I had never tasted Ful Medames/ Foul Mudammas inspite of spending a long time in this region. The reason being my inclination towards ordering my favourite arabic side dishes such as Hummus/ Falafel/ Baba Ghanoush/ Moutabel.  It was only during our office party few years back when I was served this colorful chunky dip with some warm pita bread and I instantly loved the taste. I checked with my colleagues for it's recipes and they happily shared it with me. What I understood from our conversation was that Ful Medames is a traditional Egyptian breakfast dish. Though it originated in Egypt, this dish got widely spread and became popular across Middle Eastern region. After reaching home I browsed through various videos to watch its preparation and learnt that each area in this region had tweaked the recipe as per ingredients availability and cooking convenience. And finally inspired from the video here I too made this dish at home. 



Ingredients

1 can - canned fava beans
1/4 cup water
1 medium sized tomato, finely chopped
1 small sized onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp of grated garlic
2 tbsp of finely chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp black pepper powder
salt to taste

For toppings
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp of finely chopped cucumber or slices
1 tbsp of finely chopped tomato or slices
1 tbsp of finely chopped onion
1 tsp red chilli flakes [optional]
1 tbsp pitted olives [optional]
Tahini sauce [optional]

Method:

Drain, rinse the canned beans with water and keep it aside. 

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add grated garlic and saute it for few seconds. Add finely chopped onion and saute it. Now add to the pan finely chopped tomatoes, finely chopped coriander leaves, drained beans, water, cumin powder and continue cooking until the mixture comes to a boil. Add salt to taste, lower the flame and let the mixture simmer for 25 mins. Now add black pepper powder to taste. Mash the mixture with back of the ladle or potato masher to the consistency that you prefer. Switch off the flame and squeeze in some lemon juice. Mix everything well.

Place the mixture on serving plate/ bowl and drizzle some olive oil on top. Garnish with toppings of your choice or according to ingredients availability as mentioned above. Serve it with warm pita bread and enjoy this traditional Egyptian breakfast in the comfort of your home.



Note: If you cannot find fava beans [dried or canned] Kidney beans/ Rajma or Broad beans are the best substitutes and closest to the traditional fava beans taste.

Happy Cooking!