Fava beans: Two ways

We've been receiving weekly installments of fava beans from our CSA for the last couple of weeks.  Before this neither of had ever eaten a fava bean and my only knowledge of them came from Silence of the Lambs.

For my first attempt I decided to roast the beans whole.  I wash the beans, removed the end that had been connected to the bean plant, and tossed the pods in olive oil and seasoning salt.

I roasted them in the oven for about 25 minutes in a 425 degree oven, flipping them half way through.

Eating the beans whole was a little difficult because the shells of the pod were a little stringy.  However, it did work well to scrape pods clean with my teeth while sucking the beans out.  The roasting with the seasoning salt provided a real meaty flavor.

The second method I tried seems to be considered the more traditional method for preparing the beans.  It is a little more labor intensive and the pods are discarded.

The first step was to remove the beans from the pod which was relatively easy.  The pods almost have a natural string on the sides that can be pulled that makes it simple to crack the pods in half.  The beans are quite large so there are usually only 4 or 5 beans per pod.

The next step was to blanch the beans in boiling salt water for 3 minutes.

The beans are then dunked in to ice water to immediately stop the cooking process.

At this point the beans reveal that they had an outer white coating.  The white coat cracked for most of the beans during the blanching process so slipping the green bean out of the shell was quite easy.

Discarded shells on the left.  Inner beans in the bowl.

The final step was to saute the beans with some garlic and olive oil for about five minutes.

The first method was easier and I would say tasted better but they were more difficult to eat.  Really you couldn't go wrong either way.