Greece - Food & Drinks - Side Dish: Fawa.

Greeks just LOVE legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas, yellow split peas, ...). You will find many variations created from them. In this post I show you how to create 'Fawa'.

'Fawa' or 'Yellow Split Peas puree' is a very easy to create side dish of the Greek cuisine as it has only 3 main ingredients: yellow split peas, onions & fennel.

Yellow split peas are very healthy. They contain a lot of Potassium, Iron and Magnesium.

The most famous yellow split peas come from the island of Santorini. A combination of the perfect soil with short heavy Cycladic rains make that the split peas here become sweeter then everywhere else.

'Fawa' is as dish that is served 'cold' and is most of the times accompanied with fresh white bread. It's taste is just fabulous! (or should I say fawa-lous).

I like it so much that I could eat this, during the summer, nearly every day. mmm, I LOVE it!

Ingredients:

• - 500 gr. Lentils.
  - 1L of water.
  - 200 ml. olive oil.
  - 2 onions.
  - juice of 1 lemon.
  - 1/2 bunch of Fennel.
  - 1 teaspoon of salt.
  - 1 teaspoon of (black) pepper.
  - 2 tablespoons of capers.

Preparation:

• - (1) Heat up about 100ml of olive oil in a frying pan.
  - (2) Cut 1 onion in small pieces.
  - (3) Fruit the onion pieces in the olive oil for about 2 - 3 minutes.
  - (4) Pour 1L of water in the pan.
  - (5) Boil the water (with the onion pieces).
  - (6) Add the 500 gr. of lentils.
  - (7) Boil this mixture until all the water evaporated. (the lentils should be very soft now).
  - (8) Cut the fennel leaves in small pieces.
  - (9) Mix the lentils and the fennel leaves in a blender.
  - (10) Bring on taste with the salt and pepper.
  - (11) Let the mixture cool down for about 30 minutes. (the longer the better).

• Finally:
  - Straight before serving, spoon 1oo ml of olive oil and the lemon juice in the lentil puree. (Mix well).
  - Cut 1 onion in slices or pieces.
  - For decoration, Put the capers and the onion on top of the 'Fawa'.

Enjoy!