Greek Style Fava Beans and Tomatoes

From The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker, Lynn Alley, Ten Speed Press, 2010.

There was a whole heap of dried fava beans in the pantry so this recipe was an opportunity to use some of them up. To date I have not had over much success with the items I have made from this cookbook. I have two cookery books dealing with meals made in the slow cooker. One has recipes that succeed quite well and seem to have been designed with the slow cooker in mind; the other seems to have meals that largely are not necessarily designed for this style of cooking. This recipe comes from the latter book.

It was simply a matter of placing the broad beans in the cooker with sufficient water and then cooking them for 6 to 8 hours. The beans in the pantry were ones that had the tough outer skin still on them so I had previously soaked them overnight and then picked off the skins before adding the beans to the cooker.

When the beans were close to cooked, an onion was fried in a pan for a few minutes. Then a couple of chopped tomatoes, a bay leaf and some thyme were added and cooked for a little longer. The beans were then drained and added to the mixture in the pan. A garlic clove was squeezed through a garlic press into the mixture. A little more olive oil was added together with some lemon juice. It was then seasoned to taste and it was ready.

By the time it was ready the beans had broken down to become almost a puree. Possibly this was the result of my soaking them overnight. The recipe states that this would make a nice meal with a fresh salad and a crusty bread. The way mine had broken down it felt more as though it should be served as a dip for an appetiser. It tasted fine though.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