In Season Now: Ice Cream Beans!
A bean that tastes like ice cream? It might sounds too good to be true, but these beans are both real and good for you!
Q: What looks like a fava bean and tastes like ice cream… ?
A: Ice-cream beans!
Botanically speaking, the ice cream bean, or Inga Edulis, is in the same family as green beans and peanuts. But rather than eating the seed inside the pod, you focus on the pith. The fluffy pulp surrounding the bean is sweet and gooey. Working it off a beans is reminiscent of sucking mango off the pit, but this tastes distinctly like vanilla ice cream.
Mexico is the northern boundary of this tropical fruit's native habitat, but Pedro’s Organic Farm is growing them in Southern California! You can find Ice Cream Beans at their stand at any of our four Farmer Mark markets.
Need a nudge? Their pulp is a good source of antioxidants, dietary fiber, polyphenols, and anti-inflammatories. The seeds are inedible raw, but can be eaten roasted and are a good source of protein.
Aubrey Yarbrough is the Community Development Manager for Farmer Mark. Before moving to LA she ran her own organic farm and cooked on the garde manger station of the award winning Elements restaurant in Princeton, NJ. She has contributed poetry to New American Writing and prose to Edible Jersey.