Broad bean

Stewed broad beans – ful medames – are Egypt’s national breakfast, eaten with baladi bread from Alexandria to Aswan.

An annual plant of the legume family with a stiff, four-angled stem growing 1–1.5 m tall and pinnate, bluish-green leaves without tendrils. Its fragrant white flowers, with a dark blotch on the wings, are popular with bees. The fruits are thick, fleshy pods holding a few large, flat, protein-rich seeds. It is one of the oldest crops – it was domesticated in the Middle East in the Neolithic – and, like other legumes, its roots enrich the soil with nitrogen.

Significance in the country

Ful medames – broad beans simmered for hours over a low heat and served with olive oil, cumin and lemon – is the mainstay of the Egyptian breakfast and of street food; soaked broad beans are also fried into the Egyptian version of falafel, known as ta’ameya. Broad beans were already grown in the Nile Valley in ancient times.

Where it grows

Grown in winter in the Nile Valley in Middle and Upper Egypt (Minya, Asyut, Sohag, Qena), in Beni Suef and Faiyum, and in the Nile Delta.

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