Ful Medames is a traditional dish made from slow-cooked fava beans and is widely eaten across North Africa and the Middle East. In Sudan, it is a beloved breakfast food often served with lemon juice, cumin, olive oil, and fresh vegetables. The beans are usually mashed and topped with ingredients like tomatoes, onions, or hard-boiled eggs for a hearty and nutritious meal.
Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner!
Jake loves hummus. Jake loves making hummus. He loves to double his batch to have it all week long. I should do a post of his recipe. And now, Sudan’s Ful Medames might just be hummus’s cousin we never knew about.
I find it funny that in the whole wide world of almost 200 countries, we last did Egypt (Koshari) and have now drawn their border sharing neighbor – Sudan. The popular dishes were extremely similar between the two countries, including the Ful Medames we made this week. This blog is starting to pay off. Our Egyptian Lyft driver in Washington DC last week was utterly amazed we knew about Koshari!
This meal, while mostly eaten for breakfast, could easily be a snack or dinner as well. It was like having loaded hummus – carefully mashed beans with so many toppings!
Yet again, this was a super easy meal to make with the boys. The hardest part may have been finding the fava beans because they are in no local grocery store around here. But Amazon has literally everything. Second, may have been finding the patience for the beans to actually cook.
Sudan: Ful Medames
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1–2 hours (if using dried beans)
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
For the Ful
- 2 c. dry fava beans, cooked per package instructions
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp. ground pepper
Optional Toppings
- diced tomatoes
- chopped onion
- hard-boiled eggs
- olive oil
- parsley
Directions
- Prepare the beans per package instructions. They should be soft and the skin beginning to peel off – it will make the mashing part that much easier. Keep half a cup of the water from boiling the beans. Be warned! They take a while!
- In a bowl add the beans, water, and remainder of the Ful ingredients. Mash with a fork to your desired consistency.
- Top it with any assortment of of things – we used some more traditional toppings like tomatoes, onions, and hard boiled eggs.
- Ful Medames is traditionally served warm with bread such as pita or flatbread.
File: Sudan – Ful Medames
