Warm Fava Bean Breakfast Plate with Cumin, Lemon, and Tahini
Fava beans warmed with garlic and cumin and half mashed in the pan, spread on plates with cold skyr, a chopped tomato and onion salad, lemon tahini, and toasted sesame over the top.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Beans for breakfast took me a while to come around to, and then a bowl of ful in a Cairo side street settled the question permanently. It was in front of me in under a minute, it cost almost nothing, and I thought about it for the rest of the trip. What I make at home is not that bowl, but it keeps what mattered: fava beans warmed rather than boiled to death, a great deal of cumin, more lemon than seems reasonable, and something cold and sharp spooned into the middle so every bite has two temperatures in it.
The texture is the whole game. If you mash all the beans you get a paste, and if you mash none you get a plate of loose beans rolling off the spoon. Half and half is right, so the mashed part binds everything and the whole ones give you something to bite. Skyr in the middle keeps its shape for a minute and then starts to melt into the warm beans at the edges, which is exactly when you want to be eating. Tahini poured over ties the sharp lemon to the earthy cumin, and the diced onion and chile keep it lively.
This is a Sunday breakfast in my house and a weeknight dinner about once a month, since it is the same plate either way. It takes about twenty minutes, most of which is chopping, and everything in it lives in the cupboard or the refrigerator door. When friends stay over I put the beans in one bowl and the toppings in four small ones and let people build their own, which is closer to how it is eaten anyway, and it makes a quiet morning feel like something. The one thing I would not skip is the lemon on the table, since everybody wants a different amount of it.
Ingredients
- 2 (15 oz) cans fava beans, drained and rinsed, about 3 cups
- 1 cup plain nonfat skyr, cold
- 1/4 cup well-stirred tahini
- 1 heaping cup cherry tomatoes, about 7 oz, cut into small dice
- 2 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, from 1 large lemon, plus wedges for the table
- 1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves and tender stems, chopped
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided, plus a little for the top
- 1/2 small red onion, cut into fine dice and rinsed under cold water
- 2 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 small green chile such as a jalapeno, seeded and minced
- 1/4 cup mint leaves, torn
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 2 1/2 tsp ground cumin, divided
- 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/8 tsp cayenne, or more to taste
- 1/3 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Toast the sesame: Put the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat and shake the pan often for about two minutes, until they are golden and smell nutty. Tip them onto a small plate right away, since they will keep coloring in a hot pan. Wipe the pan out and set it back on the burner.
- Soften the garlic and cumin: Add half the olive oil to the pan over medium heat, then the sliced garlic. Cook for about ninety seconds, stirring, until the slices are pale gold at the edges and the kitchen smells of them. Add two teaspoons of the cumin, the cayenne, and the black pepper, and stir for twenty seconds, just until the spices darken slightly and bloom in the oil.
- Warm and mash the beans: Add the drained fava beans and a quarter cup of water and stir to coat. Cook for five to six minutes over medium heat, until the beans are heated through and the liquid has thickened around them. Press about half of them against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon or a masher, leaving the rest whole. Take the pan off the heat, add the salt and about two thirds of the lemon juice, and stir.
- Make the salad and the tahini: While the beans warm, toss the diced tomato, onion, chile, and most of the parsley together in a bowl with a spoonful of the olive oil. In a separate small bowl whisk the tahini with the remaining lemon juice, then add cold water a tablespoon at a time, whisking, until it pours in a thick ribbon. It will seize before it loosens, which is normal.
- Build the plates: Spoon the warm beans into four shallow bowls and flatten the top with the back of the spoon. Press a quarter of the skyr into the center of each, then heap the tomato salad along one side. Pour the tahini over, scatter the sesame, the remaining parsley, and the torn mint, and finish with the last of the olive oil and a pinch of the remaining cumin. Serve with lemon wedges and eat while the beans are hot.
Variations
- Egg on top: A soft boiled egg halved over the beans is the classic addition and turns this into a longer breakfast.
