Spanish Fava Beans Recipe - The Fiery Vegetarian (2024)

This easy vegan fava beans recipe is the perfect easy tapa. Take some frozen tender baby fava beans (also known as baby broad beans) and cook them up with olive oil, garlic, onions, smoked paprika, and white wine to bring you the tastiest vegetarian version of habas con jamón.

No peeling, no muss, no fuss, and ready in under half an hour, serve this gorgeous easy tapa with some good crusty bread for mopping up the juices, and as part of a mezze meal or along with some other delicious Spanish tapas.

I highly recommend slicing up the bread and popping this baby on the table along with some Mediterranean white bean salad (takes just five minutes to make), olives, peperoncino or guindillas (pickled basque peppers), roasted red peppers, and my easy creamy vegan goat cheese for a Spanish style tapas meal that is sure to impress.

Spanish fava beans are traditionally served at room temperature in bars here in Spain and usually have ham added for extra flavor, but you won’t find this ham-free vegetarian version lacking in flavor.

How to make this fava beans recipe

As with most good Spanish dishes, there are just a handful of ingredients but they do need to be high quality.

You MUST use young fava/baby broad beans for this dish, the larger old ones won’t do as they will need to be peeled to remove the tough exterior.

I use frozen ones for convenience but you can also use fresh ones as they should cook through with the same amount of cooking time.

First, grab a large onion, peel, and chop finely. Cook in four tablespoons of olive oil over high heat for five minutes, stirring often. You really do need to use quite a bit of olive oil as it’s crucial to the flavor, but if you really must, you can reduce it to three tablespoons.

We’re frying the onions over a high heat to get them nice and brown and you will need to stir them often to stop them burning.

If you have a particularly hot efficient stovetop and you notice the onions starting to blacken, do turn the heat down to medium-high or move to the next step.

Add in the chopped garlic (3 cloves), smoked paprika (preferably hot smoked paprika, not the sweet one which has a bit of a claggy taste), and freshly ground black pepper (around 1/4 tsp).

Reduce the heat to medium-high and fry a further five minutes, again, stirring often.

Now add in the frozen or fresh young fava beans (baby broad beans) and stir to coat well with the onion and olive oil mixture.

Add the white wine and deglaze the pan using a wooden or plastic spoon to scrape up any bits that have stuck to the pan. After one minute, add half a cup of good quality vegetable stock and half a teaspoon of salt.

Turn the heat up to high and cover with a lid, and cook for ten minutes, stirring now and then, more often as the level of liquid reduces.

Remove the lid, reduce the heat to medium and cook a further five minutes or more if needed, stirring to prevent sticking until the sauce is thick and nearly evaporated. There should be a little sauce, but not much.

Sprinkle over some chopped fresh parsley (optional). It’s not a traditional addition but a little will pep up the dish.

If you have some typical Spanish-style glazed terracotta dishes, spoon the baby broad beans into them to cool, while you get together any other tapas you wish to serve, and slice up some crusty bread for mopping up leftover sauce.

You can serve this on one dish as a big tapa (called a ración) that everyone helps themselves to, or in smaller plates for individual servings. This will make about 4 tapa-size servings or 2 raciones.

This dish will keep about 4 days tightly covered in the fridge but it’s best to allow it to come to room temperature for serving.

Buen provecho!

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