I decided to add fresh fava beans to my CSA delivery a couple of weeks ago – the last time I ordered them, I decided it wasn’t worth the effort, but I fell for it again when it showed up in my list of options to order.

To prepare fava beans, you first have to shell the beans, then drop them in boiling water, followed by a cold water bath – this loosens the skin to release the actual fava bean. This whole process took a lot longer than I’d want to spend, but it did make me feel nostalgic, as I had visions of my aunts and grandma back in Punjab shelling peas for dinner – but in this fast paced life, it is definitely something to save for a weekend meal.

I started out with quite a large bag of beans, but the whole exercise barely yielded a cup of fava beans. I decided to check out the nutritional information online to see if it was actually worth the effort – sadly, it was nothing exciting – for the amount of effort required, I’d rather use a different legume in my meals.

I opted for throwing the beans in with some whole wheat rotini and sun dried tomatoes – I served the pasta with a side of baby broccoli, kale and mushrooms (and of course, I topped it with a bit of crumbled feta because I’m a feta junkie).