This medieval recipe from 13th century Egypt from the book of Kanz transforms fresh Fava beans into a filling and seriously delicious salad with tahina, spices, fresh herbs and hazelnuts.
Fava beans, also called broad beans or faba beans, are still popular in Egypt, albeit it is the dried, soaked and boiled beans that are commonly eaten. I have opted for fresh fava beans here although it is not specified in the recipe, because the recipe that follows in the Kanz cookbook mentions dried beans explicitly, hence no specification might mean fresh beans, cooked only shortly in salted water. (Fava beans are the only beans that can even be eaten raw, which is commonly done here in Italy.)
Please note that some people suffer from favism, a rare metabolism disorder causing hemolytic response to the consumption of fava beans.
Stay tuned – there are much more historical recipes to come on this culinary archaeology channel.
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