I PEELED THE FAVA BEANS!

 

We’re picking the last of the fava beans (habas, broad beans in U.K.) to make way for tomato plants. The tiny “baby” favas are pretty much finished, leaving plump mature beans. So, against my principals and local tradition, I am peeling them. That means first shelling the beans then, one by one, removing their outer skins. 

Pinch off fava skins.

The second-stage peeling is easy enough. Place the shelled favas in boiling salted water and cook 1 minute. Drain. While they are still warm, split the outer skins (with a knife or thumbnail) and pinch out the inner bean. Once cooked, peeled favas have a delightful springtime green color, whereas they darken if skins are left on. Depending on how long they’ve been stored since picking, they will need more or less cooking time. If they need longer cooking, add water, stock (ham-bone stock is good), or Sherry to the sauté pan.

I’m cooking my fava beans in a classic sauté with serrano ham. My only other embellishment is some chopped wild fennel, not the ferny leaves, but the tender new shoots and stems. Fennel is traditional with fava beans in Andalusia, perhaps because the wild fennel often grows alongside the favas. If you have not got wild fennel, use chopped cultivated fennel bulb. Or mint in place of fennel. 

Fava beans sautéed with serrano ham.

I’m using serrano ham, the ordinary salt-cured Spanish ham. The exquisite ibérico ham would take the favas to another level altogether. Whichever you choose, do not cook the ham with the fava beans, as heat hardens tender ham. Add it when the favas are ready to remove from the heat. If Spanish ham is not available, use any smoked ham, pancetta, or bacon, adding them to cook along with the favas.

Topped with a poached or fried egg, the favas are quite splendid. Serve them as a tapa or starter, accompanied by toast. 

Top the fava beans with a poached egg.

Serve the sautéed favas with toast.

Fava Bean Sauté with Ham

Salteada de Habas con Jamón

Peeled fava beans.

Serves 4.

2 ½ cups shelled fava beans (3-4 pounds in their pods)

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, sliced

¼ cup chopped spring onions

1 tablespoon chopped fennel (stems or bulb)

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Water, stock, or Sherry if needed

1-2 ounces Spanish ham, diced or cut in thin strips

Poached eggs

Sprigs of fennel or mint

Toast to accompany

Wild fennel shoot.

Add the shelled beans to a pan of boiling salted water and cook 1 minute. Drain. When the beans are cool enough to handle, remove their outer skins.

Heat the oil in a skillet or earthenware cazuela. Add the garlic and fry 1 minute. Add the onions and fennel, lower heat to medium, and sauté until softened, 4 minutes. Add the skinned favas, season with salt and pepper, and sauté a few minutes until cooked to desired tenderness. If necessary add a spoonful of water or stock. When beans are cooked, add the ham and remove the pan from the heat.

Divide the fava beans between 4 small cazuelas or shallow bowls. Top each with a poached egg and a sprig of fennel or mint.

More recipes with fava beans:

Fava Bean Salad with Mint 

Favas in Their Britches 

Fava Bean Puree 

Fava Bean Cream 

Chopped Salad with Fava Beans 

Noodle Casserole with Cod and Fava Beans 

Tortilla with Fava Beans and Peas 

Medley of Garden Vegetables with Favas(Menestra)

Vegetable Stew with Fava Beans and Dumplings 

Rice with Chicken and Fava Beans (arroz con pollo)

Cuttlefish with Fava Beans

 

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FROM GARDEN TO TABLE

 

Garden fava beans.

A heap of fava beans landed on my kitchen table, picked by Ben from the kitchen garden. A little later, a handful of shelling peas, broccoli, and some stalks of chard arrived. Two hours later, I had dinner on, a vegetable menestra. 

Another day a small basketful of assorted peas was the bounty. The peas are confusing: seemingly on the same vine are snow peas or mange touts, perfect for stir-fries, and non-edible pods with tiny baby peas. Some I eat raw--those wee peas are ever so sweet. The remainder get tossed in hot oil with pieces of ibérico ham. There are hardly enough at one picking to be more than a starter.

