Ful Medames — Egyptian Fava Beans
Egypt's breakfast of slow-cooked fava beans, crushed with cumin, lemon and olive oil and scooped up with warm bread.
Method
- Drain the soaked beans, cover with fresh water by 5cm and bring to a boil. Skim the foam, then simmer gently, partly covered, for 60 to 90 minutes until completely tender. Top up with hot water as needed and add salt only at the end.
- Drain, reserving about a cup of the cooking liquid. With canned beans, simply warm them through in their own liquid.
- Tip half the beans into a bowl and crush them roughly with a fork or the base of a glass, leaving the rest whole. This mix of crushed and whole is what gives ful its texture.
- Return the crushed beans to the pot with the whole ones and set over low heat.
- Stir in the garlic paste, cumin, half the lemon juice and a few spoonfuls of the cooking liquid, enough to make it spoonable but not soupy.
- Warm through for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, then season generously with salt and pepper and taste. Ful is bland without enough salt, cumin and acid.
- Spoon into bowls and make a well in the centre of each.
- Pour a generous amount of olive oil into the well and scatter over the tomato, onion, parsley and chilli. Finish with the remaining lemon juice and an extra pinch of cumin.
- Serve hot with warm flatbread, pickles and, if you like, a boiled egg on the side.
How to make Ful Medames — Egyptian Fava Beans
Ful medames is older than most of the cuisines around it, and it still starts the day for millions of Egyptians. Carts and small shops sell it from dawn, ladled from a tall narrow pot called an idra that keeps the beans at a bare simmer overnight.
Crush half, keep half
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Texture separates good ful from a paste. Crushing roughly half the beans thickens the dish naturally while the whole beans give something to bite. A blender is the wrong tool entirely.
Season hard
Fava beans are mild, so the seasoning carries the dish: plenty of salt, enough cumin to smell it clearly, and lemon juice to sharpen. Taste at the end and adjust all three; most home versions are under-seasoned rather than over.
The toppings are the meal
What goes on top matters as much as the beans. Good olive oil poured generously, fresh tomato and onion, parsley, chilli for heat. Egyptians often add tahini, a boiled egg, or a spoon of yoghurt.
Canned beans
Canned ful medames is widely sold and entirely acceptable: it turns this into a fifteen-minute dish. Rinse briefly, warm them in a little water, then continue from the crushing stage.
Traditional Egyptian cookery; ful has been eaten in Egypt for centuries and remains the standard breakfast. Editorially researched from widely documented preparations, and not kitchen-tested by Axadle.
Fava beans are unsuitable for anyone with favism (G6PD deficiency). Naturally gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free; the bread served with it contains gluten.
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