For my birthday over the weekend Daniele took me to the Village Pub in Woodside. Their menu is simple and seasonal, which for spring included a lot of fava beans and kale. When we saw that, Daniele and I actually burst out laughing since I've been having endless amounts of kale and fava from our garden. I mean seriously, I've been having kale and fava everyday for just about every meal.
Both vegetables grow in such abundance in the Bay Area that I've ended up with more than I can eat! I've seriously been trying to come up with different ways to prepare them.
For the kale I usually add it to my morning green smoothie, but I also have been using my dehydrator to make kale chips covered in truffle spray Daniele's parents sent us as part of a care package over Christmas. Those things are really addicting!
For today I've made a simple chopped kale salad with smoked salmon and walnuts, and a salad dressing combining dijon mustard, honey, lemon. I used to think massaging kale was weird, but I gave it a try and it really does make a HUGE difference. A quick 5 second massage with a little bit of olive oil really does make the kale easier to eat.
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| Chopped Kale |
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| Smoked Salmon And Walnut Kale Salad With Homemade Honey Dijon Dressing And Cline Old Vine Zin |
For a BBQ we had earlier this week I decided it was time to try something different with fava beans. I've been having them sauteed with some salt and sugar, but that's best for the really tender ones. As they mature the fava texture becomes more dry and powdery, which I really don't like. I figured the texture of mature fava beans is similar to garbanzo beans so a hummus like dip made perfect sense.
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| Fresh Picked Fava Pods |
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| Fava Beans Without The Outer Shell |
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| After Boiling In Hot Water For 5 Minutes And The Secondary Shell Removed |
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| After Blending In a Food Processor With Lemon Juice, Chopped Garlic, Olive Oil, And Goat Cheese |
The dip turned out pretty well. It looked really similar to guacamole, but had a fresh green taste of fava. We used this on top of some pork loin that we had smoked and also with tortilla chips, in the end it was decided that this would be added to our rotation until the season is over.
Next time I'll combine kale and fava beans sauteed with sausage and fried gnocchi. Just need to find the time to make fresh gnocchi!
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