The History of Food
Ancient Egypt · 4th Century BC
Ful Medames
Egyptian Slow-Stewed Fava Beans with Cumin & Lemon
Perhaps the oldest dish still eaten daily: fava beans stewed overnight in a buried pot, finished with olive oil, cumin and lemon.
Prep
25 min
Calories
320 kcal
Macros C/P/F
42/18/9 g
Health rating
4.9 / 5
Plant-BasedHigh-ProteinNaturally Gluten-Free
Cooked as in the Nile valley — long, slow and barely stirred.
Ingredients
- 300 g dried small fava beans, soaked overnight
- Water to cover by 5 cm
- 1 tsp whole cumin seed
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Coarse salt
- Fresh parsley and sliced onion, to finish
Method
- 1Drain the soaked beans into a narrow-necked pot and cover generously with fresh water.
- 2Set the pot in the dying embers of the oven overnight, or over the lowest possible heat for 5–6 hours, until the beans collapse.
- 3Toast the cumin in a dry pan and grind it in the mortar.
- 4Crush about a third of the beans against the side of the pot to thicken the whole.
- 5Dress with olive oil, lemon, cumin and salt; scatter parsley and raw onion and eat with flatbread.
