Recipe #2: Rabiya's Yemeni Foul

It is always a bit of a mystery to me how some foods migrate across vast distances and become popular in foreign lands, while other, equally delicious foods, do not.  Hommos is now practically a staple food in the U.S. (at least in California), and yet its best friend and fellow bean-dip, foul, has not enjoyed the same global notoriety.  May this recipe help to change that!

Foul is a staple food and breakfast of champions all across the Middle East (see bottom for tangent), but each region has its own twist.  Foul literally means "beans," and in the Arab world there really is only one kind of widely available bean: fava beans.  Jordanians, Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians (the Levantine countries) typically make their foul just like hommos except substituting fava beans for chick peas and serving warm.  This can be pretty good.  But it is Yemeni-style foul, piping hot, tomato-y and somewhat chili-like, that has captured my heart.  It is super easy and fun to make, cheap, healthy, sensationally tasty, gluten-free and vegan.  Top that, I dare you.  Yalla.

1) Chop 1 onion (or half, your choice), 1 green pepper, 1 hot pepper (or more, to your taste), 2-3 cloves garlic, and 1 ripe tomato.  I diced the garlic and hot pepper finely and together, while the rest I left somewhat chunky.  Peeling tomatoes is a pain, but if you do it you'll avoid some of the sourness that tomatoes sometimes have, and you won't have annoying little skins drifting around the finished product.  I advise it.

2) Sautee onions in a good amount of olive oil in a large frying pan with raised sides until softened, then add the garlic and hot pepper and sautee for another minute or so.

3) Add a dash of cumin, a dash of black pepper, and a dash of coriander, and stir well until the onions seem stained yellowish (probably a minute).

4) Add the green pepper and cook another minute or 2, then add the tomato and a heaping tablespoon or 2 of tomato puree.  Make this judgment based on how juicy the fresh tomato is.  If it looks a little undernourished help it along with the canned stuff.  Add a couple pinches of salt, stir well, and let simmer on medium low heat for about 5 or more minutes, until the tomato is complete mush and the oil has turned red.

5) While that's cooking, open and drain a can of fava beans, and rinse well.  Spread the beans on your used cutting board and squeeze half a lemon over them, and add a bit of water as well.  Mash the beans roughly with the bottom of the can, adding a little water as you go if it seems difficult.  Don't smash them into oblivion, just flatten them kinda haphazardly.

6) When the oil has turned red, add the mashed beans and one cup of water, and stir until well mixed.

7) Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the foul has reached a scoopable consistency.  Taste and add seasoning if needed.  Serve in the pan you cooked it in (it tastes best when very hot!) with fresh bread of any kind, and if you like garnish with white cheese, chopped hot pepper, chopped onion, cilantro, or any combination thereof.

Excuse the flash.  I know it looks kinda gnarly but TRUST me it is amazing.

Tangent:  There's actually a great commercial here for canned fava beans -- a little boy comes into the kitchen in the morning and is sooo excited because he smells foul cooking so it MUST be Friday; when else would his mom have time to soak and cook dried beans?  He goes on and on about how much he loves Fridays and how foul is his favorite breakfast as the whole family sits to eat together.  Then his mom holds up his backpack -- "time for school son, it's Tuesday!" WAHHAH!?!?  With canned foul you can have Friday breakfast every day!  It's adorable.