Ful Medames

Ful medames is fava beans simmered until they soften into a coarse mash, dressed with olive oil, lemon and garlic and eaten with flatbread. It's Lebanon's everyday breakfast stew, and it's genuinely old — versions of it turn up in food history stretching back thousands of years, making it one of the longest-running dishes still eaten in more or less its original form across the wider region.

What it really is

Dried fava beans soak overnight, then simmer slowly, sometimes with a few whole chickpeas added, until they're tender enough to mash coarsely with a fork right in the pot — the beans should hold some texture, not blend into a smooth paste. A generous pour of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and crushed garlic dress it while it's still warm, and a scatter of chopped tomato, parsley and a dusting of cumin finish the bowl.

The beans are meant to stay coarsely mashed, not smooth. A version blended fully into a purée loses the texture that separates ful medames from a bean dip like hummus — the point is a rough, spoonable mash you can still see individual softened beans in, eaten straight from the bowl with torn flatbread rather than scooped like a dip.

How it's served

• Warm, in a bowl, mashed coarsely rather than blended smooth.
• With olive oil, lemon, garlic, chopped tomato and parsley worked through or added at the table.
• As breakfast, though it's eaten at other times of day too.

How to write it on the menu

• It's naturally vegan and vegetarian.
• No major allergens are inherent to the base recipe.
• Say if a few whole chickpeas are mixed in, since some versions include them and some don't.

The ingredients, allergens and dietary notes listed here describe a typical recipe. They are not a binding declaration for any particular restaurant: recipes, portion sizes and the products used can differ.