Sudanese Fava beans is served with fresh bread, the dish known to the locals as Fulaish (Ful - Dry Fava beans, Aish - Bread). It is a common Fatur (Breakfast) meal for them. I lived in an apartment in Khartoum, Sudan that had few stores next to it. The shopkeepers(especially those owning grocery stores) would have a common pot of beans cooking since early morning and just around 11 am, someone will cut the salad vegetables, fill a huge bowl of Ful, top it with sesame oil, Sudanese Jibna (flavors similar to Feta cheese) and salad and mix it all together. The men of all the shops around would get together and eat from the common bowl accompanied with bread. I found similar tradition in other nearby clusters of shops too.
My husband and me usually used to eat it for dinner. There have been times when I cooked dinner and because of the craving, we ended up eating Ful sandwich with dinner to be consumed the next day. Because it was available so easily everywhere in Khartoum, the need to cook it at home didn't arise. But when we came here in US, we couldn't find a restaurant that served Ful the Sudanese style. Searching the aisles and different varieties of main ingredients, we finally settled with the Egyptian Fava beans (It is national dish of Egypt) and Trader Joe's Feta cheese.
High in protein content and bundled with so many vitamins and minerals, try this dry Fava beans recipe.
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| Photo by Dhara Balwa |
Serves: 4
Prep time: 5 min plus 14 hrs soak time for Fava beans; Cook time: ~ 3 hours
Difficulty level: Easy
