Dinner Tonight: Ful Medames (Egyptian-Style Breakfast Beans)
When I stumbled on this recipe, I was actually on the search for new ideas for breakfast, not dinner. Having grown fond of a quasi-Mexican concoction that I like to do with a bowl of beans, a fried egg, and some salsa or enchilada sauce, I looked around to see who else had caught onto the beans-for-breakfast trend. That's when I came upon Ful Medames, literally "stewed dried beans" a staple meal in Egypt for breakfast made up of fava beans, spices, sometimes egg, and pieces of flatbread.
Recipes varied somewhat (most called for dried beans and hours of cooking), but I settled on one that featured fresh onion and tomato and only used cumin as a spice (other recipes had tahini, coriander seed, and more).
It's as simple as stewing the beans for a few minutes, roughly mashing them with a fork, then mixing in chopped onion, tomato, parsley, spices, and a splash of lemon juice. Often served with egg, I took the cue from another recipe to fry mine. Fava (or broad) beans can be difficult to find canned, but at the risk of sacrificing authenticity, I think kidney beans could be safely substituted.
Though I'd planned to save some for the next morning to actually enjoy for breakfast, the stuff was too good to resist. Next time I'll double the recipe and see if some actually makes it to the morning.
About the author: Blake Royer founded The Paupered Chef with Nick Kindelsperger, where he writes about food and occasional travels. He is currently living for the year in Tartu, Estonia.
Ful Medames (Egyptian-Style Breakfast Beans)
- serves 2 -
Adapted from Allrecipes.com
Ingredients
1 15-ounce can fava beans
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Grilled flatbread
2 eggs
Procedure
1. Drain and rinse the beans, then pour into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for five minutes, breaking up roughly with a fork. Stir in the olive oil, onion, tomato, cumin, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and most of the parsley. Continue cooking for five minutes.
2. In the meantime, grill the flatbread or sear it with a little olive oil in a skillet. Fry the eggs in some olive oil in a separate skillet, leaving the yolks runny.
3. Serve the bean mixture warm with the fried eggs and flatbread.
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10 Comments:
Methinks that I would be a "full madame," indeed, if I ate this! It looks wonderful! :)
jfield at 5:35PM on 04/07/09
Wouldn't cannellini or Great Northerns be a closer substitute for favas than kidney beans?
DrGaellon at 6:32PM on 04/07/09
This looks good, but what are you supposed to boil the beans in? I would assume water, but how much? The amount clearly matters, as it doesn't look like you drain them again...
meleyna at 7:28PM on 04/07/09
When I had this in Egypt, all of the additions to the beans was on the side, so that each diner could customize their breakfast to their preferences. That was my favorite part; deciding how much of each thing to put in and modifying my mixture as I went.
Tombolo at 8:40PM on 04/07/09
last night i was over at an israeli friend's house for dinner. she made us shakshuka, which was exactly like this minus the beans. we spooned tahini on the side of the plate which mingled very well with the tomato/onion mixture. delicious!
soopi25 at 11:57AM on 04/08/09
@meleyna Thanks for the catch. 1/2 cup of water should do the trick. It doesn't matter all that much since you can always cook the bean mixture to whichever thickness you prefer before adding the fresh ingredients.
Blake Royer at 4:03PM on 04/08/09
Thanks!
meleyna at 4:39PM on 04/08/09
Interesting recipe. I have one for ful mesdames that cooks in the crockpot, including eggs that you wash and wrap in onion skins. They add an interesting taste and the eggs some out somewhere between soft-cooked and semi-hard-cooked. I've made it for supper in the winter and the leftovers are pretty good reheated for lunch. I look forward to trying this recipe on some rainy day. I would definitely toast the flatbread in a dry skillet or under the broiler, though, as there seems to be enough oil in the recipe without and dry-fry works well with most flatbreads that I have tried.
morgancain at 10:39AM on 04/13/09
the Egyptians eat Ful breakfast, lunch and dinner (as you may have experienced). It is their staple, think italians and pasta. So they'd usually prefer Tombolo's approach, and at most ful bars in egypt there are just tens of condiments to choose from, ghee, olive oil, spices, eggs all ways, green onions, etc... the Lebanese are fiercely snobbish of their own way of eating it, primarily lemon, olive oil, parsley, all-spice salt pepper and lots of garlic. Ful is also a great vehicle for tasting good olive-oils. i like it very cumin-y with a fried egg and fresh tomato and labneh on the side.
This is a nice recipe in a pinch, but if you want to get the real earthiness of how the egyptians eat it, you can't cut the corners of hydrating the dried beans and giving them a good 12-20 hour simmer (preferably in a bean pot if you can find them). you can buy the beans dried by the pound in a middle eastern grocery. the resulting water after such a simmer will be this dark earthy liquid that is amazing for braising and stewing, particularly lamb. I often use it to make lamb shanks the next day.
foodful at 1:31PM on 04/13/09
I just bought frozen fava beans for this (could not find canned). They are green. Does this mean I have to peel them first?
flavacrisp at 10:39AM on 04/14/09