Bissara (or Fava Bean Soup)

Bissara is a is soup made from dried and puréed fava beans as its main ingredient. Bissara is a dish in the Egyptian and Moroccan cuisine. Additional ingredients include garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, hot red pepper, cumin, and salt. In Egypt, bissara also includes herbs or leafy greens, particularly parsley, mint, dill, spinach and or mulukhiyah (otherwise known as Jews mallow), though the latter is more commonly added by Egyptian expatriates in Palestine. The Egyptians also add hot peppers, lemon juice and occasionally onion.

In Egypt, bissara is eaten exclusively as a dip for bread and is served for breakfast as a meze, or more rarely, for lunch or dinner. Egyptian bissara includes herbs or leafy greens. It is traditionally a rural farmer's dish, though it has recently become more popular in urban Egypt, because it is healthier than its urban counterpart, ful medames. Modern Egyptians tend to take more care of their waistline.

In Morocco, bissara is typically served in shallow bowls or soup plates and topped with olive oil, paprika, and cumin. Lemon juice is sometimes added as a topping. Bread is sometimes eaten dipped into the dish. In Marrakesh (Morocco), bissara is popular during the colder months of the year, and can be bought in town squares and various alleyways

Depending on the availability of fava beans, bissara is sometimes prepared using split peas or even chickpeas. The version made with split peas is akin to the Dutch snert.

Bissara is also known as bessara and besarah (Arabic بصارة). This apparent confusion is understandable, because in Arabic vowels do not appear in writing.

The dish originated in Pharaonic Egypt, some 4,000 years ago. It was known to the Ancient Egyptians as fouleya, and was made with fresh, rather than dried, beans. Fouleya was also called bees-oro (بيصارو), meaning 'cooked beans'. This later term is the source of the modern name.

[Recipe] Bissara

Ingredients:
- 1 kilo small fava beans
- enough water to rise about 5 centimeters above the beans
- 4 thinly sliced cloves of garlic
- 4 teaspoons of cumin (or more)
- 1 teaspoon of red pepper (or more)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, more for garnish
- 1 tablespoon of salt

Directions:
- Rinse the fava beans three times with water (or until the water is clear)
- Add water to the fava beans. Bring to the boil.
- Add garlic, cumin, red pepper and olive oil
- Lower heat. Place vented lid on pot. Cook for another 30 minutes.
- As the water cooks off, add more water so that it just covers the beans. Replace vented lid on the pot and increase heat slightly.
- When beans have softened, the soup is ready for blending and salt. (If salt is added before this point, the soup will stick.) Lower heat to simmer.
- Blend until silky smooth.
- Sprinkle some olive oil, cumin and red pepper on top.