Egyptian Ful Mudammas

Egyptian ful mudammas is a popular vegan dried fava bean dip that crosses breakfast tables all over Egypt. It's eaten with pita bread and often served with some fried ta'amiya. This freezer-friendly ful mudammas recipe makes the bean dip from scratch using dried fava beans, dried chickpeas, dried red lentils, carrots, garlic, and tomatoes.

For those of you who are familiar with ful mudammas (aka foul moudamas), please please please try this recipe from scratch. Freezer ful mudammas from scratch tastes way better than canned ful mudammas.

When preparing ful (as a dip), it takes the same amount of time to prepare freezer ful medames as it does canned ful medames. Use this fava bean recipe as a dip or for ful toast.

Ingredient Notes:

Dried beans: This recipe needs dried fava beans, dried chickpeas, and dried red lentils. There are a couple of variations for dried fava beans, so you need to make sure you get the right thing. You want to use dried fava beans that have a brownish outer skin covering the bean, not the split dried fava beans that are used for ta'ameya (falafel). Also, these fava beans should be medium to small-sized. There are some dried fava beans that are very large. You can see the different beans in the photo below in order to get the relative size and appearance.

How To Make Ful Mudammas From Scratch

Soak the fava beans, chickpeas, and lentils with some baking soda overnight or for a minimum of 6 hours. Once the beans have expanded in size, add the beans and vegetables to a pot. Cover the pot with 2" to 3" (5 cm to 8 cm) of water over the beans.

If cooking the beans in a pressure cooker (Instant Pot or a conventional stovetop pressure cooker), cook the beans on high heat for around 1.5 hours. Bleed the pressure, then check the beans if they are easy to crush between your fingers.

If cooking the beans in a stovetop pot, bring the beans to a boil then turn the heat down to medium-low. Cover the pot and cook for 4 to 5 hours. Add water throughout the cooking time. Make sure the beans are covered at all times with water.

Important: If cooking the beans over the stovetop, the moisture escapes very easily, make sure the beans have enough liquid in the pot. I always make sure the beans have at least 1" (2.5 cm) at all times of water.

Take the beans off of the stove when they are completely tender. Check each type of bean (fava, chickpea, and lentil), by squishing the bean between your fingers. If the bean is not tender and soft, continue cooking.

Once the beans are finished cooking, check the liquid in the pot. If there is a lot of liquid, drain the beans from the liquid keeping about 1.5 to 2 cups of the cooking liquid. Add the liquid back to the drained beans. Using a hand blender, mix the beans to your desired consistency.

Continue blending the beans using the hand immersion blender.

I prefer my ful medames bean consistency to be similar to refried beans.

How To Make Ful Mudammas Dip

Up until this point, all we have done is make the beans. Chop the cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions finely to about the same size. Mash some garlic. In a separate small bowl, add the mashed garlic, tahini, lime juice, ground cumin, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Mix this tahini mixture well.

In a large bowl, add the cooked ful medames beans on the bottom. Top with chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions. Mix in the garlic tahini dip. Mix the ful medames dip altogether. Pour some more olive oil on top.

If you are starting with frozen ful mudammas, the only thing you need to do is reheat the beans in a nonstick skillet over medium heat with about ½ cup of water. You can cut away the freezer-friendly storage bag with some scissors or defrost the frozen ful bean bag in some water.

Tips and Tricks

• Cook time depends on the cooking method: An Instant Pot or a conventional stovetop pressure cooker will cut your cook time at least by half. Using a stovetop pot takes longer, however, some people like to cook the beans low and slow.
• Soak the beans: Don't skip this step! The beans need some time to swell and soften prior to cooking. At a minimum, soak the beans for 6 hours, but ideally, you can soak the beans overnight. Also, you need to add about ½ teaspoon of baking soda to the soaking beans to help soften up the outer skin of the beans.

Storage

You can store the ful beans in the freezer. Don't freeze the dip with chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions.

Let the ful beans cool to room temperature. Scoop the mixture into a freezer-friendly bag. Label the bag with the contents and date. Stack the bags flat on top of each other in the freezer. Store 2 to 4 servings in each quart-sized freezer-friendly bag.

📋 Recipe

Egyptian Ful Mudammas

Author: Lily

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: Egyptian

Prep: 6 hours hrs

Cook: 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total: 7 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

4.56 from 9 votes

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Servings 16

Ful mudammas (ful medames) is a very popular breakfast dish in Egypt made from dried fava beans. This freezer-friendly recipe is made using dried beans either on the stovetop or with a pressure cooker.

Ingredients

 

US Customary - Metric

Homemade Ful Beans

• 12 ounces dried foul beans fava beans
• 1 cup dried chickpeas
• ½ cup red lentils
• 1 medium tomato
• 3 medium carrots
• 5 cloves garlic
• ½ teaspoon baking soda

Ful Medames Dip

• 4 cups cooked ful medames beans
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup chopped Persian cucumber or English cucumber
• ½ cup chopped red onion
• 2 cloves fresh garlic
• 1 lime
• 2 tablespoon tahini
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Make the Ful Beans

• In a large pot, add the dried fava beans, dried chickpeas, and lentils. Fill the pot with water covering the beans with at least 3 inches of water and add the soda. Soak the beans for 6 hours.
• Drain the beans. Add the beans to the pressure cooker pot.
• Peel and roughly chop the carrots. Chop the tomato. Peel and chop the garlic. Add the vegetables to the pressure cooker pot.
• Fill the pressure cooker pot or stovetop pot with water covering the beans by at least 2.5 inches.
• If using an Instant Pot or stovetop pressure cooker, cook the beans on high for 1 hour 30 minutes. If using a regular pot, bring to a boil then turn down the heat to medium-low and cover. Cook on medium-low heat for about 4 to 5 hours. You will need to check the water levels if using a regular pot to make sure they don't get too low. The beans are finished cooking when they are easy to mush with a fork.
• Release the pressure from the pressure cooker (if using that method). Drain the beans in a strainer and reserve just a little bit of the bean cooking liquid (about 1.5 cups to 2 cups). Add the liquid back to the beans.
• Using a hand immersion blender, pulse the beans until desired consistency.
• Store the cooked beans in freezer-friendly storage bags. 

Make the Ful Medames Dip

• Defrost the ful (if using frozen)- see note 3. Add the ful medames to a bowl. Chop the tomato, cucumber, and onions. Mash the garlic with some salt using a mortar and pestle. Squeeze the lime.
• Add the tahini, mashed garlic, lime juice, ground cumin, salt, and pepper to taste. Mix with the mashed beans. Add the chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions. Mix all together. Add the olive oil on top.

Equipment

Instant Pot

Notes

1. If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can cook the beans on the stovetop in a large pot on medium heat covered for about 4 hours. Make sure there is a generous amount of water at all times, so the beans don't burn. I keep the water level between 2 inches and 3 inches making sure the water doesn't go below 1" at all times.
2. Nutritional information is only for the ful beans, not the ful medames dip.
3. Defrost the plain ful medames by adding the sealed freezer bag to a bowl of water. Alternatively, take the frozen bag of ful medames out of the freezer and put it in the fridge the night before. You can also defrost the ful on the stovetop with a little water.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 cup | Calories: 230 kcal | Carbohydrates: 16 g | Protein: 9 g | Fat: 16 g | Saturated Fat: 3 g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 13 g | Trans Fat: 0 g | Cholesterol: 0 mg | Sodium: 217 mg | Fiber: 5 g | Sugar: 2 g