Creamy, spiced fava beans.

dried split fava beans (or cannellini, haricot or borlotti beans) 250g or 2 x 400g tins
onion 1
garlic cloves 3
extra virgin olive oil
ground cumin 1/2 tsp
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
large green chilli 1
flat-leaf parsley 1/2 bunch
lemons 1-2
ripe tomatoes 2
pita bread, cucumber, spring onions, black olives (to serve)
  1. If you are making this from scratch, wash the dried fava beans, discard any stones, and leave to soak overnight in plenty of cold water. Then when you are ready to cook them, place in a pan with 5 times as much fresh cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 2 hours, or until tender and cooked through. Check them occasionally to make sure they haven’t boiled dry. Drain the cooked beans but reserve a large mug of the cooking water.
  2. If you’re using tinned beans, start here: drain them and reserve the liquid.
  3. Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Place a large frying pan on a medium-low heat. Add two tablespoons of olive oil, the chopped onion, and half the chopped garlic; sauté for 10 minutes till the onions are soft but not coloured. Stir in the cumin and the drained fava plus about 200 ml of the cooking/tin water. Bring to the boil, season, then reduce the heat to low for around 10 minutes. Towards the end of cooking, especially if you’re using tinned beans, you might need to use a potato masher to gently mash the beans. You don’t want a purée, just a creamy broken consistency - you can add a little more liquid here if needed.
  4. While the beans are cooking, make the dressing. Halve and finely chop the chilli (for a milder dressing you can remove the seeds) and place in a mortar with the remaining garlic and a good pinch of salt. Bash with the pestle until broken down, smoother, and well combined. Roughly chop the parsley, then add that to the mortar and pound it in. Halve one lemon and squeeze in its juice, then stir in a couple of tablespoons of oil to loosen to your taste. Halve and deseed the tomatoes, and finely chop the flesh.
  5. Serve the creamy fava beans drizzled with the spicy green dressing over the top and scattered with the chopped tomatoes. Cut the remaining lemon into wedges and serve on the side. Perfect with warm pita bread, sticks of cucumber, chopped spring onions, and olives.