Ful Medames

Vegetarians in Egypt have a lot to look forward to, and Ful Medames may be one of the best yet. It is an Egyptian national dish consisting of a creamy fava bean stew cooked with cumin, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, herbs, and spices.

Ful medames (or foul mudammas) is a traditional Egyptian dish, but it's also popular in the Middle East, the Levant, and North Africa. It's an everyday Egyptian dish that, like aish baladi, can be eaten at any time of day – for late breakfast, lunch, or even dinner. Ful medames, like hummus and baba ghanoush, is typically served as a dip with warm pita bread.

Ful medames is traditionally made with fl ammm or "bath beans," but it can also be made with other types of fava beans such as fl rm (European broad beans) and fl balad (country beans).

It's fascinating to learn that in the Middle Ages, people living near Cairo's Princess Baths, a public bath near Sultan al-Mosque, Muayyad's monopolized the cooking of fava beans for ful medames. During the day, bath attendants would light fires to heat enormous pots of bath water known as qidras. The fires would continue to burn after the bath closed at night, allowing them to simmer fava beans in the qidras and sell them the next morning.