One of my favorite new-ish shows is PBS’s No Passport Required with Marcus Samuelsson. Each episode explores the immigrant communities and food within different U.S. cities. There have only been 6 shows, but I’m hooked. Each episode includes Chef Samuelsson meeting, hanging out, and eating with members of the different immigrant communities in Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago, Queens, Miami, and Washington, D.C.
Not only is the show really interesting and informative, it’s difficult to not get hungry while watching,! PBS luckily includes some recipes on their website. But there was one I was hoping they’d post and at least as of this post, it’s not there: Ful Medames from the Washington, D.C. episode which highlighted the Ethiopian community in our nation’s capital.
Ful Medames is a breakfast dish of mashed fava beans, topped with hard boiled eggs, feta cheese, tomato, and jalapeno. I’ve had a bag of dried fava beans sent to me from Bob’s Red Mill in my pantry for a while now, and I knew they were destined for this recipe. Not only does Ful Medames sound fantastic, but my husband is currently training for a marathon, and this sounded like the perfect fuel after a long training run.
Ful Medames gets a lot of its flavor from a spice blend called berbere. Berbere is an Ethiopian spice mixture that usually includes chilies, garlic, ginger, basil, fenugreek, coriander, and cardamom. It is spicy, but I adjusted so this version doesn’t have too much heat. Feel free to add more for spiciness. For my local Philadelphians, I found berbere in The Head Nut in Reading Terminal, but there are recipes online to make your own at home if you don’t live near a spice shop. Penzey’s also has a version of berbere.
My version isn’t terribly authentic, but the general idea is there. I used soft boiled eggs instead, solely because I don’t love hard boiled eggs. Feel free to substitute in hard-boiled.
Note: Before cooking with the fava beans, be sure to soak them overnight.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups dried fava beans, soaked overnight
- 5 cups water, plus more as needed
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided, plus more for serving
- 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons berbere, divided
- 3/4 teaspoon cumin, divided
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 4 eggs (omit for vegan)
- 1 tomato (or ~4 oz cherry tomatoes), finely chopped
- 1 jalapeno, seeds and membranes removed, finely chopped
- 2 oz feta cheese (omit for vegan)
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- the juice of 1 lemon
- Pita bread, for serving (omit for gluten free)