Recently our children were staying on board and they introduced us to a Middle Eastern dish called Foul, also spelled Ful and pronounced ‘Fool’.  It is an ancient recipe made mainly with broad beans, also called fava beans. It is popular at breakfast and lunch and very filling.  It is excellent boat food and suitable for vegetarian, vegan (omit egg) and gluten -free (omit pita) diets.  During Ramadan, it is often eaten before sunrise as it keeps you full a long time and makes the fasting a little easier.  I think it may be the reason why canned fava beans are readily available in Malaysia which has many Moslim people. So in this recipe I use canned fava beans although you can also boil dried fava beans.

Ingredients

For the Foul

• 1 can of fava beans
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 1 mild green chili
• 1 mild red chili
• 2 table spoons of olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt to taste

For the salad

• 250 grams of green beans or long beans steamed and cut to about 5 cm length
• 2 tomatoes chopped in small pieces with added salt
• 1/2 minced onion
• a little chopped coriander
• 2 hard boiled eggs (omit for vegans)
• a glug of olive oil

Method

• Heat the olive oil and fry onion, garlic, cumin and chopped chili for a few minutes.
• Add the drained and rinsed fava beans plus about 1/4 of a cup of water.
• Cook 10 to 15 minutes on low heat, stirring regularly.
• Mash coarsely with a potato masher.
• Add lemon juice and salt, taste.
• It should taste a little like hummus, but with a pronounced cumin taste.
• It is usually served warm in the middle of a plate.
• Quickly surround the foul with the steamed green beans, top with tomato, coriander and onion salad and place sliced hardboiled egg on top if you want. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil.
• You can serve this with pita bread, but that makes it super filling! Enjoy!