Foul Moudamas, Fava Beans Breakfast Dish
I am sure by now you know that I work my the restaurant everyday except for Sunday. Monday through Saturday, I get up about 5:30 am, make my soy latte, get the newspaper and have some me-time. I am usually at the restaurant by around 7:00 am to turn the oven on and start the yeast.
Sunday is the day I devote to gardening and enjoying food. My favorite meal is breakfast, and my favorite (and I believe healthiest breakfast) is the Syrian breakfast. I love and savor every bite because it makes me feel that I am enjoying breakfast with my family at home in Syria.
During the school days my mom would make us zaatar or cheese sandwiches and off we would go to school. We would eat our sandwich on our way to school. But on Friday, my mom will make this fantastic breakfast. The table would be filled with cheese, zaatar, green olives, black olives, lebneh, makdous (pickled walnut stuffed baby eggplants), shankleesh (aged yogurt cheese), fresh tomatoes, fresh baby cucumbers and fresh pita. We would eat, visit, and laugh. We would always finish the breakfast with hot black tea while we continued to visit. Usually, the entire breakfast would take about 2-3 hours. It was the best therapy ever.
Sometimes my mom would also make foul moudamas for breakfast. Foul moudamas is boiled dried fava beans mixed with chopped vegetables and spices. When you eat foul moudamas your brain goes on lazy mode. You just want to sit down and sleep. For this reason, my mom never served foul during finals week.
My daughter, to my joy, came back from her freshman year enjoying foul after she ate it at her uncle's home in Boston. It almost brought tears to my eyes when she did not ask me to get her any cereal for breakfast. When I told my daughter that I would make foul on Sunday so we can enjoy breakfast together, I warned her that the foul breakfast dish would also be her lunch and dinner. She did not understand what I meant until she ate her foul with couple heads of raw onions. She spent the day sluggish but happy. I explained to her that the high protein content in the fava beans and one of the chemical compound in it make the body relax. Fava beans are inexpensive, high protein, high fiber and high in iron. This dish is also served with raw onions and raw tomatoes, with that, making you have power house healthy meal.
- 2 15 ounce cans cooked small fava beans
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 4 cloves garlic, mashed
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
- 2 ripe tomatoes, diced
- 1 punch parsley, finely chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- Pour the cooked fava beans with the liquid into heavy saucepan.
- Add the mashed garlic, the cumin, the salt and the pepper. Bring to a boil.
- Using potato mashed, mash the fava beans partially and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Add the lemon juice, the olive oil and half of the chopped vegetables. Stir, adjust the seasoning and remove from the heat.
- Spoon the foul moudamas into shallow serving dish and top with the rest of the chopped vegetables.