"Menestra" means a vegetable mixture. Although the word is similar to Italian minestrone, this is not a soup but a stew that can be served as a starter or, with the addition of meat, ham or bacon, a sturdy main dish. 

The menestra from Tudela (Navarra, northern Spain) is classic. It consists only of white asparagus, artichokes, peas, and fava beans, all cooked separately and combined in a light sauce. Sometimes the sauce is slightly thickened with flour. In Bilbao (Euskadi/Basque Country) menestra often accompanies braised lamb. For the Basque version, some of the cooked vegetables (such as chard stems, cauliflower florets) are floured, dipped in beaten egg, fried, and served on top of the menestra.

Mixed vegetables in a light sauce.

Medley of Garden Vegetables

Menestra de Verduras

This menestra depends entirely on what late-winter/early-spring vegetables you’ve got in the garden or can find at the farmers' market. For example, if you’ve got a cache of wild mushrooms, use a pound or two of them and only a cupful of peas. 

I’ve used fava beans, peas, chard, artichokes, carrots, and potatoes. I included smoked panceta (pork belly) and pieces of leftover cooked lamb, but the menestra can just as well be vegetarian, an excellent Lenten dish. 

Each vegetable is cooked separately then combined in sauce to finish cooking.

Use a light stock made from chicken and/or ibérico ham bone or, for a vegetarian version, vegetable cooking water from carrots, peas, cauliflower or white asparagus. Don’t use the cooking water from artichokes, favas, or chard as it tends to darken the mixture. Although tomatoes are not in season in the winter-to-spring garden, it’s fine to add canned tomatoes or paste to the cooking liquid.

Choice of vegetables:

Artichokes

Asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths

Broccoli, florets

Brussels sprouts

Cardoons, trimmed and cut into 1 ½ inch pieces

Carrots, peeled and sliced

Cauliflower, florets

Celery, sliced

Chard, stems cut into 2-inch lengths, greens shredded

Fava Beans, shelled

Garlic cloves or green garlic shoots, chopped

Lettuce hearts, sliced

Mushrooms, sliced

Onion or leek, chopped

Peas, shelled

Potatoes, cut in 1 ½ -inch chunks

Panceta (pork belly)

Extra virgin olive oil

Panceta or bacon, cut in strips

Canned crushed tomato (optional)

Light chicken stock or vegetable cooking water

Chopped parsley, fennel or mint to garnish

Hard-boiled egg to garnish

If you are using fresh artichokes, cut off the stems and trim off the tough outer leaves. Cut the artichokes in quarters. Cook them in boiling salted water with a squeeze of lemon juice until a leaf pulls off easily, about 12 minutes. Drain. Scrape out the fuzzy chokes. 

Cook each of the vegetables separately in boiling, salted water until tender. Asparagus and chard cook in 5 to 6 minutes. Tiny peas and baby favas need to be blanched only about 1 minute. Carrots and potatoes, which can cook together, take about 12 minutes. Drain and refresh the vegetables in cold water.

Heat the oil in a skillet or cazuela over medium heat. Add the pieces of panceta, the chopped onion, garlic, and mushrooms and sauté until onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato, if using, and the stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.

Return the cooked vegetables to the pan, saving a few to garnish the top. Simmer them all together for 5 minutes, adding additional stock if needed to keep the vegetables saucy. Serve hot garnished with reserved vegetables, chopped herb, and quartered eggs. 

Baby Peas with Ham

Guisantes Lágrimas con Jamón

Tiny peas sautéed with ham and a poached egg.

Lágrima means “teardrop.” These tiny baby peas, a seasonal delicacy in the Basque Country, are so-called for their delicate oval shape. They hardly need cooking at all. For this recipe use any variety of very small pea, preferably straight from the garden! 

Don’t cook the serrano or ibérico ham because heat toughens it. Add ham to the peas and immediately remove the pan from the heat.

Use the fresh pods to make a light caldo, or pea broth, to serve alongside the dish of peas with ham.

Use pea pods to make caldo, pea broth, to go with the peas.

