Entry

Maltese Bigilla with Sea Fennel & Olive Oil

Name: Maltese Bigilla with Sea Fennel & Olive Oil
Prep time: 20 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 400 g cooked ful ta' Girba (Maltese broad beans), drained; 2 cloves garlic, grated; 30 ml Maltese extra virgin olive oil; 20 ml lemon juice; 10 g flat-leaf parsley and wild mint, chopped; 15 g pickled sea fennel, rinsed and chopped; 1 g crushed chilli flakes

Island broad-bean purée — plant protein, folate and prebiotic fibre, no added salt.

20 min 4 servings 49 kcal per serving

Ingredients

400 gcooked ful ta' Girba (Maltese broad beans), drained
2 clovesgarlic, grated
30 mlMaltese extra virgin olive oil
20 mllemon juice
10 gflat-leaf parsley and wild mint, chopped
15 gpickled sea fennel, rinsed and chopped
1 gcrushed chilli flakes

Method

01
Warm the beans gently with the garlic and a splash of water so the garlic loses its raw edge.
02
Crush by hand with a fork or pestle — bigilla should stay coarse, never smooth.
03
Loosen with lemon juice and half the olive oil, working it in a spoonful at a time.
04
Fold through the parsley, mint and sea fennel, keeping the texture rustic.
05
Spoon into a shallow bowl, swirl in the remaining oil and scatter chilli. Serve with charred sourdough or crudités.

Why this dish works

Maltese Bigilla with Sea Fennel & Olive Oil is built for 4 servings and lands at roughly 49 kcal per plate, with 11g protein, 24g carbohydrate and 7g fat across the recipe. It comes together in about 20 minutes using 7 whole-food ingredients — led by cooked ful ta' girba (maltese broad beans), drained, garlic, grated, maltese extra virgin olive oil — so nothing here relies on packaged sauces, refined sugar or ultra-processed shortcuts. That balance is what keeps it a realistic weeknight option rather than a weekend project.

The entry sits inside our collection and carries the Plant-Based, Gluten-Free, Low-Glycemic, Anti-Inflammatory, Blood Pressure tags, so it slots straight into the Smart Recipe Finder when you filter by dietary focus or allergens. Scale the portions in the recipe drawer and the ingredient quantities and macros recalculate together; sync it to your shopping list and the pantry tracker subtracts what you already own before the list is generated.

Cooking and storing it well

Read the method through once before you start — the 5 steps are written in the order a working kitchen would run them, with prep that can overlap grouped together. Hands-free cook mode reads each step aloud and runs the timers, so your phone can stay on the counter. Season at the end rather than the beginning: salt, acid and good olive oil do more for the finished plate when they are adjusted against the cooked dish. Leftovers keep well chilled for two to three days in a sealed container; bring anything dressed or herb-heavy back to room temperature before serving so the aromatics come forward again.

Continue the collection