Spring has finally arrived, bringing with it longer days, shorter sleeves, and lots of fresh and exciting ingredients to add to your cooking repertoire. Put down those dark and dusty root vegetables and embrace the season’s light and colorful offerings!

A wonderfully flexible and healthy option to explore is the fava bean. It is one of the lesser-talked-about beans (unless, of course, you’re a big Silence of the Lambs fan). These long, thick, greenish-grey beans are actually members of the pea family. You may have heard them called by other known names, such as broad beans, Windsor beans and horse beans. Fava beans, like many other beans, are very good for you. They are high in fiber, low in sodium, low in fat and have no cholesterol. Why, you may ask, haven’t I made them a regular part of my diet yet? Possibly because fava bean preparation can be somewhat daunting.

Getting the beans from market to table does require a little bit of work. To eat the fava beans you must shell the bean, cook the bean and finally pop them out of their skins. Three steps can seem like a lot just to prepare a simple vegetable, but I’ve found that preparing fava beans can actually be a rewarding part of the dining experience.

I first enjoyed fava beans in a small Italian restaurant located in the hills of Tuscany. As my friend and I were seating ourselves at an old wooden table, a waitress walked over and dropped down a big bowl of fava beans, a chunk of salty pecorino cheese with a knife, a bottle of local extra virgin olive oil and a dish filled with sparkling crystals of Kosher salt. We were surprised by this sudden and unbidden abundance and also a little confused—neither of us had any idea what to do with the assortment of ingredients spread across our table.

As my friend and I glanced around the dimly lit restaurant seeking guidance, we discovered a room full of people having fun with their food. We watched diners pop the beans right out of their skin and eat them with a bite of cheese. We saw others laughing as they gathered a few beans on their plates, drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled them with a little salt. We realized that fava beans were more of an activity than an appetizer, and we quickly joined in the fun ourselves.

Eating can be a wonderful, interactive experience, and do-it-yourself appetizers are a great way to get everyone involved in a meal. Be adventurous—go out and buy some fava beans and have your own fava bean experience! You can find them in specialty grocery stores that carry seasonal produce, and at many farmers’ markets. You should buy the plumpest beans you can find and try to avoid beans with any blemishes. Once you get them home, store the beans in your crisper in zip-top bags.

Fava beans are great alone, as a side dish or appetizer. They are also perfect in salads, pureed for soups and low-carb dips, thrown into chili, mixed into creamy risottos and pasta dishes or as a complement to a tangy chicken or fish dish. Their buttery texture complements both refreshing flavors, such as lemon and herbs, as well as rich, earthy flavors, such as mushrooms and cheese. Try these two simple fava bean recipes, found at www.kosherhostess.com, and enjoy the flavor of springtime at your table this week!

Fava Bean Puree on Roasted Garlic Crostini

Quinoa and Fava Bean Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

Samantha Garelick is a professional chef, enthusiastic foodie, kosher caterer and inspiring cooking instructor. After realizing she craved food more than finance, she left her career in investment banking and enrolled in the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan. She has worked at some of the top restaurants in New York City and Chicago and loves teaching classes to small groups of people who love to learn about food. To find out more about personal cooking lessons, throwing a kosher cooking party, kosher catering and kosher-kitchen consulting, please contact Samantha at chef@kosherhostess.com. Look for more of Samantha’s articles on new kosher ingredients, interesting seasonal vegetables, fabulous cookbooks and exciting recipe ideas at www.kosherhostess.com.