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Moroccan Soups

Bissara — Moroccan Split Fava Bean Soup

By The Moroccan Cooks KitchenUpdated

Dried fava beans cooked with garlic until they collapse, then blended smooth and finished at the table with olive oil, cumin and paprika. Morocco's winter breakfast.

Bowl of thick Moroccan bissara fava bean soup with olive oil, paprika and cumin on top
Photo: Pexels
Prep
10 min
Cook
1 hr
Total
1 hr 10 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy

Bissara is a working breakfast. In Chefchaouen, Fez and Tetouan it is sold from stalls on cold mornings — a thick bowl of pale green purée, a well of olive oil pressed into the middle, cumin and paprika shaken over the top, and bread to eat it with. It costs almost nothing and it keeps you going until the afternoon.

The recipe is three ingredients doing all the work: dried split fava beans, garlic and olive oil. There is no stock, no onion and no tomato. What matters is cooking the beans long enough that they fall apart on their own, and being generous with the oil and cumin at the end.

It is eaten for breakfast, but it also makes an excellent light supper, and it is one of the cheapest dishes in Moroccan cooking.

Ingredients

Servings

Makes 4 servings

For the soup

To finish at the table

Instructions

  1. Soak the beans

    Rinse the split fava beans in several changes of water until the water runs clear, then cover them generously with cold water and leave for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Peeled split beans do not strictly need it, but soaking shortens the cooking by half and gives a smoother result.

  2. Start the pot

    Drain the beans and tip them into a large pot with the whole garlic cloves, the 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the cumin, the paprika and the water. Do not add salt yet. Bring to the boil.

  3. Skim

    A grey foam will rise in the first few minutes. Lift it off with a spoon and discard it — leaving it in gives the soup a slightly bitter edge and a muddy colour.

  4. Simmer until the beans give up

    Lower the heat, cover with the lid slightly ajar, and cook for 45 to 60 minutes. Stir every fifteen minutes and scrape the bottom, because a thickening purée catches easily. The beans are ready when they crush to nothing between two fingers and the mixture has lost its shape.

  5. Season and blend

    Add the salt and stir. Blend until completely smooth — a stick blender straight in the pot is easiest. Bissara should be thick, closer to a loose purée than a soup, but pourable. Let it down with hot water a little at a time until it falls slowly off the spoon.

  6. Warm through

    Return it to a low heat for 2 or 3 minutes and taste again. It will take more salt than you expect. If it tastes flat, it is almost always salt rather than spice.

  7. Serve

    Ladle into shallow bowls. Make a dip in the middle with the back of the ladle and pour in a tablespoon of olive oil, then dust cumin and paprika over the top. Serve immediately with warm bread, and lemon for anyone who wants it.

Cook’s notes

  • Split yellow peas make a close substitute and cook in about the same time. The colour is more golden and the flavour slightly sweeter, but nobody will send it back. Whole dried fava beans with skins on will not work unless you peel them.
  • Bissara sets almost solid in the fridge. Reheat it with a good splash of water, whisking, and it comes back to exactly what it was.
  • Some households add a spoonful of harissa or a pinch of cayenne to the pot. Northern versions tend to be plain and let the cumin carry it.
  • Be heavy handed with the olive oil at the table. An under-oiled bissara tastes worthy rather than good, and the oil is the point.
  • It freezes for three months. Freeze before blending if you can, as the texture comes back better.

Recipe information

Prep time
10 min
Cook time
1 hr
Total time
1 hr 10 min
Servings
4
Calories
330 kcal per serving
Cuisine
Moroccan
Course
Soup
Difficulty
Easy
Keywords
bissara, moroccan fava bean soup, bessara recipe, moroccan bean soup

Nutrition is an estimate per serving, calculated from the ingredient list. Values vary with brands, cuts and portion size.

bissarafava beansveganbreakfastbudgetwinter

Frequently asked questions

What are split fava beans and where do I buy them?
They are dried broad beans that have been peeled and split in half, sold in Moroccan, Turkish and Middle Eastern shops as fèves sèches décortiquées or ful mudammas maqshur. They are pale yellow-green and look like large split peas. Any North African grocer will have them cheaply; so will most online spice shops.
Can I use canned fava beans?
Not for bissara. Canned fava beans are the whole brown-skinned kind used for ful, and they will not break down into a smooth purée. This dish depends on dried split beans collapsing over an hour.
Why is my bissara bitter?
Two usual causes. Either the foam was not skimmed off at the start, or the beans caught on the bottom of the pot and scorched. Stir and scrape every fifteen minutes, and keep the heat genuinely low once it thickens.
Is bissara eaten hot or cold?
Hot, and usually for breakfast in winter. It is a street-stall dish in northern Morocco on cold mornings. It thickens as it cools, so serve it as soon as it is blended rather than letting it stand.

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