For 1 or 2 servings

1 pound peas in the pods or 1 cup (about 4 ounces) shelled baby peas 

Salt 

Pea pods

2 cups light chicken broth

1 cup pea cooking water

Slice of onion

Freshly ground black pepper

Lemon juice

1 large egg

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped spring onions

Diced or slivered serrano or ibérico ham

Shell the peas and save the pods. There should be about 1 cup of shelled peas. Bring a pan of salted water to a boil. Blanch the peas for 30 seconds if they are tiny, “teardrop” peas. For mature (or frozen) peas, cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain, saving the cooking water. 

Place 1 cup of the cooking water back in the pan with the chicken broth and onion slice. Add all of the reserved pea pods. Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes or until reduced by half. Pour through a fine strainer. Discard solids. Season the pea-pod broth with salt to taste, pepper and a few drops of lemon juice.

Egg in plastic wrap to poach.

Line a small cup with plastic wrap. Add a few drops of oil. Crack the egg and drop it into the cup. Gather the corners of the plastic wrap together and twist them to enclose the egg. Tie with kitchen twine. Bring a small pan of water to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the egg wrapped in plastic. Poach the egg 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to lift the egg out. Leave it enclosed until ready to serve.

Heat the oil in a small skillet and sauté the chopped onions on medium heat until softened, 5 minutes. Don’t let them brown. Add the blanched peas and sauté on medium-high for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the diced ham and immediately remove the pan from the heat.

Reheat the pea broth and serve it into demitasse cups. Serve the peas with ham on a plate. Snip the plastic wrap to release the poached egg. Place it beside or on top of the peas.   

More recipes with fava beans and peas:

Fava Beans in Their "Britches"

Fava Bean Cream

Fava Bean Salad with Mint.

Tortilla with Fava Beans and Potatoes

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish

Vegetarian Stew with Peas, Favas, and Dumplings (Pipeo)

BACALAO FOR SPRINGTIME

 

Hello, springtime! Welcome to spring flowers and rain showers, to orange blossoms and artichokes. Oh, hello Holy Week too. Let’s bring them all together in a bowl—salt cod for a Lenten meal and spring’s fresh vegetables, artichokes, fava beans, and green onions. 

This recipe combines salt cod and spring vegetables with fideos, a kind of pasta. The dish comes from Albacete and Murcia (eastern Spain) where it is a traditional dish for Semana Santa, Holy Week, which begins tomorrow with Palm Sunday. 

Fideos are the same as vermicelli noodles, only in Murcia they are known as aletría. This word comes from the Arabic, itriyya, meaning threads of dried pasta. In case you were wondering where pasta came from, yep, the Arabs (Moors) introduced pasta made with hard durum wheat to Spain (and southern Italy) back in medieval times.

Pasta with Salt Cod

Aletría (Fideos) con Bacalao

Fideo noodles cook right in the pan with vegetables and cod. Saffron adds a sunny yellow.

Fresh artichokes, fava beans, green onions, potatoes and cauliflower go into this pasta dish.

Start this recipe two or three days before you intend to serve it as the salt cod needs to be soaked for 36 to 48 hours. Soaking in several changes of water rehydrates the flesh and removes the salt.

Most cuts of dry salt cod will have skin and bones. Soaking followed by a plunge in boiling water make it easy to pull the softened flesh away from the bones. If you start out with 12 ounces of dry cod, you’ll have 7 to 8 ounces of fish pieces after removing skin and bones. 

The artichokes can be cooked in the pan along with the potatoes or, if preferred, cooked separately and added to the dish at the end. (Frozen artichoke hearts can be substituted for the fresh ones.)

Peeled fava beans.

Fava beans: to skin or not to skin? Home cooks (and me) use the shelled favas as they are, with the outer skins. But they are a lovely spring green if you first blanch them in boiling water, then pinch the inner fava from its skin. And they don’t need additional cooking, can be scattered on top of the fideos. (When I prepared the dish that appears in the photos, I added half the favas, unskinned, to the pan with the cauliflower. The remainder I peeled the skins and added the green favas to the pasta at the end of cooking.)

 

Green onions don't have a bulb.

Use green onions—also called scallions—if they are available (cebolletas in Spanish). Chop some of the green part as well as the white. They need only a minute to sauté. If you’re lucky enough to find green garlic shoots, substitute them for the garlic cloves. 

