Cooking time

• You have soaked the lima beans in water for at least 12 hours. Now you are going to cook them separately first. You bring them to a boil and let them cook for a while. Foam forms on the water. After half an hour, remove the pan from the heat, put the beans in a sieve, rinse and bring them to a boil again in clean water. You repeat this one more time.
• You rinse the beans again, clean your pan and put them back in the pan with clean water. Make sure there is 3 cm of water above the beans. Now add the bay leaves, sage, chilli peppers and garlic cloves. Let the water come to a boil and then lower the heat so that the water boils minimally, preferably not even. You then pour olive oil on the water, such that it covers the entire surface of the water. Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid.
• After three hours, check if the beans are cooked through. If so, take out the bay leaves and sage (if you can find them) and stir well. You turn the heat up high and let the water and olive oil come together to a nice creamy interplay. Stir well so that it does not burn. This takes about 15 minutes. Bring it to taste with salt and pepper.
• Meanwhile, finely chop the red onion. Squeeze out the soft part of the tomatoes. You scoop the messabecha into a nice bowl. Divide the red onion, tomato ‘juice’ and the shatta over it and enjoy.