Faba beans and a nice Chianti

“I ate his liver with some faba beans and a nice Chianti”, says Hannibal Lector in “The Silence of the Lambs.” Well, I didn’t have anyone’s liver or Chianti with this salad. We grow faba beans in Alberta, and I’ve actually written about them before. (They seem to be spelled both “faba” and “fava”, and I’m not sure why). I do remember my first faba bean story though. I had just started my job a few short weeks before, and I interviewed a farmer in a field and we talked about his faba beans and feeding them to pigs. (Apparently they’re great as a pig feed). It was pouring rain, my notebook was soaked and my pen wasn’t working very well . It was not a glamorous day for me.

My co-worker, Jenn, who used to work at the Alberta Pulse Growers, told me that she had never seen faba beans in the store. Of course, this inspired me to try to find them. The mission was actually quite simple. I managed to find them at Superstore in the middle eastern section. I’ve also found them at the Italian Centre, and then at No Frills; in the middle eastern section and in the regular bean section.

While this project may seem simple, it actually requires a little more work than meets the eye. I’m constantly looking for new pulses and then sourcing recipes with these pulses. It’s fun, but it does take some effort.

Anyway, on to the Faba bean salad- Faba beans are big, nutty and common in a lot of Latin American cuisine. They’re also used in Middle Eastern cuisine. If you can’t find faba beans, you can use lima beans or chickpeas in this.

Faba bean salad
Serves 6

3 cups canned faba beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium tomato, chopped
¼ cup fresh chopped parsley
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp crushed red pepper (Nathan likes thing spicy so I put in one teaspoon. But it was VERY spicy the next day)

½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp salt

In a medium sized bowl, combine all the ingredients and toss gently. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

This is from a recipe card made by the Alberta Pulse Growers. Check out www.pulse.ab.ca