Egypt's national breakfast — slow-simmered fava beans crushed at the bowl with lemon, garlic, cumin, and olive oil.
Ful medames is Egypt's most beloved breakfast — small dried fava beans (ful) simmered for hours in a clay pot called a qidra until perfectly tender, then mashed coarsely at the bowl with garlic, lemon juice, cumin, olive oil, and a heavy crack of black pepper. The dish is so embedded in Egyptian life that street vendors have wheeled qidra carts from before dawn for over a century, ladling steaming ful into paper cones and pita pockets for office workers and laborers heading to work. The technique is brutally simple but rewards patience: the beans must be soaked overnight and simmered very slowly so the skins soften completely. Eaten with warm baladi bread, slices of raw tomato and onion, a few green chilies, and sometimes a hard-boiled egg, ful medames is cheap, deeply satisfying, and unmistakably Egyptian.
Serves 6
Soak fava beans in plenty of cold water overnight (8–12 hours). They will swell to roughly triple in size.
Drain. Combine soaked fava beans, lentils, and water in a heavy pot. Add baking soda if using. Bring to a gentle boil, skim the foam, then reduce to the lowest heat.
Simmer partially covered for 2.5–3 hours, topping up water as needed, until the beans are completely soft and the skins yield at the touch of a spoon. The lentils will mostly dissolve, lightly thickening the cooking liquid.
In a small bowl, whisk garlic, lemon juice, cumin, salt, pepper, and 4 tbsp olive oil into a sharp dressing.
Lift the beans from the pot with a slotted spoon into wide shallow bowls, keeping some of the cooking liquid. Use the back of a spoon to crush about half the beans, leaving the rest whole.
Pour the garlic-lemon-cumin dressing over the warm beans. Drizzle with extra olive oil. Dust with Aleppo pepper and a final crack of black pepper.
Bring with diced tomato, diced onion, parsley, hard-boiled eggs, warm baladi bread, and a small dish of olive oil. Each person tears bread and scoops their own preferred combination.
Use small Egyptian fava beans (ful hammam), not the giant green favas — they cook to a creamy interior.
The bicarbonate softens skins but use sparingly — too much makes the beans soapy.
Mash at the bowl, not in the pot — this is non-negotiable, every spoonful should be slightly different.
Add 100 g cooked chickpeas at the end for a more textured bowl.
Top with a fried egg and a smoky drizzle of dukkah-spiced oil.
Serve over rice for ful and rice (a Sudanese twist).
Refrigerate up to 4 days; freezes 2 months. Rewarm with a splash of water; re-dress with fresh lemon and garlic each time.
Ful medames is documented in Egypt as far back as the Pharaonic period — fava beans have been excavated from 4th dynasty tombs. The modern dressed-at-the-bowl version emerged in Ottoman Cairo and is now the unofficial national breakfast, eaten across all classes from Alexandria to Aswan.
Middle Eastern grocery stores, often as 'ful' or 'small fava'. Canned ful medames also works as a shortcut — just heat and dress.
Old beans — fava beans more than a year old refuse to soften. Buy from a busy store.
Per serving (320g / 11.3 oz) · 6 servings total
Ask our AI cooking assistant anything about this recipe — substitutions, techniques, scaling.
Chat with AI Chef →Join the conversation
Sign in to leave a comment and save your favourite recipes