Fava beans and chicory is a dish from the peasant tradition of Puglia, flavorful and tasty, ideal as a main course or a single dish. The result is very rustic but well-balanced!
This typical dish from Puglia involves a rather long preparation starting the night before with soaking the legumes.
The preparation is easy and quick, and it’s perfect for a rustic menu inspired by the scents of the Mediterranean.
Ideal as a first course, it can also be served as a single dish during a lunch or dinner with friends, and its secret is the combination of a delicate fava bean cream with the slightly bitter note of the greens.
The ideal pot to cook them in is the classic terracotta one, but a steel pot with a thick bottom works fine as well. Let’s see how to prepare them.
“This recipe takes me back in time to when I was a girl, and I went to the fields with my mom to look for greens. We were skilled at gathering wild chicory, some borage leaves, and wild fennel.
It wasn’t as easy as it might seem; we walked a lot through the fields and meadows.
And it was really satisfying when we filled the bag to hold the vegetables.
A wild herb, with a slightly bitter taste, pleasantly contrasts with the sweet flavor of the fava bean puree.”
The fava bean and chicory puree can also be served as a single dish, as fava beans are a nutritionally rich legume once known as the meat of the poor.
At this point, you can combine them with fava beans to create a single dish or pour some puree onto the plate, placing the chicory in the center.
Make sure to drizzle with excellent raw oil.
The fava bean puree with a sprinkle of pepper.
All accompanied by slices of toasted homemade bread.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Boiling, Bain-Marie, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 671.47 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 106.43 (g) of which sugars 7.43 (g)
- Proteins 27.32 (g)
- Fat 14.74 (g) of which saturated 1.76 (g)of which unsaturated 3.54 (g)
- Fibers 19.99 (g)
- Sodium 1,519.89 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 200 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Fava Beans and Chicory Ingredients
- 10.5 oz dried fava beans (peeled)
- 2 potatoes (medium)
- 2.2 lbs chicory (weight raw)
- 1 clove garlic
- to taste hot pepper
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- 3 leaves bay leaves
- 1 golden onion
- 8 slices homemade bread
- to taste pepper
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Tools
- 2 Pots
- Pan
- Wooden Spoons
- Slotted Spoon
- Peeler
Preparation of Fava Beans and Chicory
First, rinse the peeled dried fava beans under running water, transfer them to a container, and pour plenty of cold water over them, at least double the volume of the fava beans, then let them rehydrate overnight.
After the soaking time, rinse the fava beans under running water, place them in a large pot, and add enough water to cover the legumes by about 2 inches, put the lid on, and bring to a boil.
Cover the pot with a lid and let the fava beans cook over low heat for at least 2 hours, adding hot water if necessary in case they dry out.
During these two hours, the fava beans will release a foam that you will remove with a skimmer.
Halfway through cooking, add a potato cut into cubes and a finely chopped onion.
Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon.
In the meantime.
Clean the chicory and soak it in plenty of water with a teaspoon of baking soda.
After a while, change the water. Repeat this operation until the water is clean.
Once the chicory is washed, fill a pot with water, as soon as it boils, add the chicory and salt.
Cook the chicory for 10/15 minutes until it’s cooked.
After the time has passed, drain the chicory; once it’s cold, squeeze it very well.
In a non-stick pan, place the chopped garlic with oil and hot pepper. Brown the garlic.
Add the cold, squeezed chicory and sauté in the pan for 10 minutes. Add salt.
Cover the pan with a lid and stir occasionally. Set aside.
Check the cooking of the fava beans and pay attention to the water level. If necessary, add enough to finish cooking; almost at the end, add salt to taste, and stir the fava beans with a wooden spoon until a thick puree is obtained.
Serve fava beans and chicory in a deep dish by proceeding as follows: with a ladle, place the fava bean puree at the bottom and on top place a tuft of chicory.
Drizzle with plenty of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of hot pepper or spicy oil. Serve with 1/2 slice of toasted bread, as in the photo.
Enjoy your meal.
Tips
Chicory is quite hardy; it keeps in the fridge for 4/5 days in the fruit and vegetable drawer. It is advisable to consume it within 2/3 days of purchase.
Once cooked, it keeps well for 2/3 days in the refrigerator; alternatively, you can freeze it in small bags. If you don’t like the strong bitter taste of this plant, I suggest adding some lemon slices or a splash of vinegar to the pot with water, which seems to help.
After cooking, rinse further with cold water. Like many other bitter vegetables, chicory is used as a liver cleanser.
This preparation belongs to the traditional cuisine of Puglia and Lucania.
A quintessentially poor dish, fava beans were the staple diet of the less privileged classes until not many years ago; today, with the re-evaluation of the Mediterranean diet, they have almost become a gastronomic delicacy.
The fava bean puree is also excellent accompanied by stewed broccoli rabe, chicory catalogna, and salads of field herbs.
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Can’t find field chicory?
The kind you find in stores is perfectly fine.
Can’t find peeled fava beans?
Do as I did: take dried fava beans, soak them for 12 hours, then remove the skin and use only the inner part.
