Beans for Breakfast? Fava Beans (Egyptian Ful Medames)

The weather is ideal today in Chicago:  Sunny with a high of 73 degrees (we’re inching our way to summer weather in the city – super excited about that!)And here’s a close-up of the delicious finished product :

i tried cooking it from scratch using a crockpot… it wasn’t too successful, the beans came out too dark! i might try ur method .. but may be after pentecost.. good job on ur blog.. the pictures are amazing! according to the food network taking pictures of food is not as easy as it looks.. u make it look really easy .. keep it up ekhrestos anesti! Hi Nada! Alithos anesti! Thanks so much for your response and for your compliment. I love taking pictures, so I practice on food (it doesn’t complain if I’m taking too long – unlike humans, haha :-p). So I think the reason the beans you made came out too dark might be because you didn’t soak them from the previous day and drain the water every few hours… Also, it depends on the brand and the kind of beans. Oh, and were they cooked well? (Was the skin around each bean soft enough to chew easily?) If not, maybe they needed to cook for a longer time. Making them in a slow-cooker is a great idea, actually. Maybe I’ll try them that way…

Your blog reminds me of that Julie/Julia book Both inspire me! So I made my very first Chicken Coconut Curry yesterday! I totally love it! (you know I’m addicted to everything curry and everything Mexican!)Nina! Thanks so much for your response and for your encouragement! I’m really excited about this blog and about adding new posts (you know me and how I love to write!). I’ve had ful iskandarani before (but I didn’t know that’s what it is called!)- the spice gives it a kick that tastes really good! Maybe I’ll do a different post in a few weeks with this hot tomato sauce, and compare it to the “standard” one without the extra spice… My grandfather always eats ful with boiled eggs, so it’s definitely a good combo. And feta cheese (the authentic Egyptian kind) is great with pretty much everything except desserts lol, so I can see how that would be a good mix! The first meal Sherif ever cooked for me was Thai Coconut Curry with veggies and tofu (vegan because it was during Lent). It was amazing! I’m definitely’= adding the recipe soon!

Oh, this looks great! I never make it with tahini – I always use tomato sauce. That is the way my mom always made it I guess it is some version of Iskandarani, although we are from Mansoura, so who knows! I’ll have to try this sometime…. This is such great advice, Rahel! Thanks so much for taking the time to explain that. A lot of what you’re sharing here seems similar to advice I’ve found on the website of George Mateljan (especially about the garlic) –> whfoods.com. The reason I don’t use the soaking water is that I’ve found that the beans are more easily digested when the water is changed several times and then finally boiled in new (clean) water. However, I see your point about soaking in warm water (instead of hot) – I’ll definitely be doing that in the future. Thanks again for your thoughtful comment, and hope you stop by again soon!

-Heba