Smashed Fava and Herb Pitas with Cucumber and Mint
Warm fava beans crushed with garlic, cumin, lemon, and tahini, stuffed into split pita with chopped cucumber, tomatoes, mint, and a handful of arugula.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Every country around the Mediterranean has a version of crushed warm beans for breakfast or lunch, and every one of them is built on the same idea: a soft, savory base and a pile of cold sharp things on top. Favas are the ones I keep coming back to, because they crush into a texture no other bean gives you, slightly grainy and buttery at once, and because they take flavor hard. Twenty minutes of garlic, cumin, lemon, and good olive oil turns two cans of beans into something people ask about. The pita is not a vehicle here so much as half the meal.
The pleasure is in the contrast, so I build these to be eaten immediately rather than assembled and wrapped. Warm beans, cool cucumber, tomatoes that burst, and mint torn at the last second so it stays green. Tahini goes in twice, a spoonful stirred through the beans for body and a little more streaked into the pocket, which keeps the sandwich from drying out as you work through it. Arugula is there for the pepper as much as the crunch. If you have a lemon and a heavy hand with it, you have the whole dish.
This is a good lunch for a hot day and an even better one for a day with no time. The beans take eight minutes on the stove and can be made a day ahead, the vegetables need a knife and nothing else, and the pitas want thirty seconds of heat. I make it in high summer when the tomatoes are worth eating and the mint is threatening to take over the garden, but the canned beans and the spice jar mean it works in January too, with cherry tomatoes and a cucumber from the store.
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked fava beans, from about 2 cans, drained and rinsed well
- 4 whole wheat pita breads (about 8 1/2 oz total)
- 1 Persian or half an English cucumber, cut into small dice
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 cups arugula, loosely packed
- 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 2 tbsp well-stirred tahini
- 2 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, from 1 large lemon, plus wedges for the table
- 3 scallions, sliced thin
- 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 3 cloves garlic, grated
- 1/3 cup mint leaves, torn at the last minute
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Bloom the garlic and cumin: Warm 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat, add the grated garlic and the cumin, and stir constantly for 45 seconds to a minute. You are waiting for the smell to turn from sharp to toasted and nutty, and for the garlic to go pale gold at the edges. Any darker than that and it turns bitter, so keep it moving.
- Warm and crush the beans: Tip in the drained favas with 1/4 cup water and the salt, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring, until they are heated through and the water has mostly gone. Crush about two thirds of them against the side of the pan with a fork or a potato masher, leaving the rest whole, so the mixture is thick and scoopable with clear beans still visible in it.
- Finish the beans off the heat: Take the pan off the burner and stir in half the tahini, half the lemon juice, and the black pepper. Taste it. It should be assertively lemony, since the cucumber and the bread will soften that considerably. If the mixture has stiffened, loosen it with a tablespoon of water at a time until it falls slowly off the spoon.
- Make the cold salad: Toss the cucumber, cherry tomatoes, scallions, and parsley with the remaining lemon juice and 1 tbsp olive oil in a bowl. Do this while the beans cook so the tomatoes have a few minutes to give up some juice, which becomes part of the dressing. Keep the mint and the arugula out until the last moment.
- Warm the pitas and stuff them: Heat the pitas one at a time in a dry skillet over medium heat, about 30 seconds a side, until they are soft, flexible, and beginning to puff. Cut a wide opening across the top of each, spoon in the warm crushed beans, streak the remaining tahini over them, then pack in the cucumber salad, the arugula, and the torn mint. Eat them standing up if you like, with a lemon wedge in the other hand.
Variations
- Dill and cucumber: Swap the mint for a handful of chopped dill, which pushes the pita toward the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
- Harissa swirl: Stir a teaspoon of harissa into the tahini before streaking it over the beans, for heat and a deeper red color.
- Charred scallion: Blacken the scallions whole in a dry pan for two minutes, chop them, and fold them through the beans rather than the salad.
- Roasted pepper: Add strips of roasted red pepper to the cold salad for sweetness and a softer texture against the crunch of the cucumber.
