Ful Medammes

I have recently discovered ful medammes. Apparently the national dish of Egypt and traditionally eaten for breakfast, it is a simple but very satisfying bean dish. I have had several different canned versions, one of which is available at the grocery store up the road from us for $1.00 a can. They are good for a quick lunch, but I wanted to make my own from scratch.

I was happy to find cheap dried broad beans in the local supermarket. It was only after I had a kilo of them soaking that I discovered this from Clifford A Wright:

There are different kinds of fava beans and different cooking times, depending on their size, so you must make sure you use the right kind. The only fava bean used for making the prepared dish known as fūl is the smaller, rounder one called fūl hammām (bath fava) by the Egyptians.

Oops. But I decided to proceed anyway. The recipe was very simple but shelling the soaked beans took a long long time. I shelled through an episode of The Wire, then an episode of Librarians, then spent another 30 minutes shelling. In the end I just couldn't shell any more and I had a full crockpot so I gave up. I started with this recipe but I wanted to use the crockpot so I changed the proportions.

This recipe made a lot. Probably too much. Ask me in a week.

I admit that I had to work hard to make this dish look appetising, but it is really yummy.

Ful medames

(adapted from a recipe by Clifford A. Wright)

6 cups dried broad beans (I used regular large broad beans but seek out the smaller rounded kind if you can)

1 onion chopped

1 or 2 tomatoes chopped

1/2 cup dried red lentils

salt to taste

Soak the beans in plenty of cold water overnight

Drain the beans. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the beans, and boil them until they are soft enough to have their peels removed, about 10 to 15 minutes. Drain, then remove the peel of each bean (preferably while watching something good on TV).

Place the peeled beans in a crockpot together with the onion, tomatoes, and lentils and cover with water. Cover and cook on low for 12 hours.

Season with salt to taste.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, sliced hard-boiled egg, finely chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice.