Broad beans

Vicia faba

legume

Large flat seeds of a legume grown for millennia, from Eurasia to the Mediterranean basin; fresh in spring, slipped out of their skins, or dried all year. They provide protein, folate and iron.

Origin

Near East

Season (United States)

April to July · grows in your region

Preparation

In people with a G6PD deficiency — common around the Mediterranean and in Asia — broad beans trigger a crisis, raw or cooked: it is the only food in this catalog where cooking changes nothing. For everyone else, they need no precaution at all. Soaking, sprouting or sourdough bring its phytates down — and release the zinc and iron they were holding.

Molecules

Resistant starch RS1 · GOS (galacto-oligosaccharides) · Saponins · Folates (B9) · Plant iron · Protein · Lysine · MolybdenumIn small amounts, not counted Flavanols and procyanidins · Isoflavones · PhosphorusWhat slows things down Phytates

Did you know?

Pythagoras and his followers refused to eat broad beans, or even to walk through a bean field; he is said to have died, caught by his pursuers, rather than cross one.