After a sweet and luckily very elongated escape to the wild and beautiful island of Lemnos, a recipe with a taste of the Greece was in order.

Soft and creamy, the Greek fava dish is essentially a yellow split beans purée, seasoned with onion, thyme, olive oil and all kinds of goodness. Mine here gets a bit of a zhoosh up with tahini and caramelised onions and I assure you, the result is divine!

Ingredients:

250 g uncooked fava (yellow split beans) – available in Greek grocery shops. In Sofia I found it online here.

2 big red onions – half for the fava and the rest for the caramelised onion

1 garlic clove

2 tsp. tahini

Fresh thyme

Sugar for the caramelised onion (I used coconut sugar)

Salt

Pepper

Smoked red pepper

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Boil the fava with half of one of the red onions. It takes about 30 min to get ready, but keep an eye on it to avoid over-boiling. I added a bit of fresh thyme in the water for some extra fragrance.

While the fava is boiling prepare the caramelised onion. Simply chop the onion and sauté with a bit of olive oil. Once the onion has soften add about 2 tsp. sugar and 1-2 tbsp. of balsamic vinegar. I decided to add few orange peels and the result was amazing! It gave it a lovely sweet and zesty taste and fragrance, but that’s totally optional. Let the onion cook but give it a gentle stir to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Once ready, remove it from the heat and set aside.

Your fava should be boiled by now, so remove it from the heat and drain the water. Add garlic and blend well until you have a smooth, fluffy purée. Add tahini, bit of extra virgin olive oil and season with salt, black pepper and red smoked pepper.

Transfer the fava into your favourite bowl and top it with the caramelised onion and bit of fresh thyme.

Enjoy it while it’s still warm with a Greek rusk or just a spoon 😉

Kalí óreksi!