Taste is such a personal thing but no, to me they taste nothing alike. Nor do they look all that much alike - except for be a green when fresh. Favas are brown when dry (never seen them frozen anywhere) while limas tend to go to a very pale green - almost white and are readily available frozen.

Favas are generally bigger, thicker, meatier and have a much more robust unique flavor than limas.

Google pulls up several pictures of each of them so that you can see them and compare - the pics at least. ;)

Dave

Oh, I don't think I've seen a lima bean in the pod. I don't know how I got them so confused in my head. When I bought them fresh, I knew they were favas, and by the time I got home and started looking up nutritional information, I was somehow staring at a lima bean page. Brain farts.

I picked up some frozen ones at the store tonight, and the picture on the bag looked more or less like the fava beans I shelled, blanched and skinned the other day. I thought I might have been kidding myself when I bought limas instead of favas, but justified it by telling myself that they were still beans, and they were still green, and still probably tasty, lol.

Like favas, I've never had a lima bean before either, so maybe (hopefully?) I'll fall in love with them also, and I'll be able to add another veggie to the cooking repertoire. Those favas really were amazing though. /sigh I hope the limas are a satisfactory substitute until Thursday when the market rolls 'round again. :P

I would think a better comparison would be edamame. Although I've never had them, the decription of preparation and way to eat them compares to fava beans. You might find frozen fava beans in a specialty store like Trader Joes or Whole Foods. I don't think you'll find them in the common grocery store.

I grew limas for a couple of years. They took all summer to mature and I picked most all of them in one task. Some were a bit older and the bigger swelled pods had a slightly tan color and the limas were very big and tan color, almost like a butter bean. The rest were Fordhood type and were very tasty, but mealy to those you detest beans. I froze mine, but pickled the bigger, more mature, tan color ones in a sweet vinegar brine. I have never tried Fava beans, but of they are shaped lile limas it would be quite hard to tell them apart. The photo I saw of Fava shows about 8 beans per long pod. Limas have wider bods with more space between the beans the pod sides. The shape is very similar though. For limas, youb get maybe 4-6 on each pod and mine were bigger than the baby frozen ones.

Our local ethnic grocery that carries alot of Mediterranean/mid-eastern products has several sizes/brands of CANNED favas with very reasonable prices. They also sell DRIED favas in plastic bags (packaged like dried pinto and navy beans) Neither taste the same as fresh favas, but they are very good and may give you a fava you like for very low cost. Maybe you can find canned or dried favas by you and try them.

I do not think favas are at all like limas....but taste is very subjective.

I still haven't made the limas yet. I've been too obsessed with kale chips to be bothered experimenting with any other vegetables, lol.

However, tonight is my first foray into making yogurt, so we'll see how that goes.

Favas (called broad beans in the UK) are delicious as a green bean. I have never eaten them dried in the UK but have had them in Greece, Spain and Italy. We eat them almost exclusively green here. You need to pick them when the beans are no bigger than a thumbnail. Then they only need as much cooking as fresh peas and will not need popping out of their skins. Older beans get tougher skins and will need longer cooking and then skinning. The best way to enjoy them is to grow your own as unfortunately those available in the shops are almost always too mature and not very fresh. There is quite a long thread on the Bean and pea forum and if you google 'broad beans' you will get loads of recipes and growing information from the UK. They are a very widely grown veg here. We can't grow limas at all - too cold.

Favas, edamame and fresh limas all taste distinctly different to me. All three are delicious, and luckily, we do not need to choose only one. You get favas in the winter, edamame in the late spring and limas in the late summer or early fall. Then you can also eat red scarlet runner shellies in the in-between times, which taste completely different from the other three. So nice of the legumes family to allow us to be 'in beans' all the time, and to have different flavors every season.

spaghetina, I forgot to ask, how do you make your kale chips? share the recipe pretty please?

I always plant a 10 foot row of favas and eat them raw, out in the garden. They're awfully good. This year, I planted them a bit late, but since we've had a mild summer, they're still growing and producing, and it looks like they will continue well into the fall.

There's a large mexican grocery here and I was snooping around when I got some jalapeno's for Annie's Salsa and they have FAVA BEANS in a bag, with many other beans. Unusual brown color! Next time I'm up that way, I will get a bag. Have never tried them! It's VERY interesting to see all the fresh peppers they have! If anyone here has ever been in Miami at a Cuban Bakery and tried the pastelitos de guyaba (guava pastry), it's fantastic. I got some guava paste and found a recipe on the internet of which I will soon attempt.

Fava beans are a favorite of many of the people of Portuguese descent/origin who live around here. They sell big bags of frozen favas and I'll occasionally see fresh ones in the grocery store. If there's somewhere near you where there are a lot of Portuguese folks, or even a Portuguese grocery, perhaps there you could find frozen favas!