It looks like a red bean, but something like a lentil. Or even like green peas. It has a distinct name, though, to bypass other definitions. The broad bean.

“Broad beans are also used while they are green. Currently people do not prepare broad bean soup very often.
Armenians have become somehow Europeanized now. But I cook it, and I am sure that it will gradually take its proper place in the Armenian cuisine again, like many started preparing dishes with pumpkin again,” says Sima Baldayna, resident of Yerevan, whose ancestors were off Nakhijevan extraction.

Sima starts preparing broad bean soup, which is also called broad bean and white bellevalia soup.

This dish, which is typical to Armenian cuisine, is made of mainly broad beans, white edible greens (the bellavalia is green on the outside and white inside), bulgur, dried plums, and walnuts.

The previously cooked brown broad beans and the bellevalia (which according to Sima, are also known as ‘Alagyaz edible greens’) are on Sima’s kitchen table.

“I have previously cooked [broad beans] with salt, so that they are cooked fast in the soup. Generally, when broad beans are melted in the soup, they become jelly-like,” Sima explains and starts preparing stewed onions.

(Broad beans and the greens can be bought in Armenian markets. One kilo of broad beans costs about $6 in Yerevan markets.)

She has added about 150 grams butter, and constantly stirs the stewed onions with a wooden ladle, until it becomes brownish. She adds one tablespoon of cayenne and half a teaspoon of tomato paste. Leaving it to cook for several minutes, she adds 0.5 kg cooked broad beans, in a few seconds, the greens.

“I add white bulgur to the mass and later some boiled water, estimated by sight, to make the soup neither too thin nor too thick. At the end, I add some black pepper, depending on taste,” she explains.

Sima put 200 grams dried plums in cold water. She says that it is necessary to leave it that way for several hours, so that the dried plums pass their sourness to the water.

While the soup cooks, Sima chops 200 grams walnuts. She says that people in Nakhijevan add walnuts to many dishes.

“In our dialect, we say that we add ‘khen’ [walnut] to the dish. There are plenty of walnut trees in Nakhijevan’s parks,” she recalls.

The soup is cooked for almost 25 minutes. Five minutes before turning the gas fire off, she adds the chopped walnuts and some salt (depending on taste) to the soup.

“Many also call this soup ‘pakhla soup’. Some prefer eating it with garlic, depending on taste,” Sima says, putting the soup into bowls.

The following ingredients are necessary to prepare broad beans and “white greens” soup:
0.5 kg broad beans
300 grams bellevalia greens
150-200 grams white bulgur
1 onion
200 grams dried plums
200 grams walnuts
1 tablespoon cayenne
25 grams tomato paste
black pepper and salt – depending on taste

How to prepare broad beans and “white greens” soup:

Cook 0.5 kg broad beans with salt beforehand, when the beans soften. Cook the greens with salt beforehand, too (almost 30 minutes). Then make stewed onions, putting one chopped onion into 150 grams butter. Stir the onion constantly to make it brownish and add one tablespoon cayenne and 25 grams tomato paste. In a few minutes, add the cooked broad beans and greens, white bulgur, and some boiled water so to make the soup neither too thin nor too thick. Later add some salt, depending on taste. Put dried plums in cold water beforehand: it is necessary to leave it that way for some 2 hours, so that the dried plums pass their sourness to the water. When the soup starts boiling, add the plums and water in which they soaked. Cook for 25-30 minutes. Five minutes before turning off the heat, add 200 grams chopped walnuts. Serve with garlic, according to taste.