Turkish Bakla: Fava Bean and Dill Purée

Turkish Bakla: Fava Bean and Dill Purée

by Anna Colquhoun 2 Comments

Anna Colquhoun, the talented and inspiring culinary anthropologist, has sent us this recipe for Bakla, a traditional split fava bean and dill purée, from her travels in Turkey.

This wonderful appetizer was one of dozens of beautiful meze which Zeliha Irez cooked for us at her guesthouse in Turkey. The recipe is hers, only slightly adapted.

Serves: 6-12 (makes 6 ramekins)

Ingredients

  • ½ pint (285ml) dried split fava beans (dried broad beans), picked over and rinsed
  • 1½ pints (850ml) water
  • 1 smallish carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 medium potato, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • salt to taste
  • leaves from a bunch of dill, half finely chopped, half reserved for the garnish
  • good olive oil
  • medium hot bright red chilli flakes, preferably Turkish Maraş pepper

Method

  1. Place all ingredients except last three in a saucepan and boil, covered, until totally soft, stirring occasionally to prevent it sticking as it gets thicker. This will take approximately one hour.

  2. Push mixture through a sieve so that you have a smooth puree. Alternatively puree it in a food processor.

  3. Mix in chopped dill and more salt as needed. Don’t be stingy with the salt.

  4. Brush small individual serving-sized ramekins or mini pudding moulds with olive oil, then fill them with the broad bean puree. Level tops. Cover with clingfilm and chill for a couple of hours or overnight.

  5. To serve: Bring bowls to room temperature then unmould onto serving plate(s). Gently warm some olive oil in a pan, remove from heat and mix in a good few pinches of chilli flakes – the oil should go a lovely red colour. Drizzle chilli oil over broad bean mounds and garnish with dill fronds.




Anna Colquhoun
Anna Colquhoun

Author



2 Responses

Josiah
Josiah

January 06, 2016

Hi David, I’m not sure it’d work as well with the tinned beans because they still have their skins and even blended they wouldn’t have quite the same texture or flavour.

Looking again at Anna’s recipe I think she’s overstating the cooking time – I think you could cut the cooking time by almost half.

Best wishes,
Josiah

David Miller
David Miller

January 05, 2016

Could this recipe be made with tinned fava beans? Was trying to work out what the correct quantity would be if so, to correspond with the amount of dried beans listed. Many thanks!

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