Fava bean

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Name Variations

 * broad bean
 * faba bean
 * horse bean
 * field bean
 * tic bean
 * ful bean
 * ful madammas

About Fava bean
Wikipedia Article About Fava Bean on Wikipedia

This tan, rather flat bean resembles a very large Lima Bean. It comes in a large pod that, unless very young, is inedible. Fava beans can be purchased dried, cooked in cans and, infrequently, fresh. if you find fresh fava beans, choose those with pods that aren't bulging with beans, which indicates age. Fava beans have a very tough skin, which should be removed by Blanching before cooking.

Fava beans means literally and actually broad beans. Used extensively in Egyptian homes and street food. It is known as Ful beans or Ful madammas.

Vicia faba, the broad bean, fava bean, faba bean, horse bean, field bean or tic bean is a species of bean (Fabaceae) native to north Africa and southwest Asia, and extensively cultivated elsewhere. Although usually classified in the same genus Vicia as the vetches, some botanists treat it in a separate monotypic genus as Faba sativa Moench.

It is a rigid, erect plant 0.5-1.7 m tall, with stout stems with a square cross-section. The leaves are 10–25 cm long, pinnate with 2-7 leaflets, and of a distinct glaucous grey-green colour; unlike most other vetches, the leaves do not have tendrils for climbing over other vegetation. The flowers are 1-2.5 cm long, with five petals, the standard petal white, the wing petals white with a black spot, and the keel petals white. The fruit is a broad leathery pod, green maturing blackish-brown, with a densely downy surface; in the wild species, the pods are 5–10 cm long and 1 cm diameter, but many modern cultivars developed for food use have pods 15–25 cm long and 2–3 cm thick. Each pod contains 3-8 seeds; round to oval and 5–10 mm diameter in the wild plant, usually flattened and up to 20–25 mm long, 15 mm broad and 5–10 mm thick in food cultivars.