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 Egypt's national breakfast dish, eaten from street carts to family tables, and it is just as familiar in Sudan, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. It's also 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.