National Dish Sudan: Ful Medames (Recipe)
In this article
Ful Medames is fava beans cooked to a mash and dressed with olive oil, lemon and cumin. It is breakfast across Sudan and Egypt, sold from huge copper pots at street stalls from before dawn, and eaten with flatbread and the fingers.
About Ful Medames
The beans cook overnight or for hours until they collapse. They are mashed at the table, not in the pot, and everyone dresses their own portion: oil, lemon, cumin, chopped tomato, sometimes an egg or a spoonful of cheese.
Sudan and Egypt both claim it. The beans are the same either way.
Ingredients (serves 1–2)
- 200 g dried fava beans
- 1 litre water (for soaking and cooking)
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Olive oil, to garnish
- Lemon juice, to taste
- Fresh parsley, chopped, to garnish
Shopping for the ingredients
Small brown fava beans, ful hammam, are the correct variety and are sold dried or tinned in Middle Eastern shops. Tinned ful is entirely acceptable and is what most people use on a weekday. A generous, peppery olive oil, since it goes on raw at the end.
Preparing the dish
Soak overnight, without salt. Cook until the beans are completely soft and beginning to break; that takes one to two hours and cannot be shortened much. Do not mash them smooth: half-mashed is right.
Step-by-step instructions
- Soak the fava beans overnight in water.
- The next day, drain the beans, tip them into a pan and cover with fresh water.
- Bring to the boil and simmer over low heat for 1–2 hours, until the beans are soft and beginning to break down.
- Add the diced onion, garlic and cumin, and season with salt and pepper.
- Mash roughly with the back of a spoon, leaving plenty of whole beans.
- Check the consistency; it should be thick but spoonable.
- Serve with a generous drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and chopped parsley.
Gluten-free / lactose-free version
The beans contain no gluten and no dairy. Kisra, the fermented sorghum flatbread, is gluten-free too, so the whole Sudanese breakfast is suitable.
Tips for vegans and vegetarians
Ful is vegan as written and is one of the great cheap vegan meals anywhere. Beans and bread together are a complete protein, which is why it has fed the region for a very long time. Cheese and egg are optional additions rather than the standard.
More tips and tricks
Salt only when the beans are soft, since salting early keeps the skins tough. Mash roughly rather than smoothly. And be generous with the olive oil at the end: it is not a garnish, it is a component.
Adapting the recipe to your taste
Sesame oil rather than olive is the Sudanese preference and gives a different, nuttier dish. Jibna, the white cheese, crumbled over. Chopped tomato, chilli and a hard-boiled egg are all standard.
Ingredient substitutions
Tinned ful medames cuts the cooking to ten minutes. Chickpeas make a different but related dish. Lime for lemon.
Drink pairing ideas
Sweet black tea, or hibiscus iced tea, karkade. Sudanese coffee with ginger afterwards. Water alongside.
Serving and presentation ideas
Serve it in a shallow bowl with the oil pooled on top, tomato and parsley scattered over, and kisra or flatbread to scoop with. Everyone eats from the same dish with their hands, dressing their own corner.
A bit of history
Fava beans have been eaten in the Nile valley for thousands of years; carbonised beans have been found in twelfth-dynasty Egyptian sites. Ful is street food, home food and the standard breaking of the fast during Ramadan. It anchors Sudanese cuisine.
More recipe ideas
Summary: Ful Medames
Ful medames is fava beans cooked soft, roughly mashed and dressed with olive oil, lemon and cumin. Salt them late, mash them roughly, and be generous with the oil.
