Unevenly cooked egyptian fava beans
I bought egyptian fava beans on a whim- I am sure they were old. I soaked them for 8 hours, and boiled them for about an hour, a bit more. I tested a few of them- they seemed soft, if not mushy. I made A LOT of beans, and froze a lot of them. Now that I am actually eating them, I am noticing that more than half are actually...hard. Almost inedible. I suppose the ones I tested just happened to be well cooked. What can I do to salvage all of these beans? Microwave them? Reboil some of them? Any ideas gladly appreciated :)
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4 Comments
If you hate wasting food (like me), I'd suggest boiling them again until they break down (you might still have a few hard ones if the batch was old, but less so). Using a pressure cooker might help of you have one, or a slow cooker on high for a couple of hours (2-3 hours).
You'll probably have a mix of mushy and cooked beans and could either eat as is, or make them into the Egyptian stewy refried favas called foul medammas (sorry don't have a recipe), or add them to soups where you can blend them. They add a nice body and meaty flavor.
Hope that helps !
Oh and for next time, I don't know if you already do this, but if you're not sure how old your beans are, you can add some baking soda to the soaking step. It helps soften the beans.