Crunchy Viking Snacks!
I’m thinking of crunchy snacks. It’s a basic food group: crunchy salty.
I recently tried some roasted edamame as a crunchy snack, and I thought: How can I Viking-ify this? While soybeans are definitely not in the Viking Food Shed (VFS), other beans are.
According to the Ribe Viking Center, Horsebeans were part of the VFS.
Horsebeans (Vicia faba)
Horse beans were an important source of food in the old days. Beans contain a lot of protein, and as they can be dried and kept for years, they were very useful for providing a Viking family with food throughout the long, dark and barren Nordic winter
Horse bean, broad bean, and Fava bean are all different names for the same bean.
What are Horsebeans? Horsebean plants, Vicia faba var. equina, are a subspecies of the broad bean proper, also known as Windsor or straight bean. They are a cool-season annual that bears large, thick pods. Inside the pods, the beans are large and flat. This leafy legume has an erect habit with a stiff stem. The leaves look more akin to those of English peas than bean leaves. Small, white blooms are borne in spikelets.
Read more at Gardening Know How: What Are Horsebeans – A Guide To Horsebean Uses And Cultivation https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/beans/horsebean-uses-and-cultivation.htm
This seems to be the only bean listed that is eaten podless. So, if it’s typically eaten podless, it can be dried and salted and seasoned with other dried herbs. So, Viking Snacky Snacks! I have found dried fava bean snacks readily available, but they include non-period correct ingredients.
Bada Bean Bada Boom has snacks that include the following: fava beans, sunflower oil, rice flour, and cane sugar. So of that list only the bean is on our menu. Plain dried beans can be a bit mealy, so I’ll roast them. The big question is seasoning before roasting or after?
Peas are also on the menu. I could dry them, roast them, and season them. Dried foods like this would be a nice trail snack as it’s light.
Here’s the process I’m going to use:
2 C dried beans/peas
1 TBS fine grind sea salt
1 TBS melted butter
2 TBS dried slightly ground parsley
I’ll make two batches. Batch A will be just dried beans with the toppings. Batch B will be toppings on then dry roasting in an oven.
Photos and video in later posts.
