Fava Bean Purée with Cumin and Onion
A creamy purée of long-cooked fava beans, perfumed with cumin, garlic, and onion, drizzled with oil. The distant ancestor of ful, to be eaten with bread as a spoon.
A creamy purée of long-cooked fava beans, perfumed with cumin, garlic, and onion, drizzled with oil. The distant ancestor of ful, to be eaten with bread as a spoon.
You work the reed from morning to evening, like my scribes? Then nourish your belly simply, as they do. The beans are left to soften in water until they yield under the finger, then crushed, mixed with pounded garlic, sweet onion, and the cumin I love above all. No feast is needed to have a clear mind: bread broken into this paste, and the hand remains steady on the reed.
- •Dried fava beans — two handfuls per person (base)
- •Onion — one (aromatic)
- •Garlic — a few cloves (aromatic)
- •Ground cumin — a generous pinch (spice)
- •Oil (moringa or olive) — a drizzle (fat)
- •Salt — to taste (seasoning)
Fava Bean Purée with Cumin and Onion
A creamy purée of long-cooked fava beans, perfumed with cumin, garlic, and onion, drizzled with oil. The distant ancestor of ful, to be eaten with bread as a spoon.
Why this dish? The scribes and priests in the service of Thoth, a literate but sober class, ate legumes daily: fava beans, lentils, chickpeas, enhanced with garlic, onion, and cumin. This is the office worker's dish of antiquity, the one who spent his days with the reed pen in hand.
You work the reed from morning to evening, like my scribes? Then nourish your belly simply, as they do. The beans are left to soften in water until they yield under the finger, then crushed, mixed with pounded garlic, sweet onion, and the cumin I love above all. No feast is needed to have a clear mind: bread broken into this paste, and the hand remains steady on the reed.
Ingredients (period version)
- Dried fava beans — two handfuls per person (base)
- Onion — one (aromatic)
- Garlic — a few cloves (aromatic)
- Ground cumin — a generous pinch (spice)
- Oil (moringa or olive) — a drizzle (fat)
- Salt — to taste (seasoning)
Ingredients
- Dried peeled fava beans — 250 g (soaked overnight)
- Onion — 1 large, sliced (aromatic)
- Garlic — 3 cloves (aromatic)
- Ground cumin — 1.5 tsp (spice)
- Olive oil — 3 tbsp (fat)
- Salt — to taste (seasoning)
Method
- Drain the soaked beans, cover with fresh water and simmer for 1.5 hours until tender.
- Sauté the onion in oil, add garlic and cumin for one minute.
- Add the drained beans (reserve some cooking water), mash roughly with a fork.
- Loosen with cooking water to a soft purée, season with salt.
- Drizzle with oil and serve warm with bread.
How it was made : Fava beans and lentils formed the protein base for the common people as well as temple servants. They were cooked in earthenware pots over a low hearth, perfumed with aromatics from the Nile garden. Cumin and coriander were among the most used spices.
The contemporary twist : A squeeze of lime juice did not exist, but a drizzle of verjuice or lemon juice (late Mediterranean) nicely brightens the purée when serving.
Sources : William J. Darby, Paul Ghalioungui & Louis Grivetti, Food: The Gift of Osiris (1977)
Thoth · Charactorium