bean stew. The Fava Bean Stew was incredible; it turns out, aromatic is probably one of the best words one could use to describe it. The soup was intensely flavored - I had two helpings (so did Ward, who was also amazed at how good the stew tasted), and each mouthful was exactly the same, a true taste treat.
It was indescribably good.
So was the Souvlakia Hirini that followed. We both agreed, though, that the bean stew on its own was substantial enough to be a lunch entree.
Saveur is our favorite food/cooking magazine (you can get a subscription for a discount here). It’s the one which we leave intact, jotting down recipes and page numbers rather than cutting them out. The features are always fantastic, and the international focus is wonderful. This Fava Bean Stew recipe is from the May 2008 feature article on Cyprus, by William Woys Weaver.
Ingredients:
1 lb dried fava beans*
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more, to taste
6 cloves garlic, quartered
5 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
5 cups chicken broth
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
slices of country-style bread*Muse note: we didn’t have time to soak the beans, so we opted for two cans of fava beans, rinsed. Next time, we’ll try it with dried beans to see if it makes a huge difference
1. Put the fava beans into a large bowl, cover with water by 3″, and let soak in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight. (As mentioned above, we used canned beans, so we skipped this part. Instead, we drained the beans and rinsed them in a collander.)
2. Drain the fava beans and set aside. In a 4-quart saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic, thyme, bay leaves, and onions; cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and lightly browned, about 15 minutes.
3. Add the fava beans and broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender, and the broth has thickened slightly, about 2 and 1/2 hours. (Ward actually gave the stew a stir every ten minutes or so; he thinks he probably didn’t have to, but it definitely worked out well.)
4. Season the stew with salt and pepper and stir in the lemon juice. (Ward didn’t add any additional salt at all - this was probably because he used canned fava beans.) Transfer to a serving bowl and drizzle more olive oil over the top. Serve with the bread. (I didn’t have any bread - trust me, there was no more aromatic broth left in my bowl to be sopped up with bread.)
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