Turkish Braised Fava Beans (Zeytinyagli Bakla)

Fresh Fava Beans in their pod are braised in olive oil with tomatoes and onions and served at room temperature with lemon and yogurt. A perfect meatless dinner in spring.

If you are a fan of fava beans, you might want to check out our dried fava bean dip too!

Fresh fava beans are kind of veggies you either hate or love. Honestly, as a kid, I used to eat fava beans just to make mom happy. I couldn’t see any point in loving these fuzzy beans and their smell when cooking was unbearable! “How can mom and dad eat it so heartily?”. I don’t remember the exact time when I started to love these broad beans, but it is one of my favorite vegetables now.

I guess I started to love it when mom made a side dish from shelled fava beans. I did love the podded fava beans! So was it their pod which kept me away from these beans for years? Probably! If you still can’t eat them with pods, you must learn how to shell fava beans and how to cook shelled fava beans.

After getting used to its flavor with the help of podded beans, I decided to give it another chance. I wasn’t a kid anymore, right? There must be something special in fava beans which make people love it so much and I must discover it!

Looking for the specialty in it, I discovered 2 ways of eating fresh fava beans; with lemon juice or yogurt. Personally, I love them both. Besides the lemon juice I use when cooking, I squeeze extra lemon on my plate and then drizzle yogurt on it. Sometimes I add extra drops of lemon over beans just before eating, eat some of it and then add yogurt on the rest and double my pleasure!

I learnt from a friend’s mom that a mixture of water, flour and a generous amount of lemon helps fava beans keep their green color and gives them a little crunchiness. You wait chopped fresh fava beans in this mixture for 5-10 minutes before cooking and pour the same mixture into the dish when cooking. This is a method applied in some regions of Turkey when cooking fava beans. Not mom’s style though! She cooks it with tomato paste and no lemon. This is the only recipe of mom I don’t like much. I can proudly say that when I cooked it for her with that lemon mixture, she liked it even more than her own recipe!

What makes this Turkish style is that the fresh beans in their pods are cooked with olive oil and served at room temperature. Have you heard the term 'Olive Oil Dishes' before? They have a big part in Turkish cuisine.  Vegetables are cooked in olive oil and served chilled or at room temperature with extra olive oil. Some olive oil dishes are even slightly sweetened with little sugar. Any vegetable cooked and served this way is known as olive oil dish.

Good quality olive oil is a must for this Turkish Fresh Fava Beans recipe. It becomes even tastier when you add a little extra virgin olive oil after it is cooked and cooled.

Another must-add ingredient in this recipe is chopped fresh dill. You know herbs always make a great touch on dishes, this one is no exception! Fresh fava beans and fresh dill definitely make a great match with their remarkable flavors, especially when they are combined with olive oil and lemon.

Tips

• Let the fava beans in their pod sit in a mixture of water and lemon juice right after you chop them so that they won't lose their color. Their pods blacken and don't look good when you don't use lemon juice.
• Use the beans only and leave the pod out if it is too thick and not young enough.
• Another thing to keep in mind when cooking fresh fava beans in their pods is that you should only use wooden spoon to stir. Otherwise, their green color turns into an unappealing black.
• Don't forget to drizzle extra olive oil before eating.
• If you don't like the taste of garlic in yogurt, just leave it out. Plain yogurt still makes these fava beans even better.

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Turkish Braised Fava Beans In Pod

By Zerrin & Yusuf

Fresh fava beans become so tasty with lemon and garlicky yogurt!

Yields: 4

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PREP 15 minutes mins

COOK 25 minutes mins

TOTAL 40 minutes mins

INGREDIENTS

  

1x2x3x

• ½ kilo fresh fava beans chopped with pods
• ½ cup water
• ½ tablespoon flour
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 4 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion chopped finely
• 2 small tomatoes chopped finely
• A pinch of black pepper
• Salt to taste
• ¼ bunch of fresh dill chopped

Sauce:

• 2 cloves garlic mashed
• 1 cup yogurt

INSTRUCTIONS

 

• Mix water, flour and lemon juice.
• Wait chopped fresh fava beans in this mixture for 5-10 minutes so that they keep their green color.
• Heat olive oil and saute onion in it.
• Add tomatoes when onions get golden. Saute them together.
• When they are cooked well, add fresh fava beans into it.
• Pour water, flour, lemon mixture on it and cook for 1-2 minutes over medium high heat.
• Add salt and black pepper. Bring it to the lowest heat and cook for 20-25 minutes.
• Let it cool and add chopped fresh dill on it and mix when it’s cooled.
• Mix mashed garlic and yogurt fort he sauce.
• Serve fresh fava beans cold or at room temperature with garlicky yogurt.

NOTES

Note:

Use wooden spoon, not metal one when cooking fava beans so that they don’t get blackish.

You can add a little extra virgin oil right before serving.

NUTRITION

Calories: 191kcalCarbohydrates: 10gProtein: 3gFat: 16gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 8mgSodium: 35mgPotassium: 297mgFiber: 1gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 579IUVitamin C: 14mgCalcium: 91mgIron: 0.4mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

ADDITIONAL INFO

Course Lunch

Cuisine Turkish

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