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Ful Nabet (Sprouted Fava Bean Soup)

Name: Ful Nabet (Sprouted Fava Bean Soup)
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Egyptian
Ingredients: 400 g Dried whole fava beans (ful hammam); 2 L Water, for cooking; 1 Onion, chopped; 6 Garlic cloves, crushed; 3 Tomatoes, grated; 2 tsp Ground cumin; 1 tsp Ground coriander; 1 tsp Chilli flakes; 4 tbsp Olive oil; 2 tsp Salt; 2 Lemons, to serve; 4 tbsp Coriander leaves, chopped

Dried fava beans soaked and left to sprout over three days, then simmered with cumin, garlic and tomato into a thin, savoury soup. Egyptians drink it through the cold months and it is the thing a household makes for somebody who is ill.

Source

Recipe by Egyptian home kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · Everyday Egyptian cooking — the fava beans, bread, greens and slow tomato pots that fill tables from Cairo apartments to Delta villages.

Egypt · the soup for the cold months — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms ful nabet as an Egyptian soup made from sprouted fava beans, particularly popular during the colder months and often prepared for sick people. The sprouting method, the tomato base, the salt-late rule, timings and quantities are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

سنة أولى مطبخ - Sana2oulamatba5 مطبخ نعمة - Neama Kitchen مطبخ الشيف هناء فهمي

⏱ 90 min🍽 6 servings🔥 230 kcal🇪🇬 Egypt🌶️

VeganVegetarianHalalDairy-freeGluten-freeNut-free

Steps

Soak the beans in plenty of cold water 12 hours. Drain, rinse and spread them in a colander lined with damp cloth.
Cover with another damp cloth and leave in a dark place 2–3 days, rinsing morning and night, until each bean has pushed out a white sprout 5–10 mm long.
💡 Rinse twice a day without fail and keep the cloth damp, never wet. Standing water sours the beans and you will smell it before you see it.
Boil the sprouted beans in the 2 L water 40 minutes until soft, skimming the foam. Do not salt yet.
Fry the onion in the oil 8 minutes, add the garlic, cumin, coriander and chilli for 2 minutes, then the grated tomato. Cook 8 minutes until thick.
Stir the tomato base into the beans with the salt and simmer 15 minutes. Mash a ladleful against the side of the pot to thicken it slightly.
Serve in bowls with coriander, a hard squeeze of lemon and eish baladi.

💡 Tips

Salt only after the beans are soft. Salted early, fava skins toughen and forty minutes becomes ninety.
The sprouting is not decoration — it is what makes the beans digestible and gives the soup its green, fresh taste against the cumin.