The History of Loubia

A New World bean in an old cuisine

The white beans at the heart of loubia — haricot or cannellini-type beans — are varieties of Phaseolus vulgaris, a species domesticated in the Americas and unknown in the Old World before the 16th century. Like tomatoes, potatoes and chilli peppers, they arrived in Morocco through the Columbian exchange and the trade networks that spread New World crops across the Mediterranean. Over time they were absorbed into the local repertoire so thoroughly that loubia now feels entirely traditional.

The dish also depends on tomatoes, another American arrival, which form the base of its sauce. Loubia is therefore a relatively modern creation in the long span of Moroccan food history — a dish that could not have existed in its current form before the exchange of crops between the Old and New Worlds transformed Mediterranean cooking.

Cheap protein, slow cooking

What makes loubia endure is economics as much as taste. Dried beans are among the cheapest sources of protein available, and a pot of loubia stretches a handful of ingredients into a meal that feeds a family. The beans are soaked, then simmered slowly with garlic, tomato, olive oil, cumin, paprika and sometimes a bay leaf or a little tomato paste, until they collapse to creaminess and the sauce thickens around them.

Some versions add meat — a piece of beef, lamb, or merguez sausage, or khlii (preserved meat) — but the vegetarian version is the everyday standard, and it stands perfectly well on its own. Loubia is eaten with plenty of bread for scooping, and it improves on reheating, which makes it practical for a household.

• Everyday version: beans, tomato, garlic, olive oil, cumin and paprika — often meat-free.
• With meat: enriched with beef, lamb, merguez or khlii for special occasions.
• Street version: ladled into bowls at cheap eateries and market stalls, eaten with bread.

A dish of the people

Loubia carries no ceremony and no prestige, and that is precisely its identity. It is workers' food, students' food, cold-weather food — a bowl of warmth that asks little of the cook or the purse. It shares this honest, frugal character with bessara, the fava bean soup, and with harira: all pulse-based, all cheap, all deeply woven into daily Moroccan eating.

For a related dried-pulse dish, see the history of bessara, and for the wider story of American crops in the cuisine, see New World foods in Moroccan cuisine.