Ful Medames: Egyptian Fava Bean Recipe With Cumin, Lemon and Tahini

Ful medames is Egypt’s classic breakfast dish of fava (broad) beans, stewed until soft and dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and cumin. Traditionally the beans cook for hours, but from a tin of ready-cooked ful you can make it in about 15 minutes: warm the beans in their sauce, crush some of them and season.

What is ful medames?

Ful medames, often just called ful, is a dish of fava beans, which British cooks call broad beans, stewed until soft and dressed while warm. The Oxford Companion to Food says ful is often described as Egypt’s national dish and is a standard breakfast there, though it is also eaten as a snack or a main meal. It is eaten well beyond Egypt: Lebanon’s Food Heritage Foundation calls foul mdammas part of a traditional Lebanese breakfast also enjoyed in Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt, and the travel publisher Bradt calls ful Sudan’s favourite dish.

Slow cooking is the tradition: a 19th-century account quoted in the Oxford Companion describes the beans cooking overnight in a sealed earthenware pot buried up to its neck in the hot ashes of an oven or bath-house. Ful is a Ramadan favourite too, eaten at suhoor, the pre-dawn meal, in many Egyptian and Palestinian homes, and often at iftar. Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin in the UK around Monday 8 February, depending on the moon sighting; see our Ramadan 2027 guide.

Tinned ful medames: ready-cooked fava beans

Dried whole beans need hours of soaking and simmering, so many cooks start with a tin. Our California Garden Foul Medames, from our pantry range, are whole broad beans slow-cooked in a lightly seasoned sauce, sold in cases of 10 × 400g tins. They are fully cooked, so they only need heating and dressing. There are five recipes:

The beans are already seasoned, so taste before adding salt. Our page lists none of the 14 major allergens in the ingredients, but recipes vary, so check the tin label.

Ful medames recipe (serves 2)

One 400g tin serves 2 as a breakfast with bread and eggs, or 3–4 as part of a mezze spread. Prep: 5 minutes. Cook: 10 minutes. Total: about 15 minutes. You need a small saucepan and a potato masher or fork.

Ingredients

• 1 × 400g tin of California Garden ful medames (the Egyptian Recipe for the classic version), with its sauce
• 2 tablespoons of Palestinian extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
• 1 garlic clove, crushed, or ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon of ground cumin, plus a pinch to serve
• 1–2 tablespoons of lemon juice (½–1 lemon), plus wedges to serve
• salt, to taste
• 1–3 tablespoons of water, if needed
• 1 small tomato, finely chopped (optional)
• a small handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped (optional)
• a pinch of Aleppo chilli flakes (optional)
• for the tahini drizzle (optional): 1 tablespoon of tahini, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and 1–2 tablespoons of cold water
• warm flatbread or pitta, to serve
• hard-boiled eggs, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Prepare the toppings. Chop the tomato and parsley. For the tahini drizzle, stir the jar, then whisk the tahini with the teaspoon of lemon juice. It will thicken and look grainy: whisk in cold water a tablespoon at a time until smooth and pourable.
2. Warm the garlic and cumin. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a small saucepan over a low heat. Add the garlic and cumin and stir for about 30 seconds, until fragrant. Don’t let the garlic brown.
3. Heat the beans. Tip in the beans with all their sauce, turn the heat to medium-low and simmer gently for about 5 minutes, stirring now and then, until hot all the way through. If it looks dry or starts to catch, add water a tablespoon at a time.
4. Crush and season. Take the pan off the heat and crush about half the beans with the masher or fork, leaving the rest whole. Stir in the lemon juice, taste, and add salt only if it needs it, plus more lemon or cumin if you like.
5. Serve. Spoon into two shallow bowls, make a hollow in the top and pour in the remaining olive oil. Scatter with the tomato, parsley, a pinch of cumin and the chilli, drizzle with any tahini, and serve hot with warm bread, lemon wedges and the eggs, if you like.

