• 1-1/4 cup split skinless dried fava beans, soaked overnight
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• A pinch of ground chili pepper
• Salt
• To serve: extra virgin olive oil; 2 lemons, cut into quarters

Rinse and drain the soaked beans and put them in a pan with the garlic and 6 cups of water. Simmer, covered, for about 1 hour. Crumble in the bouillon cubes and simmer another 30 minutes, or until the beans fall apart.

Still in the pot, mash the beans with a potato masher and add the cumin, paprika, and chili pepper and, if necessary, a little salt, bearing in mind the saltiness of the bouillon cubes. Stir thoroughly and cook a few minutes more. Add a little water if you would like to thin the soup. For a thicker soup, cook, uncovered, for a while longer.

When serving, pass around the olive oil for people to dribble onto their soup and the lemon quarters for them to squeeze over.

Contributor's note: From Claudia Roden's "Arabesque." When we made it last week, we didn't soak the beans overnight — we just put it on in the morning and cooked it on low for most of the day. It was terrific. The olive oil/lemon is essential. Actually, now that I think of it, it would also be a pretty touch to sprinkle a little paprika in each bowl. Keeps very well.