i love them - we call them broad beans - with fish. Cook the double peeled beans. Cook some chorizo till crispy and whazz it up so it's like soil. Put a good layer on a nice cod filet or something you like, pour a little white wine round the base and bake it and serve with your beans.

Or just serve as any other green vegetable - with a roast chicken or some roast pork with a nice jus.

Or braise with some spring onions and lardons in a little chicken stock and white wine.

Or in a salad with feta, herbs, other grilled veggies;

Came across this recipe today. Gnudi with broad beans.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/ricotta_gnocchi_with_13075

IC, thank-you very much for all the ideas! I have always wondered what broad beans were, but never when I was in a position to look it up. Thanks for that tidbit of info! That's a really interesting recipe, but garlic flowers? Really? Are they common produce in the UK? Or is everybody’s garden just bursting with garlic? Every few years, I do get some purple chive flowers, daughters of ones which went to seed ten years ago... I couldn't face the kitchen today and actually chose to read (important) documents, but I was thinking about the neglected beans and sausage, from your first idea. I think I have some chicken and hot peppers sausage (habanero or jalapeño). That sounds good. And I have a couple last spring onions, from the second. And some mushrooms that need using if they aren't dead. So I think I see a direction, with your great help!

It also occurred to me that they'd be fantastic refried with butter and maybe some herbs, but I think I want to highlight them more, and no matter how good they were, there's such a strong preference for pintos being “right”, it probably wouldn't fly.

I was waiting for the Chianti quip to show up :-)

Did you know that fava beans can produce a reaction that some people can't process and it can lead to death? it leads to acute hemolytic anemia. That means that red blood cells break apart. This happens quite quickly, apparently.

I had heard about this some years ago.

There is an enzyme that is required to counter this and some people have a genetic condition that they dont produce that enzyme.

I have read that the number of people that are known to have this lack of the enzyme is in the hundreds of millions on a world wide scale.

In children, in particular, it can cause a high fever, severely reduced red blood cells and death.

It has been known since early history that eating these beans can cause a reaction. I read that it was believed in the past to be an allergic reaction.

But it is actually an enzyme that is lacking in the persons body.

I was very surprised to learn about this.

Most people are not deficient in this enzyme, but this can happen to children and be deadly.

The beans are eaten raw and dipped in oil and salt in some parts of the world.

It is one food that has toxic qualities that most of us can safely consume in some manner. But, not everyone.

I would not give them to children.

I have had favabeans both raw and cooked. I think that they lend themselves best to be eaten raw, When cooked they have a flavor essence that tastes a bit like hay smells, to me.

Otherwise, I really like broad beans.

Apparently not all broad beans have these two specific glycosides that favabeans have, and that is why the danger is not there for other broad beans.

Just a good idea to be careful with them, especially for the children.

I know that there are many issues around certain foods, but when a danger is known it is best heeded.

Still favabeans had become a staple in the diet of much of the old world and still appear to be quite popular.

I make Ful Medames, which I think is an Egyptian recipe, which normally uses dried fava beans, but you can also make it with fresh beans. I have also made falafel with fresh fava beans, although I generally make it with dried beans that I have soaked but not cooked. The falafel is a bit too wet when made with fresh fava beans, and so I add some garbanzo flour to soak up the extra moisture.

You might try Foul Bi Zeit, which is a Lebanese recipe. I normally buy fresh fava beans at a Lebanese market, but I've also found them at Persian markets.

sorry, I keep envisioning Hannibal Lecter ...

Poor maligned vegetable...