Ful Medames

Ful medames is a stew of cooked fava beans dressed with olive oil and cumin, often finished with lemon juice, garlic, onion, chopped parsley or chili pepper, and traditionally cooked and served from a large tapered metal jug called an idra. It is considered a national dish of Egypt, and some writers trace it as far back as ancient Egypt, though the clearest early evidence for fava bean cooking in the region comes from a cache of thousands of dried fava beans found at a late Neolithic site near Nazareth and from references to bean dishes in the Jerusalem Talmud dating to around the fourth century. From Egypt the dish spread across the wider region and today it is eaten as a breakfast staple in Sudan, Libya, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Horn of Africa, usually mashed and served with bread, making it one of the most widely eaten daily breakfasts in the Middle East and North Africa.