Cream of Fava Bean Soup
- 1¼ cups split skinless dried fava beans, soaked overnight
- 3 whole garlic cloves
- 2 chicken bouillon cubes
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- good pinch of ground chili pepper
- salt
- To serve: extra virgin olive oil; 2 lemons, cut into quarters
Instructions:
You can buy the split and skinless dried fava beans in Asian and Middle Eastern stores. They look creamy white without their dried brown skins.
- Rinse and drain the soaked beans and put them in a pan with the garlic and 6 cups water. Simmer, covered, for about 1 hour. Crumble in the bouillon cubes and simmer another 30 minutes, or until the beans fall apart.
- Still in the pot, mash the beans with a potato masher and add the cumin, paprika, and chili pepper and, if necessary, a little salt, bearing in mind the saltiness of the bouillon cubes. Stir thoroughly and cook a few minutes more. Add a little water if you would like to thin the soup. For a thicker soup, cook, uncovered, for a while longer.
- When serving, pass around the olive oil for people to dribble onto their soup and the lemon quarters for them to squeeze over.