SPICY FAVA BEAN TACOS

When I cook Mexican-inspired food (which happens pretty often – you can’t beat it!), I usually end up using the same few ingredients over and over again. Black beans, cheese, guacamole… my usual burritos, quesadillas and tacos are basically all the same recipe, just made into different shapes.

Don’t get me wrong, I love black beans, cheese and guacamole – but sometimes it’s nice to vary things a little. This time I used fava beans as the base for my taco filling. They may not be an ingredient I typically use in my Mexican-inspired cooking, but as with a lot of beans, they can be dressed up with all sorts of different flavours, so they work really well with a bit of Mexican spice.

The heat in these spicy fava bean tacos comes from both fresh chilli, which gives a slight sweetness and some nice flecks of colour, and chilli powder, which gives a deeper spiciness. If you’re a bit of a lightweight when it comes to chilli, feel free to ease off on the heat, and use more aromatic spices like cumin instead.

If you do decide to go spicy like I did, don’t be too cruel to yourself; add some fresh tomato to help cool your tongue. A good dollop of sour cream works really well too – the perfect balance!

I also added some mushrooms, spring onions and sweetcorn to the spicy fava bean mixture, but feel free to adapt the recipe depending on what veggies you fancy (and what you have in the fridge to use up!). All sorts of vegetables could work in these tacos – peppers, onion, courgette (zucchini), or whatever else you have in the house. Just chop up your choice of veg and add it to the pan with the mushrooms to cook.

This recipe makes four tacos, so it can feed either two or four people, depending on how hungry (and how greedy!) you are. If you’re just serving the tacos on their own, two per person is about right, but if you want to stretch the recipe to serve four, make some Mexican rice or a big salad to serve alongside. Delish!

INGREDIENTS

• 120g (~ 1/2 cup) split dried fava beans
•  1/2 tbsp oil
• 4 medium mushrooms, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• 115g (~ 1/2 cup) sweetcorn kernels (I used tinned)
• 1 small mild red chilli, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• Salt
• Black pepper
• 4 small flour tortillas or taco shells
• 4 medium tomatoes, chopped
• Sour cream, to serve (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Boil the fava beans in a generous amount of water, until soft – around 20-25 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan, and add the chopped mushrooms, garlic, spring onions, sweetcorn and red chilli. Cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes, until soft.
3. When the fava beans are cooked, drain them and add them to the pan with the vegetables. Also add the chilli powder (to taste), smoked paprika, and plenty of salt and pepper. Cook for 5 more minutes, stirring regularly.
4. Serve the spicy fava beans in flour tortillas (or crispy taco shells, if you prefer) with chopped tomatoes and sour cream.