Fava Bean Soup With Portuguese Sausage Recipes

CREME DE FAVAS / PORTUGUESE FAVA (BROAD) BEAN SOUP

Steps:

• Skin the fava beans (broad beans) and cook them in the chicken stock until they are soft and cooked though.
• Blend, sieve or liquidize, the cooked mixture adding as little olive oil as possible to get a smooth consistency. Add pepper and salt to taste.
• Serve topped with croutons.

FAVA BEAN SOUP

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil over medium heat and set up a bowl of well-salted ice water. Add the shelled fava beans to the boiling water. Once the water has come back to a boil, cook the beans for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove them from the boiling water and immediately put them into the bowl of salted ice water. Once the beans have cooled completely, strain them from the ice water. Peel the tough, light green outer layer from the beans. You will be left with a delicate, lovely vibrantly green tender fava bean. MMMMMM! Reserve these little lovelies.
• Coat a large saucepan over medium-high heat with extra-virgin olive oil. Add the bacon (if using, if not just start with the onions and celery) and once the bacon has started to become brown and crispy and is very aromatic, add the diced onions and celery. Season with salt, to taste, and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Cook the onions and celery until they become translucent and are very aromatic. Add the smashed garlic cloves and the diced potato, stir to coat with the oil and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in 2/3 of the reserved fava beans and 4 cups stock. Taste for seasoning and add salt, if needed. Bring the stock to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are fork tender, about 20 to 30 minutes.
• When the potatoes are tender enough to slide easily off a fork when cooked, puree the soup in a blender* until smooth. You probably will have to do this in batches. Return the soup to the pot, and add the remaining fava beans. If the soup is too thick, add some the remaining stock to adjust the consistency. Taste the soup to check the seasoning and reseason, if needed.
• Ladle the soup into serving dishes, give them a little sprinkle of grated Parmesan and a drizzle of big fat finishing oil.
• Fava beany-weany delicious!

FAVA BEANS WITH CHOURIçO SAUSAGE

Steps:

• 1. Heat 1/4 c. of the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat until hot.
• 2. Saute onion until soft, 2 or 3 minutes
• 3. Add sausage slices and cook until they start to firm up, about 2 minutes.
• 4. Stir in rest of olive oil, tomato, garlic, cilantro and paprika. cover tightly. Reduce heat and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes until tomatoes are combined with onions.Pour in the white wine, cover, and bring back to a simmer for a few minutes.
• 5. Add unthawed fava beans (or other beans) Season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 25 minutes. If using gas stove, move pot back and forth across burner to "stir" without opening pot. Try similar maneuver with electric stove! Serve hot or at room temperature.