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Ful Medames

Fava beans crushed warm with lemon, cumin and oil. Egypt eats this for breakfast and has done for a very long time.

Ful Medames, plated and ready to serve
Serves
4
Total time
20 min
Cost per serving (United States)
$7.63

Ingredients

  • 30 oz fava beans (ful medames)
  • 3 clove garlic
  • 2 lemon
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 3/4 lb roma tomatoes
  • 4 pita bread

Method

  1. Warm the beans through in their own liquid over medium heat, about 10 minutes. Do not drain them; that liquid is what makes it creamy.

  2. Crush the garlic with a good pinch of salt into a paste and stir it in.

  3. Mash about half the beans against the side of the pan with a fork. You want texture, not puree.

  4. Add the cumin and the juice of one lemon. Taste, and keep adding lemon until it stops tasting flat.

  5. Spoon into bowls, make a well in each and pour the olive oil in.

  6. Scatter chopped parsley and diced tomato over, and serve with warm pita and the second lemon in wedges.

What this costs, country by country

Each figure is the ingredients for the full recipe at prices read in that country’s own shops, in its own currency. Nothing here is converted from dollars.

The cost of this recipe in 11 countries, each in its own currency, with how many of the 8 ingredients we could price in each. Figures are not converted between currencies, so the rows cannot be ranked against each other.
CountryWhole recipePer servingPriced from
Australia$35.77$8.948 of 8 ingredients
United States$30.53$7.637 of 8 ingredients
United Kingdom£13.45£3.367 of 8 ingredients
Greece17,52 €4,38 €7 of 8 ingredients
Canada$101.94$25.497 of 8 ingredients
Spain10,11 €2,53 €7 of 8 ingredients
Mexico$672.55$168.147 of 8 ingredients
Egypt‏٤٦٠٫٥٩ ج.م.‏‏١١٥٫١٥ ج.م.‏6 of 8 ingredients
New Zealand$36.30*$9.085 of 8 ingredients
Germany10,75 €*2,69 €5 of 8 ingredients
Austria€ 8,40*€ 2,105 of 8 ingredients

* We have read fewer than seven in ten of these ingredients in that country, so the total is a partial figure and the real one is higher.

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