Storage & Leftovers
The crushed beans keep four days in a sealed container in the refrigerator and are the part worth making ahead. They set firm when cold, so warm them in a pan with a splash of water and stir until they fall off the spoon again, then check the lemon, which always needs refreshing after a night in the cold.
The cucumber and tomato salad holds two days, though it releases a lot of liquid. Drain it before it goes into the pita or the bread turns soggy in your hand. Add the mint and the arugula only when you are ready to eat, since both wilt within an hour of meeting the dressing.
Stuffed pitas do not keep at all. For a packed lunch, carry the beans in one container and the salad in another, take a pita in a bag, and put it together at the table. The beans are good cold as well, more like a dip than a filling, with the pita torn and used for scooping.
Notes & Tips
- Rinse the beans well: Canned favas come in a cloudy liquid that tastes of the can. A minute under running water in a colander, until the water runs clear, is what lets the garlic and lemon come through.
- Crush, do not puree: Two thirds mashed and one third whole is the texture you want. A blender gives you a smooth paste, which is a fine dip and a poor sandwich filling, because it slides out the moment you tilt the bread.
- Over-lemon the beans: Bread and cucumber both mute acid. Season the beans so they taste slightly too sharp on the spoon and they will be exactly right in the pita.
- Tear the mint late: Cut or torn mint darkens and loses its top notes within a few minutes. Do it as the pitas come out of the pan, not before.
- Drain the tomato salad: Salted tomatoes and cucumbers throw off a surprising amount of liquid. Spoon the vegetables in with a slotted spoon and save the juice at the bottom of the bowl to drizzle over the top.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- The beans, the bread, and the cold vegetables are the three parts that make this work. Crushed favas give the pita its savory body and its plant protein, whole wheat pita brings the chew and a solid share of the fiber, and the cucumber, tomato, and arugula are the fresh, crunchy counterweight to both.
- Fava beans have been grown around the Mediterranean for thousands of years, and they crush into a texture that is buttery and slightly grainy at once. They carry folate in quantity along with the kind of slow carbohydrate that makes a bean sandwich sit differently than a bread one.
- Tahini is ground sesame and very little else, which is why two tablespoons bring so much richness, and sesame is one of the better plant sources of calcium. It goes in twice here, once stirred through the warm beans and once streaked into the pocket.
- Arugula and mint are doing more than decoration. The pepperiness of arugula cuts the richness of the tahini, mint torn at the last second keeps its cooling oils intact, and both leaves carry calcium and vitamin K into the sandwich along with their flavor.
- Cumin bloomed in olive oil for a minute is the smell that tells you this is ready, and the lemon squeezed in off the heat keeps a soft filling from tasting flat. A pita this full holds you well through an afternoon, with the beans and the whole grain bread doing that work together.
- As you eat, notice the cold cucumber landing against the warm beans and the way the mint arrives at the end of each bite, and put the pita down between mouthfuls long enough to taste it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use dried fava beans?
Yes, if you have planned for them. They need an overnight soak and about an hour of simmering, which puts them outside a quick lunch, so cook a big batch on a weekend and freeze it in two-cup portions. Canned favas are what I use on a weekday and they crush beautifully.
What if I cannot find favas?
Butter beans or cannellini beans crush into a similar softness, and chickpeas work if you accept a coarser, drier result and add an extra spoonful of tahini. Fava skins are thicker than most, so if the ones you find are the large brown kind, slip the skins off as you crush.
How do I stop the pita from tearing?
Warm it first and cut a wide opening rather than a small slit. A cold pita is brittle and splits along the fold, while thirty seconds of dry heat makes it flexible enough to stuff generously. If a pocket tears anyway, lay the pita flat, pile everything on one half, and fold it over like a taco.
Is this good cold?
It is, though it becomes a different dish, closer to a bean salad in bread. The garlic comes forward and the texture firms up. If you know you are eating it cold, add another tablespoon of olive oil and an extra squeeze of lemon to bring it back to life.