Ful

This dish is made like  hummus and it is a different bean entirely.  It is also made similarly to baba ghanouj.   Ful is an Arabic word meaning fava beans.   I took 1 cup of fava beans washed  and soaked them in 1 liter or 1 quart of water  overnight.

I  put them in a pressure cooker  with 1/2 gallon or 2 liters of water and on medium  heat  for 30 minutes after the safety button popped up.  I cut the burner off and let the pressure escape and let the safety button lower then I opened it to see if the beans were soft.

If  they are still a little hard then I would add 3 more cups of water and bring to boil once more over high heat then close the lid and watch the safety button pop up and set time  for 20 minutes.  After time is up, I end up shutting off the burner and letting pressure escape.

I get the food processor ready  then I see the safety valve is lowered and  I open the pressure cooker and check the bean. sometimes the outer skin is tough of the bean and this is normally for the bigger type of fava beans. The beans  are easy to be shelled at this point and added to the food processor  after you drain the liquid from them and please reserve a little of the juice from the beans.

If you are using the small fava  beans then it is not a problem. I would just add them to the food processsor.  I would add also  4 cloves of garlic,  2 tbs of tahini,  3 tbs of lemon juice,  1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 tbs of balsamic vinegar.

For the spice I add to mortar and pestle, 1 pinch each of cumin seeds, coriander seeds and allspice, 2 cloves plus 1 tiny piece  of cinnamon broken off a cinnamon stick  and grind them to a course powder.  I would add this to the food processor along with the fava beans mixture. If you are using powder cinnamon, skip this step etc. because the grinding is not even needed.

Add to bean mixture 1 pinch each  of white pepper powder, red chili powder, pink salt, sumac, thyme and pulse them to grind. Open the  food processor and  stir. If it is a little too dry then add 1/4 cup of the beans liquid and close the food processor and pulse again to mix then go from 1st, 2nd and then 3rd speed until a paste is formed.

The end result you can eat this with pita bread and just like baba ghanouj and hummus, ful can be enjoyed anytime of day or night. Also it is great to eat durning Iftar during Ramadan.