Ful Medames (Fava Bean Dip)
I've been taking a break from cooking for the past few days. On Friday I made my favorite lasagna, but after that, I didn't cook one thing, unless you count steamed vegetables, until Monday night. With my husband out of town, my daughter and I happily dined on leftovers and take-out from the local natural food store. I think I needed a little cooking break.
But last night I got back into the swing of things with an easy meal that all three of us enjoyed. I put a batch of Spiced Lentils and Rice into the rice cooker, and while it was cooking, I prepared a salad and a dip for pita bread. We have hummus so often that I thought we were due for a change, and this version of Ful Medames, a delicious dip made of cooked fava beans, really hit the spot.
Ful Medames (Fava Bean Dip)
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 cans (3 cups) fava beans, rinsed and drained
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne or red chili pepper
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup parsley
Sauté the onion and garlic in a large, non-stick skillet for about 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for another 4 minutes. Stir in the fava beans, cumin, and red pepper, and cook on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and mash the fava beans lightly, right in the skillet, until most of the beans are mashed. Scoop into a serving bowl, and mix in the lemon juice and parsley. Serve with warm pita bread.
Hint: Look for canned fava beans in Middle Eastern grocery stores. Some common spellings are ful medames, foul moudammes, foul mudammes, and foul moudammas.
Makes 5 servings. Per serving: 174 Calories (kcal); 1 g Total Fat; (5% calories from fat); 10 g Protein; 37g Carbohydrate; 0 mg Cholesterol; 587 mg Sodium; 7 g Fiber.
Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free Eat to Live
Labels: eat to live, gluten-free
posted by SusanV at 12:40 PM
17 Comments:
This looks too good!!! And Pita Bread...don't get me started! Must be lunch time. I'm starving!
:)
I almost made Ful Medames the other day because I had a bunch of fresh fava beans from my CSA box, but I wasn't sure that the fresh beans would work in this recipe. Instead I made the Ful Nabed. It is soooooo delicious! Thanks!
I will definitely make this very soon! I recently made your Roasted Tomato Hummus/Bean dip, and just looooved it! The flavors were incredible and I loved how the fat content was so low :)
Susan-
This sounds (and looks) so good! I have been going to a local middle Eastern grocery store lately, and I have been wanting to buy canned fava beans, but I was not sure what to do with them. Now I have an excuse to go back to the store and buy some (I am a geek--I love grocery shopping!)!
Thanks!
Courtney
This looks great - another nice thing to do with the large canned favas is to heat them in their juice with a little lemon juice, garlic, onion, and a bit of olive oil if you don't mind the fat. Simple and very delicious.
I must get to the middle eastern store (It's 70 mi away) and look for the beans.. I don't have the patience for fresh favas very often (maybe once or twice a year)
when I went to Mellennium in SF, CA they gave us pureed fava beans as a spread instead of butter. loved it! This reminded me of that :)
Teddy
This dip looks great- definitely different from anything I've had. (I've been trying so many new foods since becoming vegan- it's wonderful)! I've been wanting to try fava beans for a while. Your post reminded me that I haven't had salsa in forever. Do you have any good recipes, or would you recomend any good store bought kinds? Thanks!
-Teresa
p.s.- looking forward to the spiced lentils and rice recipe!
Lentils in a rice cooker! What a fabulous idea. I must try this, although I'll wait for your recipe.
Hopefully I can get my hands on some fava beans this weekend but I suspect that they are all gone for us out here.
I'm currently residing in the Middle East where ful is popular, especially in Egypt where it's a national dish and a cheap fast food eaten at breakfast.
I like your alternative low fat version as usually ful is made with olive oil and sometimes tahini so it's not exactly low fat.
If you can boil up your own fava beans that's ideal as canned fava beans often contain loads of salt.
Thanks
This sounds great! I'm wondering what kind of rice cooker you would recommend. I was thinking of buying a zojirushi, but there are several different models. Would love your advice!
Ellen
oh PLEASE share your lentils in a rice cooker recipe! that sounds fantastic and easy (I love easy!!!). Will definitely make that Fava Bean Dip too! delish!
http://purezucchini.blogspot.com
Hi Pure Zuke, I'll post the lentils and rice recipe tomorrow. It's definitely easy.
Teresa, I'm planning to post a salsa recipe soon, but the easiest I know is to chop up a bunch of tomatoes, onion, peppers, and garlic and add hot peppers to taste. That's probably what I'll do, although I'm thinking of making a cooked version that I can freeze easily.
I loev fava beans. There's a restaurant near me that serves ful, but this looks easy and amazing.
This was AWESOME! And I found the beans at a high-end supermarket, without having to go to a middle-eastern foods store!
This was my first experience with fava beans - Loved it! Thanks, Susan!
For those who don't know - if you do it with dried beans, you'll need to spend quite a bit of time peeling them once they're cooked.
Oh, and it was fine withoug lemon juice and parsley (I didn't have any).
Here in Egypt ful medames is the #1 breakfast meal for Egyptians. Fava beans are so inexpensive in Egypt and are eaten with large quantities by the rich and poor.
Cumin is a main ingredient for preparing ful medames. Salt and lemon are also added. Also oil is added (yet understandably left out from your FatFree blog). Traditionally, a special kind of oil is used, it is called zait 7aar (زيت حار) which I am not sure what its name is in English. I'll be trying to find out. Corn oil is now usually used instead.
There is another way of preparing ful medames, yet less common, but still well known in Egypt. Again it is not FatFree, yet the opposite. Instead of adding oil and lemon, ful (fava beans) are cooked with butter and garlic. I love the lemon and cumin (كمون) version way more. I love ful so much!
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home