Egyptian Cuisine

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All Egyptian Recipes

TV Show
Food Safari

Special Consideration
Breakfast

Food Category
Side dish
Vegetarian

Key Ingredient
Lentils
Fava Beans

Cuisine Category
Egyptian

Ful medames

Cuisine: Egyptian Created by Alice Ibrahim

Cooked very slowly, traditionally overnight in a copper pot, this is one of Egypt’s national dishes, often eaten for breakfast. Fava beans and lentils are cooked until they are soft, flavoured with olive oil, lemon juice, herbs and spices and typically eaten with Egyptian bread. This dish is a tasty and solid start to the day, particularly during Ramadan when Muslims fast during daylight hours.

Ingredients

2 cups of dried fava beans (broadbeans)
1 cup red lentils
3 cups water
Cumin
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

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Preparation

Rinse the fava beans and lentils. Cover with water and soak overnight.
In the morning, drain the beans and lentils and rinse again. Place them in a large saucepan and cover with three cups of water. Boil on high heat until frothy. Skim the froth as it accumulates and then cover the saucepan and boil on the lowest heat for up to five hours or until the beans are fully cooked and the liquid has reduced.

Add salt, pepper, a generous amount of cumin and lemon juice to taste. Lastly drizzle a liberal amount of olive oil over the top.

For a sandwich-style snack, serve in a pocket of unleavened bread with fresh salad, tahini and pickles.

Note: This dish thickens as it cools so be careful not to remove too much moisture during the cooking process.

Egyptian Restaurants

Displaying 4 of 4 Egyptian Restaurants.

Restaurant		Suburb
1.	De Bortoli Winery and Restaurant	Dixons Creek
2.	Princess Jasmine	Punchbowl
3.	Made In Africa Ethiopian Restaurant	Moorooka
4.	Cupido	Carlton

16 Mar 2012 02:46 AEST

Leanne

Jeeralang Junction

delicious vegetarian stuff, thankyou

yummy stuff, thanks SBS! and a note to those having trouble with the cooking time, remember hard skinned pulses won't absorb water and soften if you add salt early on in the cooking process, salt in at the end (if at all). delicious with a bit of chilli if you're into it, or some finely chopped parsley and yoghurt...so much food, such a short life

28 Mar 2011 05:43 AEST

ingham

to sarah

you obviously need to soak them!! thats why you had problems.

02 Mar 2011 10:35 AEST

Romey

South Yarra

Servings

Hello! Saw this on the show and it looks delicious, but seeing as there is only my dad and I, I don't want to make too much.. just wondering, how many people would this serve? Thank you! x

28 Sep 2010 08:03 AEST

Sarah

Woolloomooloo

disappointed

i have to say i am slightly disappointed by this recipe. After watching the show i immediately bought the beans and followed the recipe exactly as stated on the show. Once simmering i found the water kept evaporating and i had to continuously add water. what ended up happening was it burned on the bottom of the pan and i got extremely frustrated and took it off the stove and gave up!!!!! so what exactly went wrong. admittedly i didn't soak the beans overnight as they never mentioned that onshow

30 May 2009 09:03 AEST

Norma

Northbridge

Chili!

Someone forgot the red chilli!!! No chilli, no ful for me :)

12 Feb 2009 03:02 AEST

Steven

Brisbane

Delicious

Can't wait to try it. Brings back memories of Cairo - I loved the stuff there. Maeve, I agree with Joe, can we get the recipe for the salad posted here as well please?

07 Feb 2009 03:51 AEST

maeve

kismet productions

baharat - Egyptian style

To answer Joe, Ramy Megalaa who was in teh show says: You will find that Baharat or spice mix prepared across Egypt will differ from one region to the other and it can even differ from one house to the other, that's in regards to the amount. however, the ingredients should be the same and the one i use myself at Tagine is Equal Quantity white pepper & cinnamon to half quantity black pepper, nutmeg and cloves. Hope that helps.

16 Jan 2009 03:38 AEST

Simon Shaw

Yokine

Great, needs a lot of cooking.

Great meal. Very filling though so be warned. I think I didn't cook it long enough though, overnight probably is best! Some beans were still a bit firm. Joe, I can paste recipe for Baharat if you like?

13 Dec 2008 12:49 AEST

Joe

Thornbury Vic

Ful Medames

It's mouth-wateringly delicious! But where's the recipe for the accompanying Egyptian Salad as shown in the Video? For that matter, where's the exact recipe for Egyptian-style Baharat Spice Mix that's such a feature of Egyptian cuisine?

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