Tips: crush more beans for a creamier ful, fewer for a chunkier one; it thickens as it stands, so loosen it with a splash of hot water. No hob? Our product page says you can warm the beans in the microwave. Heat them in a covered bowl, stirring halfway, until piping hot, then stir in the garlic, cumin, lemon juice and oil.

Allergens and safety: tahini is ground sesame, one of the 14 allergens that must be clearly labelled on prepacked food in the UK, and our tahini page states that it contains sesame. Greenfields, which makes our Aleppo chilli flakes, says some of its blends are made in a facility that also handles sesame, mustard and celery, and most flatbreads contain wheat (gluten), so check every label. People with G6PD deficiency are advised to avoid fava beans: MedlinePlus, from the US National Library of Medicine, names them as a trigger that people with the condition “must strictly avoid”.

Ful with tahini and other variations

• With tahini: swirl the tahini drizzle through the beans for a richer, creamier bowl. The Food Heritage Foundation notes that tahini sauce is sometimes added in Lebanon; our tahini guide explains how to stop the sauce seizing.
• Levantine style: our Lebanese and Palestinian tins already contain chickpeas. Go generous with lemon, garlic and parsley, and serve with the fresh mint, tomatoes, cucumber and spring onions the Food Heritage Foundation lists for Lebanese foul.
• Syrian style: The National reports that Syrians garnish ful with Aleppo pepper paste; a pinch of our mild, fruity Aleppo chilli flakes borrows the idea.
• Sudanese style: ful in Sudan is typically made with sesame oil, The National says, and Bradt says it is usually livened up with salad, cheese, hard-boiled egg or falafel.

Ful medames vs falafel (ta’ameya) and hummus

Ful and ta’ameya, Egypt’s falafel, both use fava beans, but in opposite ways; hummus is made from chickpeas:

Historian Alexander Lee, writing in History Today, says falafel was almost certainly developed in Egypt, at first mainly from fava beans; in the Levant, chickpeas were used instead. Tinned ful won’t work for ta’ameya, as the beans are already cooked: you need dried Sara Split Broad Beans from our pulses, rice and grains range, which our product page says to soak overnight and blend raw. Our falafel recipe covers ta’ameya too, and our hummus recipe starts from dried chickpeas.

How long does ful medames keep?

Up to 2 days in the fridge, but not in the opened tin. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) says to empty food you won’t use straight away into a bowl or other container and put it in the fridge, because once a can is open, the tin from the can could transfer more quickly to the food. Our product page says to use a non-metallic container and eat the beans within 2 days. For cooked leftovers, the FSA’s general advice is to cool them and get them into the fridge within two hours, eat them within 48 hours or freeze them, and reheat them only once, until steaming hot throughout rather than just warmed.

We deliver to UK addresses only; see our delivery information.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need to cook tinned ful medames?

No. Our product page says the beans are fully cooked and can be heated through and dressed, or eaten straight from the tin. Ful is usually served warm, though, so heat it gently for about 5 minutes with garlic and cumin, crush some of the beans and finish with lemon juice and olive oil.

Should you drain tinned fava beans for ful?

Not tinned ful medames like ours: the beans come in a lightly seasoned sauce that becomes the base of the dish, so tip in the lot, adding a splash of water if it looks dry. Plain tinned fava beans are different. Saveur’s ful medames recipe, for example, drains and rinses them before dressing them with olive oil, lemon juice and garlic.

Is ful medames the same as foul medames?

Yes. Ful medames, foul medames, ful mudammas and foul mudammas are different English spellings of the same Arabic name, and our product page for the California Garden tins uses foul medames. All of them mean the same dish of stewed fava (broad) beans dressed with olive oil, lemon, garlic and cumin, best known in Egypt and also eaten across the Levant and in Sudan.

Is ful medames vegan?

Without the optional eggs, our recipe is vegan if your tin and bread are. Our product page tags the California Garden tins as vegan, but recipes vary between the five, so check the tin label, and the bread’s. Eggs and cheese, both popular toppings, are not vegan, so offer them on the side.