Green garlic shoots.

Use No.4 fideos, the fattest ones, or else the Catalan-style pasta called fideua, which are short, thin noodles with pinholes. If fideos are not available, use spaghetti broken into 2-inch lengths.

Cod (left) has been soaked and bones removed.

Serves 4.

12-16 ounces dry salt cod

6 cups water

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon pine nuts

1 cup chopped green onion

2 cloves chopped garlic

Pinch of saffron threads

¼ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon pimentón (paprika, not smoked)

½ cup peeled and chopped tomato

2 medium artichokes 

2 medium potatoes (8 ounces)

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup shelled fava beans

1 cup fideo noodles (4.5 ounces)

Chopped parsley, to serve

Cut the piece of cod crosswise into 3 or 4 sections (include fins too). Rinse them in cold water to remove excess salt. Place them in a nonreactive container and cover with cold water. Cover and refrigerate 10 to 12 hours. Drain the cod, rinse it, and cover with fresh water. Refrigerate. Change the water every 10 to 12 hours until de-salted, usually 36 to 48 hours. (Thin pieces or cut-up cod may need less soaking.) 

Bring 6 cups of water to a full boil. Place the pieces of cod in the water and immediately remove the pan from the heat. Let the cod soak 5 minutes. Lift it out with a slotted spoon. Save the water for cooking the pasta.

When the cod is cool enough to handle, use fingers to pull off skin and all the bones. (Skin and fins can be added to the reserved water and cooked 5 minutes.) The cod will naturally break up into bite-size pieces. Reserve them.

Heat the oil in a large pan or deep skillet. Fry the pine nuts until golden and skim them out. Add the onion and garlic to the pan on medium heat and sauté until the onion is softened, 2 minutes. Add the saffron, cumin and pimentón. Immediately add the chopped tomato. Keep frying the mixture until the tomatoes are reduced, 5 minutes.

Prepare the artichokes by removing outer leaves. Cut them in half and add the halves to the pan. Peel the potatoes and cut them into irregular 1-inch pieces. Add the potatoes to the pan. 

Strain the cod water (discard any solids) and add it to the pan. Season with salt. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Add the fava beans and cauliflower and cook 5 minutes. (Potatoes should be tender.) Raise the heat so the water comes to a boil and add the fideo noodles. Lower heat to medium and cook the pasta 10 to 12 minutes until it is al dente (or according to package directions). The pasta should be a little soupy, not dry. 

Add the pieces of cod to the pan and mix with the noodles. (If using pre-cooked artichokes, tuck them in now as well.) Heat thoroughly. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to set 5 minutes. Scatter the pine nuts on top and sprinkle with chopped parsley to serve. 

For another version of this dish, make the cod dumplings in this recipe for Chickpeas and Spinach with Salt Cod Dumplings. After frying the dumplings, add them to the fideos to finish cooking.

More recipes for springtime and Holy Week:

Broth with Fish and Clams.

Cod Fritters with Molasses.

Springtime Vegetable Stew with Dumplings.

Sweet Toasts (Torrijas).

Creamy Rice Pudding.

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish.

Bread Rolls with Egg (Hornazos).

THE JOY OF SPRINGTIME VEGETABLES

Springtime vegetable cornucopia.

At the market, a heap of peas in their pods drew me in. Now that I have no vegetable garden (lamentably, due to rooting wild boars), I miss the pleasure of picking and shelling peas, a few to eat raw, a double handful to sauté in olive oil. The market peas, of course, were not as fresh and sweet as those just picked, but, still, they had a springtime allure. 

I added more spring vegetables to my basket—fat artichokes, fava beans, leafy lettuce and spring onions. All of the fixings for pipeo, a vegetable stew from the inland village of Casarabonela (Málaga, southern Spain). That pueblo, on rich agricultural land in the foothills of the Sierra de las Nieves, has an annual Pipeo festival (this year, on April 22). 

Pipeo is a plato viudo, a “widowed” dish, bereft of meat or fatty sausages. It once was a thrifty way to feed a family, using seasonal vegetables from the kitchen garden, given substance with bread dumplings. Being vegetarian, it is well-suited for Lenten meals, when observant Catholics refrain from eating meat. 

