Egypt: Ful mudammas (fava beans)

Very nice mediterranean dish and beautiful pictures, Marissa!

Fave are most popular in many south-European countries. There's not only used fresh but also dried. There's a big difference in taste between dry and fresh ones. Maroccans love to make soup from the dried ones. I buy "fresh" frozen but only Maroccan foodshops seem to have them around here.

You will find these beans on many gastronomic dishes too in springtime. It's not clear in your post but I have to guess you boiled them and ate them as they were? I know it's a lot of extra work but mostly they also remove the peel from the beans themselves after they are cooked, these peels don't seem to digest too easy and they're not very agreable to eat neither. It's known that fresh fave in their pods produce more waste than food! What is left after peeling the cooked bean itself is a very bright green 2 halves. Even when using frozen ones, I still remove the peel after boiling them. It could well be that your toddler will like them peeled...?

Marissa, indeed, your fresh from the garden beans should have a much softer peel. It's not a "must" to remove the peel at all, but it is in restaurant dishes.

I'm not familiar with that Gaida person but her suggestion to cook them "long enough so you don't have to peel them" is very odd imo. I would rather suggest to have a spoon at hand when cooking these, regularly fish out a bean and bite on it or press between a thumb and indexfinger, that's the perfect way to check how these fresh beans are cooking.

I like to add a few to savory dishes. They're boiled, peeled and sauteed for a moment in a little butter.

Another addition to savory dishes is to make a purée of them like you did in your first post. I boil them in water, drain, add a little chickenstock plus a dash of cream and mix them finely, then push through a fine sieve where the bits of peel are removed. The result is a silky lightgreen purée.

I was also wondering, does anyone use the name "broadbeans" for these?