Last year while on holidays, my husband and I made a little stop at Santorini, one of the most beautiful Greek Islands.
Santorini blew us away with the most amazing views and fresh Mediterranean eats.
Most of you will know my love for the Mediterranean way of eating, which I spoke about earlier this week on the blog. A love certainly for the many healthy benefits it provides, but also for its fresh, simple nature and a philosophy that encourages people to share, enjoy and celebrate food and family.
One of my favourite Mediterranean dishes was the Santorini specialty called fava. A dish traditionally made with the broad bean, is now made with yellow split peas and is served as an appetitzer (mezi) with crusty bread or as a feature in a share plate.
Fava from a little restaurant that we visited
This simple dish exhibits some of the features of the Mediterranean way of eating that makes it such a healthy eating pattern for us to follow - legumes and olive oil, LOTS OF OLIVE OIL...
After enjoying a few dishes of fava during my stay I was so keen to come home and try to replicate this dish. So here is my interpretation of Santorini fava.
My version of Santorini fava
Ingredients
1 cup of yellow split peas
1 onion, 2/3 finely chopped and 1/3 thinly sliced
2 bay leaves
2 garlic cloves, pressed and chopped roughly
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil + extra to drizzle once serving (don't use the 'light' stuff)
Sea salt to season
Lemon juice
Method
Rinse the yellow split peas.
Add rinsed split peas, garlic, bay leaves and 3 cups of water to a saucepan.
Bring to the boil, and then reduce heat to simmer for approximately 25-35 minutes – or once tender and mushy.
After about 15 minutes of simmering add the 2/3 of chopped onion, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with a small amount of sea salt and stir until combined.
When the split peas are tender, remove bay leaves and blend until a smooth mixture forms – you can add some extra water if you would like a runnier texture.
Serve in a bowl, top with a squeeze of lemon (as much as desired – I like about ½ a lemon), a good drizzle of olive oil and the thinly sliced onion.
You can serve this warm or cold.
In Santorini it is served as an appetiser with crusty bread. You could also use it as a dip or spread for vegetable sticks, wholegrain crisp bread, rice cakes or rice crackers.
Enjoy!