Fava Beans facts

While investigating facts about Fava Beans Recipe and Fava Beans Nutrition, I found out little known, but curios details like:

When Hannibal Lecter said "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti" it was a clue he was off his medications as none of those items can be consumed while on MAOIs, a drug given for various mental disorders

how to cook fava beans?

Hannibal Lecter was making a medical joke with his famous "ate his liver with fava beans and a nice chianti" line: three foods that interact negatively with older kinds of antidepressant meds are liver, beans and wine.

What's fava beans?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what fava beans good for. Here are 23 of the best facts about Fava Beans And A Nice Chianti and Fava Beans Benefits I managed to collect.

fava beans at whole foods?

1. Fava bean blooms during the spring (three months after sowing). Flowers emit strong and sweet scent which attracts honeybees, main pollinators of this plant.

2. Consumption of fava bean can trigger favism, genetic disorder which manifests in rupture of erythrocytes (hemolytic anemia). All people diagnosed with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (type of enzyme) deficiency should avoid fava bean.

3. Fresh fava beans are consumed along with tsikoudia, national alcoholic drink in Crete.

4. Fava bean is perennial plant (lifespan: more than 2 years), but it is usually cultivated as annual plant (lifespan: one year).

5. Fava bean has erect, stout stem that can reach 6 feet in height. Stem is bluish green and square-shaped on the cross section.

6. Fruit of fava bean is large, flattened, light green pod filled with 6 to 10 oval, broad, thick seed (beans).

7. Fava bean contains substances that can lower blood cholesterol level and improve digestion (facilitate emptying of the bowel).

8. Fava bean was very popular in the ancient Greece. However, Greek philosopher Pythagoras believed that fava bean contains souls of dead people. He, and all of his followers, excluded fava bean from their diet.

9. Fava bean produces white flowers covered with black dots. They are arranged in clusters, in the axils of leaves. Flowers contain both types of reproductive organs (perfect flowers).

10. Fava bean contains substances that can prevent development of certain types of cancer and Parkinson disease.

Why fava beans can kill you?

You can easily fact check why fava beans and chianti by examining the linked well-known sources.

Fava bean is often cultivated as a cover crop to prevent erosion and enrich soil with nitrogen and organic nutrients.

Young, tender pods can be consume whole, as green beans. More commonly, large beans are extracted from leathery pods and used for the preparation of stews, soups and dishes made of lamb, poultry and seafood. Fava bean has sweet, mildly grassy flavor and starchy or creamy texture which is excellent in combination with tomato, onion and carrot. Fava bean can be also purchased in dried form or in a can.

Fava bean has been found in the tombs of Egyptian rulers.

Fava bean is rich source of dietary fibers, proteins, vitamins B9, B6 and B1 and minerals such as iron, copper and manganese.

Some people (often males with African/Mediterranean ancestry) are predisposed to a rare genetic condition called 'favism', which leads to acute anemia upon consumption of fava beans. - source

How to tell when fava beans are ripe?

Fava bean has compound leaves (pinnate leaves) made of 2 to 7 oval-shaped leaflets with pointed tips. Leaves are bluish-grey to green colored.

How to cook dried fava beans?

The Pythagoras believed that the fava bean contained the souls of the dead.

Favism is a mutation that inhibits an enzyme's production and only has noticeable symptoms with certain triggers - including eating fava beans

Ful is a dish common in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan. It is made by slowly cooking fava beans in water. Once the beans have softened, they are crushed into a coarse paste

In 2015, archaeologists discovered humans had been cultivating plants for at least 10,000 years after finding 469 charred fava beans at three different sites in Israel. The beans were not only the earliest known evidence of plant domestication, but also agricultural planning and social cohesion.

Hannibal Lecter's famous line in "Silence of the Lambs": "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti", had a hidden meaning.