The story goes that when the foreigner had been thoroughly over fed by the Lebanese man, and declined more food saying “I’m full”, the Lebanese man screamed to the kitchen “Foul, foul, bring some foul for my friend”.

I learned a lot of new recipes in Lebanon, thanks to Firas and the Good Food Collective, but this foul was my favourite new flavour. I didn’t serve it at the Beirut Silent Dinner, as in Lebanon it is breakfast food, served early for its lasting energy. However, it was a part of the menu for the Adelaide Fringe Festival SDs in 2012.

I was taught to cook it on a Lebanese mountain top by a wonderful spirit named Patrick Mitri. We didn’t have a working stove in the house, so we cooked it on a little electric hot plate in the lounge room.

Here’s Patrick’s Foul, now one of my favourite dishes and all time Sunday brunch bonanzas.

Ingredients:

1 tin cooked Fava beans, drained and rinsed.

2 cloves garlic

juice of 1/4 lemon

2 handfuls chopped fresh mint

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

two tomatoes

pinch cayenne pepper

hot water

1/2 cup Olive Oil

A handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped.

Method:

Grind up the garlic, lemon juice and salt in mortar and pestle, place it in a skillet with a tablespoon of Olive Oil on medium heat with the fava beans and 1 handful of mint. You can add some chick peas here if you like. Cook for about 10 minutes, adding a dash of hot water if it dries up and stirring occasionally. Dice up the tomatoes to small cubes and add them to the pan with the second handful of mint and the cayenne pepper. Cook for a further 5 mins, still adding small dashes of  water if the mix dries up but don’t add too much to make the beans sloppy.

Place in a serving bowl and cover the top in the rest of the Olive oil and a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley. Good served with flat bread.

Enjoy!