This recipe is a childhood favourite dish of mine and so easy to make. In fact, all children for some reason love fava (well, apart from my brother who detested it as a child and loathes it now as an adult- and all this big deal from the boy that famously used to devour bananas with ketchup!).
Fava is the Greek word for dried split yellow peas that when boiled melt into a delightful creamy soup. It is a dish on its own or it can be served as a meze on a platter with olives, fried fish, sun-dried tomatoes and chargrilled vegetables or lamb chops. Fava tends to become very thick so you can add water when you re-cook and lemon when you serve to reduce its thickness.
Here, I have served it with pita bread.
500 g split yellow peas
1 red onion
2 garlic cloves
salt & pepper to taste
olive oil
lemon juice
capers and a chopped red onion for serving (optional)
Rinse the fava and put it into a pot filled with cold water.Boil it and drain it. Pour some cold water over the drained fava and put back in the pot, this time covered with 1 litre of hot water. When it starts to boil, add a red onion chopped in four quarters and two garlic cloves on the centre, partly cover with the lid and simmer for 30 more minutes. Make sure you do not stir the onions too much so that you can discard them later along with the garlic. Then, remove the lid and reduce the heat. Let it simmer for 30 more minutes and when the water is reduced and it starts to gloop on the surface add the salt/pepper, stirring from time to time. Discard the onion and the garlic (if some has dissolved in the pureed peas do not worry-it will add to the taste) and pulse the fava with a food processor adding lemon and olive oil. You can serve it with cappers and freshly chopped red onion on top.
Καλή όρεξη!
