Foul mudammas (or ful medames, or foul) is an Egyptian stew of cooked small dried fava beans with lemon juice, olive oil, cumin, garlic and parsley. The warm fava are mushed to chunky paste and the satisfying dish is served as breakfast around Egypt. It is now popular all over the Levant, where it is usually topped or mixed with tahini sauce.
In Israel, a stew of fava beans is served at many hummus places as a topping for hummus, or on its own.
The version here is more salad like, still with the same seasoning, and so it works well as part of a Middle Eastern buffet or mezze. See directions in the recipe below how to make the more traditional version.
As Egyptian style small dried fava beans are hard to find in the U.S.A., I recommend using the readily available canned fava beans. They work perfectly well, and speed the preparation. You can find canned fava beans (and sometimes dried Egyptian fava beans) at Middle Eastern supermarkets and online.
Fava bean salad with tahini
Course: Appetizers, SaladsCuisine: EgyptianDifficulty: Easy4
servings15
minutes5
minutes20
minutesINGREDIENTS
1 can cooked fava beans (ful medames)
¼ cup water
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup chopped flat parsley leaves
- For the tahini sauce
¼ cup cold water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup tahini
Pinch kosher salt
DIRECTIONS
- Put the content of the fava bean can into a colander and wash fava with running water. Transfer fava bean into a saucepan, add water and salt, bring to boil, then reduce heat and cook on low simmer for a couple of minutes, just until fava is hot. Pour out any extra liquid from the saucepan.
- Toast cumin seed in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Use mortar and pestle to grind cumin with garlic and salt. Add lemon juice and mix then pour the dressing over the warm fava beans. Drizzle with olive oil, mix in parsley and adjust salt and lemon juice to taste.
- To make the tahini, mix all the ingredients in a medium bowl using a hand whisk. If the tahini is hard, use a blender or a food processor to make the sauce. Add more water or more tahini until you get the consistency you like (the tahini needs to be as thick as mayo, but it is really up to you to decide.
- Spread tahini at the bottom of a serving bowl and pile fava on top. Alternatively, you can drizzle tahini on top of the fava.
- To make a more traditional ful medames
- Cook fava as described in step 1, add the rest of the ingredients as in step 2. Use a potato masher to mash the fava, leaving about a third of them whole, for a very chunky paste. Make tahini sauce, add to the fava and mix. Serve warm with pita.
