Quick answer
Ful medames is a dish of small fava beans simmered slowly until soft, then mashed and dressed with oil, cumin, salt and lemon, and scooped up with bread. It is what most Egyptians eat for breakfast, sold from carts and counters every morning, and it is vegan unless finished with butter, ghee, eggs or meat.
What is ful medames?
Ful medames is Egypt's daily bowl of stewed fava beans, the dish that fuels the country's mornings. Ful simply means fava (broad) beans; medames is usually explained as meaning beans cooked slowly, buried in embers, and is often said to come from a Coptic word, though that etymology is debated.
The beans are a small, brown variety rather than the large green broad beans Australians grow in the garden. After hours of gentle cooking they turn soft and creamy, and the vendor mashes them lightly in your bowl before dressing them. Eaten with fresh aish baladi, pickles and a chopped salad, it is a cheap, protein-rich meal that has been part of Egyptian life for a very long time: fava beans were cultivated in ancient Egypt, and Egyptians still describe ful as the food of rich and poor alike.
Why is ful cooked so slowly?
Dried fava beans need long, low heat to become creamy, so ful is traditionally cooked overnight in a tall, narrow-necked pot called a qidra. The pot's shape keeps moisture in and lets the beans simmer gently for many hours without drying out.
In the past, it is said, Cairo's bean sellers left their pots to cook overnight in the embers of the public bathhouse furnaces, collecting them at dawn. Today most vendors cook with gas, but the qidra remains: look for the big copper or steel pot on the handcart outside a ful shop, with the vendor ladling beans out of its narrow mouth.
What are the different ways to order ful?
Plain ful is just the starting point; most ful shops offer half a dozen variations, and a menu board of them is one of the first Arabic menus you'll learn to read. The most common are:
| Name | What you get | Vegan? |
|---|---|---|
| Ful bil zeit | Beans with oil (often a mild-flavoured vegetable oil, sometimes olive oil), cumin, salt and lemon | Yes |
| Ful bil tahina | Dressed with a generous spoon of tahini sauce | Yes |
| Ful iskandarani | Alexandria style, cooked with chopped tomato, onion, capsicum and chilli | Yes |
| Ful bil zibda or bil samna | Finished with butter or ghee | No |
| Ful bil beid | With chopped boiled egg or a fried egg | No |
| Ful bil basterma or sogo' | With slices of cured beef (basterma) or spicy sausage, fried through | No |
Many people order two or three bowls for the table and share them, with ta'ameya, cheese and eggs on the side.
How do Egyptians eat ful?
With bread instead of cutlery: tear off a piece of aish baladi, pinch it into a scoop and pick up the beans. On the street, the vendor will stuff the beans into a split round of bread with salad and pickles to make a sandwich you can eat on the move, typically wrapped in paper.
Ful is very much a breakfast food. Carts and counters set up early, and by early afternoon many have sold out. It is also a centrepiece of the Egyptian Friday family breakfast and of suhoor, the meal before dawn during Ramadan, because it is said to keep you full through a long day of fasting. If you want to eat it the local way, have it with ta'ameya, white cheese, pickled vegetables and sweet black tea: our guide to the Egyptian breakfast covers the full spread.
Where can you try ful medames?
Everywhere in Egypt, from humble street carts to hotel breakfast buffets, though the best ful comes from busy specialist shops early in the morning.
- Cairo: Downtown and the neighbourhoods around Sayeda Zeinab and Al-Hussein have ful counters that open at dawn. Gad, a large Egyptian chain, and Felfela, a Downtown restaurant serving Egyptian classics since 1959, both serve ful and were trading at the time of writing.
- Alexandria: the city's breakfast shops are famous, and Mohamed Ahmed, a long-running ful and falafel restaurant in central Alexandria, has fed generations; check it is still operating before you go.
- Hotels and Nile cruises: most breakfast buffets include a pot of ful with toppings, which is an easy, low-risk way to try it. See our guide to Nile cruise food and drink.
Businesses change, so ask your guide which local shop is good right now. A morning Cairo food tour is built around ful.
Is ful medames vegetarian and vegan?
Plain ful is vegan: beans, oil, cumin, salt, lemon and perhaps garlic and tahini. Vegans should specify "min gheir zibda" (without butter) because some places finish a bowl with a knob of butter or ghee for richness, and watch for egg and cured meat versions. It is naturally gluten-free, though the bread is not; ask for it with a spoon if you need to. Coptic Christians eat ful through their meat-free fasts, so it is always on offer during those seasons; our vegetarian and vegan guide explains the useful word siyami.
How is ful medames made?
Soak dried fava beans overnight, then simmer them very gently for many hours until soft, and dress each portion just before serving. Some cooks add a handful of red lentils or a little rice to the pot to help thicken the liquid. When the beans can be crushed easily, they are seasoned with salt, partly mashed, and finished in the bowl with oil, ground cumin, lemon juice and any toppings. At home in Australia, canned Egyptian-style fava beans from Middle Eastern grocers make a quick version: warm them with a little of their liquid and dress them the same way.
Frequently asked questions
Is ful the same as foul?
Yes. Ful, foul and fuul are all English spellings of the same Arabic word for fava beans, so ful medames and foul medames are the same dish.
Can you eat ful for lunch or dinner?
You can, and a ful sandwich is a common cheap supper, but it is overwhelmingly a breakfast dish. Many ful shops close or sell out by early afternoon.
Is ful medames healthy?
It is high in fibre and plant protein and low in fat if you go easy on the oil, butter and fried extras. Egyptians consider it the most sustaining breakfast there is.
What is the difference between ful and ta'ameya?
Both are made from fava beans, but ful is stewed, soft and eaten with bread, while ta'ameya is made from soaked raw beans ground with herbs and deep-fried. They are usually eaten together at breakfast. See our ta'ameya guide.
