Lentil Ful Medammes
Lentil ful medammes is a variation of the traditional Egyptian dish ful medammes, which typically uses fava beans. In this variation, lentils are used instead of fava beans. This dish is hearty, flavorful, and often served for breakfast but can be enjoyed at any time of the day. Foul medammes is a slow cooked dried fava beans recipe. A traditional Egyptian breakfast item that can also be enjoyed any time of the day. While countless versions exist, since every cook has his or her own favorite way to prepare them. The basics stay the same: onion, garlic, olive oil, cumin, lemon, tomato, salt, and pepper. Any dried bean would work for this recipe, however. I like to use lentils though, because they cook so quickly.
What is Lentil Ful Medammes?
This ancient breakfast dish, originating in Egypt and then migrating to other countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, Ethiopia, Sudan and Morocco. It is traditionally made by mashing fava beans cooked with cumin and then serving with olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and chopped fresh parsley. Because I don’t have access to the same beans used in the Middle East. I simply use lentils to prepare in the same way and call it Lentil Ful Medammes.
Ful medammes (also spelled foul and madames, midammis, mudammas) probably originated in the Sudan and Egypt, gradually making its way to the rest of the Middle East via the Horn of Africa .The word “medammes” was originally Coptic. Meaning “buried, ” a reference to the beans being buried in the hot pot and/or the pot being buried in hot embers. There are mentions of this cooking method as early as in the 4th-century Talmud Yerushalmi. Although the beans themselves were found buried in jars in tombs thousands of years before. Clearly, however, ful medammes was pre-Islamic and pre-Ottoman in Egypt. During the Middle Ages in Egypt, the making of the dish was monopolized by the people living around the Princess Baths because as wood was scarce. Fuel couldn’t be wasted, so the locals used the fires and embers to bury their pots of beans to provide breakfast for hungry Cairenes.
Check out more recipes:
Roasted Cabbage and Chickpea Salad
Lentil Ful Medammes
Ingredients
- 1.5 cup dried green lentils
- 3¼ cup water
- 1 onion
- 1 handful garlic scapes or 3 cloves of garlic
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp each cumin, chilli flakes, black pepper, oregano
- salt to taste
Tomato and Parsley sauce
- 1 tomato chopped
- 1 handful parsley finelly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ of one lemon juice
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt to taste
- ¼ tsp chilli flakes
Instructions
- In a large pot heat up olive oil and add chopped garlic scapes and onion. Saute for 3-4 minutes.
- Add dried lentils and cover with water.
- Add all the spices and mix. Simmer the lentils for about 30 minutes until soft.
- Meanwhile mix all the sauce ingredients and le it sit.
- When the lentils are cooked with the hand blender blend half of the mixture and mix well.
- Serve the lentils on a deep plate and add the tomato and parsley sauce on top.
- Enjoy with pita or any other fresh bread. Enjoy!