- Green ful: Stir two big handfuls of chopped parsley and a bunch of chopped scallion into the beans off the heat so the whole plate goes green and grassy.
- Chickpea and fava: Use one can of fava beans and one of chickpeas, which gives you two textures in the mash and a slightly nuttier plate.
- Tomato-braised: Add two tablespoons of tomato paste with the cumin and an extra splash of water, and cook it out for a minute for a redder, deeper bowl.
Storage & Leftovers
The beans keep four days in a sealed container in the refrigerator and thicken considerably as they cool. Reheat them in a pan with a splash of water over medium heat, stirring until they loosen, and add a fresh squeeze of lemon at the end, since the acid fades overnight more than anything else does.
Make the tahini sauce up to a week ahead and keep it in a jar. It stiffens in the cold and comes back with a spoonful of water and a brisk whisk. The tomato and onion salad is best the day it is cut, though it holds overnight and will sit in a good amount of juice you should spoon over the beans.
The bean base freezes for three months in flat sealed portions. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat gently with water, mashing a little more as you go, since freezing softens the whole beans. Build the plate fresh, because the cold toppings are what make it worth eating.
Notes & Tips
- Mash only half: Creamy and whole in the same spoonful is what makes this good. All mash and it is hummus in a bowl, no mash and the beans roll off the spoon.
- Rinse the diced onion: Thirty seconds under cold water takes the harsh bite out of red onion while keeping the crunch, which matters when it is going on cold and uncooked.
- Bloom the cumin in oil: Twenty seconds in hot fat is what turns ground cumin from dusty to fragrant. Stirred into the beans later it never gets there.
- Save some lemon for the end: Acid dulls as it sits on hot food. Two thirds goes into the pan and the rest goes on at the table, and the difference is louder than you would expect.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Fava beans, skyr, and tahini are doing three separate jobs in one bowl. The beans give the plate its body along with fiber and plant protein, the skyr adds protein and calcium in a cold creamy spoonful, and the tahini brings the fat that carries all the spice.
- Fava beans are among the older cultivated beans in the world and they hold a good deal of folate and iron, which the lemon squeezed over them helps your body absorb. Half mashed, they turn silky enough to eat with a spoon while keeping the bite that makes a bean satisfying.
- Skyr is strained until it is dense enough to stand a spoon in, which is why a modest amount carries so much protein and calcium, and its sourness is what cuts through a plate this earthy.
- Sesame turns up twice here, whole in the toasted seeds and ground in the tahini, and few plant foods carry as much calcium as it does. Toasting the seeds deepens their flavor and gives the soft beans something to crack against.
- Cumin, garlic, and cayenne bloomed in olive oil are the smell that fills the kitchen, and the parsley and mint scattered on at the end keep the whole thing from feeling heavy. Herbs in this quantity are a vegetable rather than a garnish.
- As you eat, watch the skyr melt into the hot beans at its edges and go looking for the whole beans hiding in the mash, and let the lemon at the end tell you when you have had enough.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I cannot find canned fava beans?
Canned pinto or navy beans work well and cook the same way, though they are milder and you will want a little more lemon and cumin to compensate. Look for fava beans in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean groceries, where they are usually labeled ful medames and cost very little.
Do I have to peel the fava beans?
No. Canned fava beans of this kind come with their skins on and that is how they are meant to be eaten, since the skins are what give the dish its earthy character. Peeled fresh favas are a different, greener ingredient altogether and would make a different plate.
Can I make this less spicy for children?
Leave the chile out of the salad and cut the cayenne, and the plate is gently spiced rather than hot. The cumin is doing most of the flavoring, so you lose very little. I put the minced chile in a small bowl on the table so everyone chooses.
Is skyr necessary, or can I skip the dairy?
The cold creamy element matters, but it does not have to be skyr. Thick Greek yogurt is the closest swap. Otherwise, a spoonful of the tahini sauce whisked thicker with less water gives you the same cool contrast against the hot beans.