Ful medames

Ingredients

• Dried fava beans — soaked overnight400 g
• Garlic4 clove
• Lemons2
• Olive oil80 ml
• Ground cumin2 tsp
• Tomato — diced2
• Parsley6 sprig
• Chilli flakesto taste
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Drain the soaked beans, cover them with fresh water three fingers above and bring to the boil. Skim.

   15 min

2. 2

   Drop to the lowest possible heat and cook covered for three or four hours, until the beans start to collapse. Top up the water as needed.

   240 min

3. 3

   Mash about half the beans in the pot with a masher, leaving the rest whole.

   3 min

4. 4

   Stir in the crushed garlic and season. Divide between bowls.

   3 min

5. 5

   Into each bowl: olive oil generously, lemon juice, cumin, tomato, parsley and chilli to taste. Serve with flatbread.

About the dish

Ful is cooked overnight over the lowest possible heat — in Egypt there is a narrow-necked pot for it, left on embers until morning. At home a slow cooker or an oven at ninety degrees does the same.

Part of the beans is mashed and part left whole. That is where the texture comes from: a creamy base with whole beans in it rather than a uniform purée.

The seasoning happens in the bowl, not in the pot. Olive oil, lemon, cumin and chilli are added by each person; the dish is designed as a base to be finished individually.

Worth knowing

• — Tinned fava beans work and turn this into a five-minute dish. Warm them with some of their liquid and mash them the same way.
• — Salt only at the end: in salted water pulses take noticeably longer to soften.
• — Ful thickens as it cools. When reheating, loosen it with boiling water and dress it again with oil and lemon.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

420 kcal

Protein

22 g

Fat

18 g

Carbs

46 g

More from Egypt

• Koshari — Rice, lentils and pasta in one bowl under a vinegary tomato sauce and fried onion.