Ful Medames (Cairo Slow-Simmered Fava Beans at Dawn) 🫘

Name: Ful Medames (Cairo Slow-Simmered Fava Beans at Dawn)
Prep time: 54 min
Cook time: 81 min
Total time: 135 min
Yield: 2-4 servings
Cuisine: Egyptian
Ingredients: 500 g dried Egyptian fava beans (or large favas), soaked 8-12 h in plenty of water; 2-3 tomatoes, whole, plus 1 crushed tomato; 4 cloves garlic smashed into the pot; Juice of 1-2 lemons; 1/4 cup good olive oil (+1 tbsp tahini optional, Cairo-cart style); 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp chili powder, salt to taste; To serve: warm baladi or pita bread, hard-boiled eggs, black cumin (nigella) seeds, chopped parsley, pickled vegetables (torshi)

Pharaohs grew them, Cairenes still break bread with them: dried fava beans buried overnight in a copper pot beside the bakery oven, then sold at dawn as ful medames — buttery, lemon-bright, slicked with badia oil (or a mix of olive and a splash of tahini), buried under cumin and chili. Egypt's true national breakfast, eaten with aïsh baladi pocket bread, boiled eggs, black cumin seeds and a glass of sweet tea. Street carts argue about their beans like sommeliers: the small Egyptian 'ful ris' cooks creamier than the big broad bean. It takes hours or a pressure cooker shortcut, but the whole dish is five ingredients, so all of them must be right.

Cairo Governorate Egyptian ⏱ 135 min Easy

Method

1

Drain soaked beans, cover with 3 cm of fresh water in a heavy pot. Add whole tomatoes, smashed garlic and crushed tomato.
2

Barely simmer, lid ajar, 2-2.5 h (or pressure cooker 25-30 min) until beans collapse to cream when pressed — replenish water so they never dry out.
3

Fish out the tomato skins, mash the tomato flesh into the beans with a wooden spoon; leave some beans half-whole for texture.
4

Season off heat with cumin, chili, salt, lemon and the olive oil (whisk in the optional tahini). It should look wet and shiny, not dry.
5

Serve in a wide bowl, press a spoon-well in the middle, pour more oil into the well. Eat with torn bread, eggs and a fistful of nigella seeds — Cairenes say the day only starts once the ful cart bell rings.

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Ful Medames (Cairo Slow-Simmered Fava Beans at Dawn) 🫘

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