This vegan recipe was largely improvised from the basic ingredients of falafel balls and the falafel sandwich, but using fresh fava beans instead of dried, since my garden produces so many in the early summer. Rather than grind everything together to make a spicy middle-eastern fritter, then dressing it with lovely tomato and tahini sauce, I have adapted the components into a rich, savory soup that is ideally served with bulgur wheat or amaranth, or perhaps over couscous.
The main component to this soup's success or failure are the fresh fava beans. You cannot substitute dried, reconstituted fava beans here. They work great when making falafel balls, but will not work in the soup. I've tried — it just falls flat. The fresh seasonings also can't be substituted. Dried parsley flakes? Nope. Don't have any fresh cilantro? You can leave it out, but I wouldn't. Whether or not you can get by with canned diced tomatoes instead of fresh is up to you. If all you have are canned chickpeas, you'll need three 15-16 oz. cans to substitute for the two cups of dried, along with three cans of water. All that said, if you want to substitute non-vegan chicken broth or powdered MSG for the Maggi seasoning, that's fine.
Serves: 6-8
Difficulty: medium
Prep and cook time: 2 hours (excludes fava bean processing time)
Ingredients
2 cups dried chickpeas, prepared in a pressure cooker and reserving aquafaba
3+ cups fresh fava beans, blanched and peeled
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 very large sweet onion, roughly chopped
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. coriander powder (the fresher the better)
1 tsp. cumin powder (ditto)
1 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional)
1 cup Better Than Bouillon™ No-Chicken base, strength to taste
1 tbsp. Maggi seasoning
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 cup minced cilantro (coriander leaves)
1 cup minced parsley
2-3 medium fresh tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp. lemon juice
Method
Shell, blanch and peel your fresh fava beans. Such a bright green! Pretend they're money, since they took so much time to process. They will keep for several days refrigerated in a sealed container prior to preparing soup, if necessary. Don't worry if they start to sprout – they're still fine to cook.
Soak the garbanzo beans in water overnight before the day of cooking. Pressure-cook them (12 minutes rocker time1, for natural release2) in eight cups of water, reserving the broth.
In a 4½ quart or larger pot, sauté the chopped onion on medium heat in the olive oil until translucent. Add minced garlic, stirring for one minute. Add powdered spices, stirring until fully incorporated. When everything starts drying out, add in the chickpeas with their juices and the no-chicken broth. Add the fava beans, Maggi and soy sauce. You may need to add some additional water to ensure that all the beans can swim freely. Stir and cover, raising the heat to medium-high and bringing to a boil.
When the soup comes to a boil, reduce heat to low and add the minced cilantro, parsley and diced tomato. Simmer covered for about an hour. Add lemon juice and stir well before serving.
1 The cooking time that starts from the point where the cooker comes to pressure, at which point the rocker on top will begin, well, rocking. Rock over London, rock on Chicago!
2 Natural release occurs when you simply remove the cooker from heat and let it depressurize as it cools to room temperature. This is opposed to rapid release, where you run cold water over the cooker to accelerate the depressurization.