Fresh Fava Beans Braised in Olive Oil

Every spring in Turkey I set aside time to get to know the seasonal vegetables I still consider foreign: artichokes, fresh fava beans, asparagus, unripe almonds, green plums, blessed whistle and such. I find the spring guys tricky: they either play hard to get (think peeling artichokes or shelling fava beans) or require extra work to unleash their flavor (think unripe almonds). This year I have made a significant progress with artichokes. I eat them every week, and I have learned to peel them myself, a big achievement for an Istanbullite: every greengrocer happily offers peeled artichokes, and dedicated artichoke carts roam around the city neighborhoods in season.

Despite the progress I am still working on getting to love the earthiness of white hearts and green pods or the sourness of unripe fruit and nuts. After all we met only few years ago. Remember, I am Russian? From winter of root vegetables we progress right into the summer of tomatoes with maybe French breakfast radishes in between. The other day I had to send a photo of an artichoke to my parents to explain what I am up to these days.

Things are quite different in Turkey: each season tirelessly produces such an abundance of ingredients that you can eat only what’s in season and never feel deprived. Well, many restaurants try to convince you that tomatoes are already worthwhile, but it is the seasonal menu that always tells you about the class of the eatery. The other day I brought a vegetarian friend (starved by the Russian winter) to Çiya, and he was astound by the variety of the dishes one creates at this time of the year. During our recent Aegean trip I stuffed myself silly with artichokes, fava beans and greens; I swear there is no sight of anything else on the menu of the Alaçatı restaurants right now.

As I am getting up and personal with the spring produce, I try assorted cooking techniques and invariably come back to the traditional Turkish way of treating them called zeytinyağlı, or braising in olive oil. Now, this method does not lack controversy. Ask any foreigner that has lived in Turkey long enough, and I bet you, zeytinyağlı vegetables will be their first complaint. I often hear something along the lines of “overcooked and soaked in low quality oil”. Plus, cooking with olive oil has become bad manners among the health conscious folks. Many nutrition authorities say you should save your extra virgin for a splendid salad, but cook with coconut oil or ghee. Are the vegetables braised in olive oil Turkish style so last year indeed?

Last week I was in Alaçatı, a popular resort town on the Turkish Aegean coast. To kick off the season the town was hosting 5th Alaçatı Ot Festivali, Festival of Greens that bloom on the streets, in the gardens, on the barren areas, on the hills, along the sea and where not. During the festival I attended a few cooking demonstrations by some of the most known chefs working in Alaçatı. They all used olive oil in their cooking. Finest extra virgin olive oil. In most liberal quantities. To season a salad, to fry, to sauté, to sweat and even to boil.

Yılmaz Öztürk, the owner and chef of L’Escargot, a fine dining restaurant in Alaçatı, cooked (or as he insisted - boiled) artichoke bottoms in half a liter of gently simmering extra virgin olive oil. He did not look like somebody who was not concerned with burning oil: in fact when his assistant forgot about the oil in a pan meant to fry shrimps and that oil started burning, Mr. Öztürk immediately reacted: he urged the young chef to pour the oil in the sink and whip the pan dry before staring start anew. Mr. Öztürk impressed me and (congratulations, Mr. Öztürk) my mother-in-law who called him “very knowledgeable chef”; I can assure you, anne does not give these titles right and left. When asked about re-using the oil, he said no problem because it has never burned, it will produce only more delicious results every time you use it.

So let’s talk facts. The major concerns about using olive oil in cooking are that 1) heating destroys most of the nutrients in olive oil and 2) olive oil quickly burns and produces carcinogen substances due to its low smoke point.

First, studies show that heat below the smoking point does not affect most of the nutrients olive oil contains; in fact olive oil contains antioxidants which help resist oxidation as the oil is heated. Second, the smoke point of extra virgin olive oil is 420F/200C, according to the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC); that number may vary from brand to brand. Recommended temperature for frying in is 350F-370/176C- 187C, a way below the smoke point of extra virgin olive oil. All you need to do (and it does not matter what oil you are using) is to watch your pan and make sure it does not heat beyond control causing the oil to smoke.

When we talk about braising, as in the case of Turkish zeytinyağlı, the temperature is even lower (about 200F/93C): we are letting vegetables barely simmer on the lowest heat until they become fork tender. And this is what braising is - letting flavors mature through the gentle cooking. Yes, braising doesn’t produce a crunch of a stir-fry, but you’ve got to respect each cooking technique for the unique outcome it produces. That’s why in my book nothing beats a good zeytinyağlı. Of course, if you are using a high quality olive oil (sızma) extracted by using physical pressure. Unfortunately, in Turkey folks are too keen on riviera, a darling of the cost-conscious restaurants specializing on zeytinyağlı. Riviera compares with “pure oil”, what in the classification of IOOC means a mix of extra virgin oil (pressed) and olive oil (extracted using chemicals).

Back to the fresh fava beans, though. For once, it is easy to love them as you don’t need to peel fava beans for this dish. That is given you got hold of the thin firm pods not dotted with any black spots, and the beans hidden inside look like pretty babies. Just like with these fresh green beans we don’t need to wait for the beans to fully develop and happy to use the pod as soon as available.

In my family we have a story about the dish, and for once it was not about how I screwed up something at anne’s kitchen. My husband’s nephew did. Ömür is a young chef who’s done quite a bit of studies and work at the professional kitchens for his age of 19. When he visits his aunt (my mother-in-law), he always helps at the kitchen (and he alone can replace mom’s other 3 assistants). Once mom asked him to prep the fresh fava beans. I her usual fashion she assumed he knew exactly what she wanted him to do. She used a Turkish verb “ayıklamak” that means a lot of things in the context of the kitchen prep. It may mean you need to sort something, to remove or to peel. To my mom’s despair when she got back to the kitchen, she saw a small bowl of the peeled baby fava beans: her plan to use the fresh pods was literally trashed! Anne tells the story every time Ömür comes back. No wonder, I have learned my fava bean lesson too.

Fresh Fava Beans Braised in Olive Oil (Zeytinyağlı Bakla)

Like with all the dishes that involve braising in olive oil, the big idea here is to bring the flavor of a seasonal ingredient on the spotlight. That means you don’t want to use much seasoning or go too fancy with your cooking technique. Gently cooking on the low heat releases the full flavor of the fresh fava beans and the pods, and there is nothing like enjoying the dish for a spring lunch or light dinner.

We usually served it chilled (even thought I prefer lukewarm) with a dollop of süzme, strained Turkish yogurt slightly more loose than labne.

Serves 4

Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min

Ingredients

500 g fresh fava beans in pods
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
1.5 tsp fine sea salt
1 cup water
1 tbsp dill, finely chopped and more for serving
Turkish yogurt, for serving (optional)

Directions

Trim fava beans: After thoroughly washing the beans, remove the springs on both sides - vegetable peeler is handy for this task. Then chop off the tips and halve the long beans as needed.

Cook fava beans: Warm the oil in a medium size cooking pot on the low heat. Sweat the diced onions and sliced garlic for 5 min on the low heat until just start turning golden. Stir in the beans and cook for 2-3 min letting them coat in the oil well. Then season with salt and pour the water over the beans. Bring to a boil and then let simmer covered for 25-30 min on the low heat, until the pods and beans are fork-tender. 10 min before done, add the dill. Let the beans rest with the lid on for at least 30 min and cool down (chill if desired) before serving.