Ful Mudammes (Ancient Egyptian Fava Beans)

Yemeni/Saudi style of mashed fava beans. Perfect with some tea!

This is a very popular dish across the Middle East, it can be served for breakfast, brunch, or dinner. It can also be an appetizer with pita bread and hummus. There are many ways to serve ful, I'll do my best to cover most of them and tell you which ones are my favorite.

Fava beans "Broad beans" are highly nutritional as they are full of iron, folate, magnesium, fiber, copper, calcium, potassium, and did I mention that they're high in protein?

Fava beans are finally making their way to Western Cuisine. I am starting to see Ful Mudammes on the menu in a few restaurants across the world, I've always wondered why it isn't known around the world because it's SO good. But hey, at least hummus made it!

Soak, soak, soak!

You can find fava beans in the bulk section at Whole Foods, they are pretty cheap. Otherwise, you can find them at most Middle Eastern grocery stores either dried or canned. I suggested buying them dried, yes it'll take longer to cook, but you can make a very large batch and freeze half of it. In my family, we usually store them in single serve containers so when you want some, you simply just run some  warm water on the container, then pop in a saucepan and let it warm up for a few minutes. It'll take a while to make this butttt it's worth it, and it'll save you a lot of time in the next few days/weeks as it keeps very well in the freezer and fridge.

partially covered

Ful Mudammes

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs dried brown fava beans (about 4 cups)
• 2 medium/large onions finely chopped
• 6-8 garlic cloves minced
• 5-6 Roma tomatoes finely chopped
• sea salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• 1/2 tbsp sweet paprika
• 1/2 tbsp onion powder
• 2 tsp turmeric (it's very good for your joints)
• cayenne pepper to taste 
• cumin for serving (helps with gassiness associated with eating beans)

Steps:

Fava Beans

1. Soak the fava beans for an entire day. Yes, an entire day, this will make your fava beans soft from the inside when you cook them. Preferably change the water a few times if you can so your body digest them more efficiently.
2. Drain the beans well and boil enough water to cover the beans by about an inch or more
3. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, let it simmer covered. Let it cook for and hour or until the beans are soft. 

Note: Do not add salt or anything besides beans and water!

Ful Medammes (Keshna)

In Saudi, Keshna is a mixture of tomatoes, onions, garlic, and spices that we cook with the fava beans to take them to the next level.

1. Heat a very large saucepan on medium heat
2. Add olive oil or water and sauté the onions until soft, add garlic, sauté for a minute or two, add the tomatoes and spices (except cumin) sauté for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the fava beans and mix very well.
4. This depends on how juicy your tomatoes are, but if you feel that the mixture is dry add 1/4-1/2 cup of filtered water and mix again.
5. Partially cover and let it cook for about 10 minutes on medium-low heat
6. Garnish with fresh ground cumin.

Serving Options:

1. You can leave the beans as they are whole or you can mash them completely in a food processor
2. Serve the beans with pita bread and tahini sauce

Tahini Sauce

• 2 tbsp tahini
• 1/2 lemon
• pepper and salt to taste
• water to thin 

Just mix all the ingredients VERY well and drizzle on top of the ful

Garnishing Options:

1. Tahini Sauce
2. Cumin
3. Diced green onions and fresh tomatoes
4. Lemon
5. Chickpeas and parsley
6. Olive oil