Pipeo is a lovely springy dish. Serve it as a starter, vegetarian main or even a side.  

This vegetable stew has artichokes, peas, fava beans, romaine and potatoes plus bread dumplings. 

Dumplings made of bread crumbs add substance to an all-vegetable stew.

Springtime Vegetable Stew with Dumplings

Pipeo

The name of this dish, pipeo, comes from "pipas," meaning "pips" or "seeds", as the peas, fava beans and almonds are all "pipas." 

The dumplings, called tortitas or pelotas, are first fried until browned, then cooked in the stew. I might add some grated nutmeg, freshly ground black pepper, even some powdered ginger, the next time I make the dumplings. 

Add the artichokes to the pan first, as they take longest to cook. Follow with the fava beans, lettuce and potatoes. Add the peas last. Tiny green peas, called lagrimas, or "tear drops," hardly need cooking at all. Use them to garnish the finished pipeo. The sauce for the vegetables is thickened with a typical majao, a paste of crushed garlic, almonds and fried bread. Make the majao in a mortar or speed up the process by using a blender. 

Pipeo is a dish with pips.

Serves 4.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup almonds

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 slice bread, crusts removed

½ cup chopped spring onions or scallions

1 tablespoon pimentón (paprika)

3 medium artichokes (18 ounces) or 4 smaller ones

5 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf

1 large potato (10 ounces)

½ romaine lettuce

1 cup (4 ounces) shelled fava beans 

1 ¾ cups (8 ounces) shelled peas

½ teaspoon cumin

For the dumplings:

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup fine dry breadcrumbs

Olive oil for frying

Fry garlic, almonds, bread.

In a cazuela, deep skillet or stew pot, heat the 3 tablespoons of oil on medium heat. Fry the almonds and 2 cloves of garlic, turning, until they are golden. Skim them out and reserve. Add the bread to the oil and fry it until golden on both sides. Remove.

Add the chopped onions to the oil remaining in the pan. Sauté gently 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the pimentón.

Trim artichokes.

Trim the artichokes by removing several layers of outer leaves. Cut off and discard the top two-thirds of the artichokes, leaving the bottoms. Cut the bottoms in quarters. With the tip of the knife, cut away the fuzzy choke in the center. Drop the artichoke pieces, as they are prepared, into the oil in the pan. 

Cover the artichokes with 4 cups of the water. Add the salt and bay leaf. Bring the water to a boil, reduce heat and cover the pan. Cook the artichokes 5 minutes.

Make the majao.

Meanwhile, peel the potato and snap it into small pieces. Slice the lettuce crosswise. Add the potatoes, lettuce and shelled fava beans to the pan with the artichokes. Keep the liquid bubbling gently. Cover and cook 10 minutes.

In a mortar or blender, crush the fried almonds, garlic and bread with the cumin. Add the remaining 1 cup of water to make a smooth mixture. Add the almond mixture to the pan with the shelled peas. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until all of the vegetables are tender.

While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the dumplings. Place the beaten eggs in a bowl. Add the minced garlic, parsley, salt and breadcrumbs. Combine all the ingredients to make a soft dough (add a little water, if needed). Roll or pat the dough into (8 to 10) walnut-size balls. 

Fry dumplings, then cook in the sauce.

Heat oil in a skillet to a depth of ½ inch. Fry the dumpling balls until they are golden brown on all sides. Remove them to drain on a paper towel. 

When the vegetables in the stew are tender. Add the dumplings to the pan. Cook them 5 minutes (or longer for soft and spongy dumplings). Let the stew rest 10 minutes before serving.  

More recipes for peas:

Sauté of Peas with Ham.

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish.

Potato and Pea Salad with Mint.

Tortilla with Peas and Fava Beans.

Another spring vegetable stew: Menestra.

Another dumpling recipe for Lent:

Chickpeas and Spinach with Cod Dumplings.

FAREWELL TO FAVAS

The last of the fava beans.

Only a handful of fava beans remains to be picked in my garden patch. I’m usually inundated with them, but this year I only planted a few. There’s never enough maturing at the same time to make a satisfying serving. 

