by Nick Saltmarsh May 15, 2017
Despite the name this dish from the Greek island of Santorini is made not with fava beans but with split yellow peas - or more traditionally with a local variety of grass pea, an entirely different species of pulse. Either way it makes a simple but delicious dip. |
Fava Santorini is a simple but delicious dip that evokes the rugged volcanic beauty of the Aegean island of Santorini.
Outside Santorini the dish is most often made with split yellow peas, as in our recipe. Despite the name it is never made with fava beans and references to different ingredients, such as yellow lentils, in some recipes only add to the confusion.
True Fava Santorini is in fact made with a local variety of grass pea, an unusual pulse from an entirely different species of the family of leguminous plants, Lathyrus clymenum. Little grown and hard to find outside Santorini and a few other parts of Greece, this pulse is known locally by the same name as the dish, Fava Santorini. But Split Yellow Peas make an excellent substitute!
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