Northern Moroccan Bissara (Fava Bean Purée)
Dried fava beans cook past tenderness into a silky, earthy purée, finished with olive oil and cumin in the northern Moroccan comfort food known as bissara.
About this dish
Bissara, also spelled bessara, is a Moroccan purée of dried legumes served either thick enough to scoop with bread or thinned to soup consistency. Moroccan food writer Christine Benlafquih documents a fava-bean version made from dried peeled split favas, garlic, olive oil, paprika and cumin and notes that it is eaten around Morocco but is especially popular in the north. This recipe follows that northern Moroccan fava-bean form rather than treating split-pea bissara as the same formula.
Why this dish matters
Bissara is humble food in the most useful sense: inexpensive dried beans become a sustaining breakfast, street-food bowl, family meal or side through long simmering and a generous olive-oil finish. Northern Moroccan accounts particularly associate the fava version with cooler weather and cities such as Chefchaouen. The texture is deliberately flexible. A thick batch can be placed in a communal dish and scooped with bread, while the same purée can be loosened with hot water into a spoonable soup. Cumin, paprika, cayenne or harissa are often offered at the table rather than forced into one fixed heat level.
Use dried peeled split fava beans for this fava-based bissara. Dried split peas produce another documented Moroccan bissara, but their flavor and color are different, so they should be labeled as a variation rather than an invisible substitute.
Preparation notes
Cover the split favas generously with water overnight, then drain and pick out any stubborn brown skin fragments before cooking.
The beans should break apart readily between two fingers before blending; undercooked favas leave the purée grainy.
Keep it thick for dipping or whisk in hot water after blending for soup. Bissara thickens noticeably as it cools.
Ingredients & detailed method
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups dried peeled split fava beans, soaked 8 hours or overnight and drained
- 6 cups water, plus more as needed
- 6 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin, divided
- 1 tsp sweet paprika, plus more for serving
- 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or harissa, optional for serving
- Crusty Moroccan-style bread, for serving
Method
- 1.Drain the soaked fava beans and rinse them well. Put them in a heavy pot with 6 cups water and the crushed garlic. Bring to a boil, skim any foam that rises, then reduce to a steady gentle simmer.
- 2.Cook partly covered for 55 to 70 minutes, stirring more frequently toward the end and adding hot water if the beans threaten to dry out.
- 3.Checkpoint: the beans should have lost most of their individual shape and should smear instantly when pressed against the side of the pot. The cooking liquid should look cloudy and creamy, and the garlic should be completely soft with no raw aroma.
- 4.Stir in the olive oil, 1 teaspoon cumin, paprika and salt. Simmer 5 minutes so the spices lose their dusty raw smell.
- 5.Purée directly in the pot with an immersion blender until smooth. If using a countertop blender, cool slightly and work in small batches with the lid vented because hot purée can build dangerous steam pressure.
- 6.Return to low heat. For a thick dip, simmer gently until a spoon dragged through the purée leaves a clear trail for a second or two. For soup, whisk in hot water 1/4 cup at a time until it pours in a thick ribbon.
- 7.Final checkpoint: the bissara should be velvety rather than gritty, thick enough to coat a spoon, and smell nutty and garlicky with warm cumin rather than raw spice. Adjust salt and consistency before serving.
- 8.Ladle into bowls or a shallow communal dish. Finish with a generous drizzle of olive oil and the remaining cumin; offer paprika, cayenne or harissa separately with bread.
Worth finding before you cook
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Read further
- Taste of Maroc - Moroccan Dried Fava Bean Bessara by Christine Benlafquih
- Morocco World News - regional Moroccan dishes including northern bissara
- Fringe Table - Maghreb & West Africa food guide
- Fringe Table - Moroccan Harira
- Fringe Table - Moroccan Taktouka
- Photo: Miansari66, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0 public-domain dedication.