On a TV food show I watched a segment filmed in a tapas bar in Jamilena, a town in Jaén province (Andalusia). The cook was making a variation of pipirrana, a chopped “salad,” called “machacao,” that was finished with a scattering of raw fava beans. Machacao is Andaluz for “machacado,” meaning "crushed." The dressing is prepared by crushing egg yolks, garlic, green pepper, bread and olive oil in a mortar or in a wooden bowl called a dornillo.

The pipirrana of Jaén is more of a mojete or remojón—what I call “dunking salad,” meant to be served with lots of bread for sopping up the juices. Pipirrana is usually a summer dish, a relative of gazpacho, served chilled for a light supper. In the springtime, before tomatoes are in season, some of the tomatoes are replaced with oranges. The favas are another springtime touch.

Chopped salad is topped with chunks of tuna and fava beans. 

A "dunking salad," meant to be served with chunks of bread for soaking up the garlicky dressing and tomato juices.

With tuna and egg as well as bread, the salad makes a complete meal.

Blanch and peel favas.

Freshly-picked fava beans can be eaten raw with just a sprinkling of salt. However, they’re best if, after shelling, they are briefly blanched in boiling water and the outer skins of the beans are removed. No favas? Use fresh peas instead, raw, if they are freshly picked, or blanched if they’ve been waiting in a grocery store bin. 

Add the juices from chopping tomatoes and oranges to the salad. Allow the salad to stand 30 minutes to further draw out the juices. If desired, add a little cold water to make it even soupier. Serve the salad with a spoon and chunks of bread for dunking. 

The “mashed” dressing is really garlicky! You could decrease the quantity of garlic or blanch several cloves of garlic to make them less intrusive.

Use as much canned tuna as you like to top the salad. For this quantity of tomatoes and mashed dressing I used two 70-gram cans. 

For an authentic Jaén pipirrana, you would use a good Picual extra virgin olive oil, a fruity oil with a piquant finish.

Chopped Salad with Fava Beans

Machacao con Habas

Orange as well as tomatoes in this springtime salad.

1 cup shelled fava beans

1 slice bread

2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon coarse salt 

2 hard-boiled eggs

1 green pepper

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes

1 cup chopped orange (optional)

½ cup diced cucumber (optional)

3 tablespoons chopped scallions 

Salt to taste

Water (optional)

Canned tuna

Bread, to serve

Blanch the fava beans in boiling water for 15 seconds. Drain them and refresh under cold water. Slit the outer skins and gently squeeze out the beans. Discard skins. Reserve the beans.

Soak the bread in water to cover until it is softened. Squeeze out the water and discard the crusts. Reserve ¼ cup of mashed bread pulp. 

Mash garlic, bread and egg yolks in mortar. 

Place the garlic in a mortar or wooden bowl with the coarse salt. Grind and crush the garlic until smooth. Peel the eggs and separate the yolks and whites. Add the yolks to the mortar and reserve the whites. 

Use a vegetable peeler to peel some of the green pepper. Cut a 2-inch piece of pepper, chop it, and add to the mortar. Reserve the remaining pepper. Add the pulped bread to the mortar. 

Mash the bread, egg yolks and green pepper with the garlic to make a paste. Using the pestle, stir a spoonful of oil into the paste until it is absorbed. Add another spoonful. Continue adding oil and stirring until the sauce is thickened and emulsified. 

Chopped tomato, orange, pepper and egg whites.

Chop the reserved egg whites. Chop enough reserved green pepper to make 2/3 cup. Place whites and pepper in a bowl. Add the tomatoes, orange and cucumber, if using. Add the scallions. Gently stir in the garlic sauce. Taste and add salt if needed.

Chill the salad, if desired. Otherwise, allow to stand 30 minutes. To serve, place the salad in a bowl and top with chunks of drained tuna. Scatter reserved fava beans on top. Serve the salad accompanied by bread. 

More recipes with fava beans here.

More versions of pipirrana:

Fresh Tomato and Pepper Salad.

Gazpacho Salad.

Moroccan Chopped Tomato Salad.

More "dunking" salads (mojetes) here.