If I had to power rank spring’s most quintessential legumes, I’d place fava beans at the very top.
To start, they’re believed to be the first domesticated food crop, with their earliest cultivation dating back 10,000 years in the Fertile Crescent. They tout both nutritional and environmental benefits: Fava beans are high in protein and help improve soil fertility when included in cropping systems. They’re also somewhat of a pop culture icon, thanks to “The Silence of the Lambs.” “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti,” Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter famously said.
