Some people suffer from favism, a hemolytic response to the consumption of broad beans, a condition linked to a metabolic disorder known as G6PDD.

Vicia faba is a stiffly erect, annual plant 0.5 to 1.8 metres (1+1⁄2 to 6 ft) tall, with two to four stems that are square in cross-section.

[6] Carbonised domestic faba bean remains were discovered at three adjacent Neolithic sites in Israel's Lower Galilee (Yiftah'el, Ahi'hud and Nahal Zippori).

[7] Broad beans are still often grown as a cover crop to prevent erosion because they can overwinter and, as a legume, they fix nitrogen in the soil.

[9] In mainland Europe and North Africa, the plant parasite Orobanche crenata (carnation-scented broomrape) can cause severe impacts on fields of broad beans, devastating their yields.

Symptoms include stunting, yellowing, necrotic basal leaves, and brown or red or black streak-shaped root lesions that grow together and may show above the soil as the disease progresses.

[16] Timchenko et al. 2006 find Clink is not obviously necessary but highly conserved nonetheless, suggesting it is maintained by necessity for infection of other Vicia.

[18] Broad beans are rich in levodopa, and should thus be avoided by those taking irreversible monoamine oxidase inhibitors to prevent a pressor response.

[21] A low-content vicine-convicine faba bean line was identified in the 1980s and the trait has been introduced into several modern cultivars.

A 100-gram reference amount supplies 1,425 kJ (341 kcal; 341 Cal) of food energy and numerous essential nutrients in high content (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV).

Broad beans present the highest protein-to-carbohydrate ratio among other popular pulse crops, such as chickpea, pea and lentil.

[25] Broad beans are generally eaten while still young and tender, enabling harvesting to begin as early as the middle of spring for plants started under glass or overwintered in a protected location, but even the main crop sown in early spring will be ready from mid to late summer.

The beans can be fried, causing the skin to split open, and then salted and/or spiced to produce a savory, crunchy snack.

Steamed broad beans (known as habitas) with cheese is common in the cold-weather regions of Ecuador, especially around the Andes mountains and surroundings of Ambato.

The most popular way of preparing them in Egypt is by taking the cooked and partially mashed beans and adding oil, salt, and cumin to them.

The first is hilibet, a thin, white paste of broad bean flour mixed with pieces of onion, green pepper, garlic, and other spices.

The Greek word fáva (φάβα) does not refer to broad beans, but to the yellow split pea and also to another legume, Lathyrus clymenum.

Favism is quite common in Greece because of malaria endemicity in previous centuries, and people afflicted by it do not eat broad beans.

The city of Kashan has the highest production of broad beans with high quality in terms of the taste, cooking periods and colour.

When people have access to fresh beans in season, they cook them in brine and then add vinegar and Heracleum persicum depending on taste.

Fool (فول) is another common breakfast dish in Iraq as well as many other Arab countries and consists of mashed broad beans.

In Rome, broad beans are popular either cooked with guanciale or with globe artichokes, as side dish together with lamb or kid, or raw with pecorino romano.

They are also used in an appetizer called bigilla where they are served as a pureé mixed with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, parsley and mint.

In Morocco, broad beans are cooked, steamed or made into tabiṣart, a dip sold as a street food and commonly eaten in winter.

Broad beans (Peruvian Spanish: haba(s)) are eaten fresh or dried toasted, boiled, roasted, stewed or in soup.

Habas are one of the essential ingredients of "Pachamanca" in the Andes of Peru, and are also an additive for "Panetela", which is a homemade remedy to keep your child fed and hydrated in cases of diarrhea or stomach infection and even for cholera treatment.

Culinary uses vary among regions, but they can be used as the main pulse in a stew (Habas estofadas, michirones) or as an addition to other dishes (menestra, paella).

Ful medames is the same as the Egyptian dish (it is not mashed though) but with the addition of tomato, parsley and onion and with olive oil.

For lunch, broad beans are cooked with a mix of minced and big chunks of meat and is topped on white rice and eaten with cold yogurt and cucumber salad.

This is also the name of a zeytinyağlı dish made by simmering young and tender broad bean pods with chopped onions in olive oil.