In Jordan, ful is made just like hummus in a form of a dip, usually made with tahini, garlic, tomato, lemon juice, ground cumin, olive oil, green peppers and salt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ful_medames
This journey through the world of ful has been more fun than most of my previous deep dives. Jordan is the third country I’ve explored, and each one has had remarkably different recipes. With the other dishes I’ve explored this way, by the third or fourth recipe, it’s starting to be a game finding the subtle differences, but in this case, we’re looking at entirely different dishes. I mean, yes, there are some similarities in ingredients and presentation, but the actual cooking methods have been quite different. In Egypt, everything was cooked together and served hot. In Syria, the whole beans are swimming in a yogurt-tahini sauce. And here in Jordan, the beans are prepared like hummus,
And yes, it really is pretty much making hummus with fava beans. The beans are easier to mash (and tastier) when warm, so we heat the beans a little, then mash with garlic, green chili, lemon juice, and tahini. I didn’t add any olive oil to the mash, leaving it just as garnish, but it wouldn’t hurt to add some to the beans as well. If you want to be fancy, you can push the mashed beans through a sieve before adding the tahini, etc, to remove the skins. I wasn’t trying to impress anyone, so I didn’t bother with that step.
Just like the other ful dishes we’ve explored, this is frequently served for breakfast, but can be enjoyed any time of day.
While the ful dip itself is tasty, I think the accompaniments you serve with it are equally important. I served it with warm pita, fresh cucumbers, radishes, green onions, yellow bell peppers, and assorted olives and pickled vegetables, which I think really complemented the dish and took it to the next level. Granted, I hadn’t really had any fresh vegetables in several days beforehand, so that may have colored my opinion.
Researching this recipe was a little frustrating. There’s very little English-language content about ful recipes other than the Egyptian one, so I’m translating my search into Arabic, and then running results through Google Translate, since the built-in translation plugin in my Safari browser doesn’t seem to be very reliable for Arabic (Tahini almost always gets translated as “flour”, among many other strange translations). Google does seem to perhaps be eliminating some of the floweriness of the Arabic language, but returns a recipe using measurements and ingredients that actually make sense.
The frustrating part was that I had to pretty much translate every recipe before I could determine if it was for the style of ful I was looking for, or a recipe from some other country. I deleted most of my spreadsheet and started over several times as I started to recognize a few different versions that didn’t really belong together. Many of the recipes I used came from Cookpad.com* (which seems to be the most popular equivalent to something like Allrecipes.com* in the Middle East). I actually wound up with 30 entries in my spreadsheet (on average, my recipe creation spreadsheets have less than 20 entries), and probably skipped at least that many more recipes that weren’t for the dish I was looking for, so you can see how it might get frustrating.
Anyway, as frustrating as it was to research this recipe, eating it made it worth it. It’s quick and easy to make, so you should try it too!
Jordanian Ful Medames
Serves: 2-3
Prep: 15 minutes
Total: 15 minutes
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1 14-oz. can fava beans
¼ cup water
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ teaspoon ground cumin
2 cloves garlic
1 small green chili, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons tahini
1 small tomato, finely diced
1 Tablespoon parsley, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Optional:
⅔ teaspoon red chili powder
2 teaspoons white vinegar
160 g dry fava beans, soaked overnight and boiled until soft (in place of canned)
¼ cup cooked garbanzo beans, for garnish
1 small pinch sumac, for garnish
⅔ green bell pepper
1 small onion
Drain and rinse the fava beans, then place them in a small pot with ¼ cup of water, ½ teaspoon of salt, and the ground cumin. Heat until warmed.
Meanwhile, crush garlic, green chili, and ½ teaspoon salt in a mortar and pestle until smooth. Stir in the lemon juice.
Once the beans are warm, set aside a few nice-looking beans for garnish, and mash the remaining beans thoroughly. If desired, you can force them through a mesh strainer to remove the skins.
Once the beans are mashed, stir in the tahini and about half of the garlic-chili-lemon mixture. Taste and add more as desired.
Spread the bean paste in a shallow serving dish and garnish with tomatoes, parsley, the remaining garlic-chili mixture, and the set aside whole beans. Drizzle with olive oil, and serve with plenty of warm pita for dipping, and pickles, olives, and fresh vegetables on the side.
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Lorin cooks Legumes 
Yum! Save me a plate!
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