Rabat – Finding something to eat or cook can be sometimes —if not most of the time— challenging. If you find yourself limited or bored to cook the usuals, you can definitely explore Morocco’s cuisine— including loubia, the stewed white beans dish.

The delicious dish can be served with fish, red or white meat — or alone due to its nutritional value as it is loaded with proteins, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

Although it can be prepared through a few steps, the saucy Moroccan bean dish can satisfy your cravings for several hours.

Preparing Moroccan loubia requires a few ingredients that can already be found in your kitchen, including:

2 big onions
½ kilogram of white beans (soaked overnight or half a day)
3 big tomatoes
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
Half teaspoon of salt
Half teaspoon of ginger
Half teaspoon of cumin
Half teaspoon of turmeric
Half teaspoon of chili powder
Half teaspoon of sweet cayenne pepper
Half teaspoon of black pepper
Half cup of olive oil
Water

Directions
Making Loubia is also easy. 

Peel the onions and chop them into little square pieces. Put the tomatoes in a blender to produce tomato sauce and put both the onions and the tomato sauce in  a pressure cooker. 

Add half of the olive oil you have as well as all of the spices with the white beans in the pressure cooker.

It is preferable to keep the beans soaked in tap water overnight for better cooking. But if the beans are of good quality and can be cooked without hardship within a few hours or less then they do not need to be soaked overnight.

Now stir everything together on low heat for five minutes while you mix it with a wooden stirring spoon. 

Now add two or three cups of water until the beans are totally covered or more. Stir all the ingredients again and add one tablespoon of tomato paste and close the pressure cooker very well.

Again, if the beans are of good quality, the cooking time does not need to exceed 40 minutes. So stay home and mostly close to your kitchen because you will need to be checking on your loubia more often to avoid getting it burnt or stuck to the bottom of the pot.

Keep shaking your pressure cooker slowly and with caution from time to time to avoid this, taking special care not to burn your hand.

After 45 minutes, turn off the stove and allow the pressure cooker to rest. It is highly recommended that you do not open it immediately to avoid the risk of burns or other harm.

When the pressure cooker is less noisy, open it carefully and stir the beans with your cooking spoon. At this point, the mixture needs to have less water than you have initially added, and the beans should be thicker.

Now grab a spoon and check on the beans and whether they are well cooked. If the bean gets pressed easily, then congratulations: it’s well done.

If the mixture is thick, add the rest of the olive oil you have and stir all together. But if the beans are well cooked but look watery, keep the pressure cooker open while you put it on the stove to make it thicker. Stay close, because we don’t want the beans to be burnt.

When all is done, serve the dish with a piece of bread, which is the common method used in Morocco to scoop up the loubia and its sauce. You can also use a spoon. 

A piece of chicken or fish like sardines can join to make the plate even more fun. But loubia alone can make you full for several hours if not mostly the entire day.