FUL is a popular breakfast or dinner dish year-round but in Ramadan, the breakfast table is considered incomplete without it. The crowd at every Ful store in the city a few hours before sunset shows how essential to the month this simple dish is. The Ful cook prepares it in its special urn by putting the beans and adding some lentils, cumin and water and letting it cook for an hour or more, stirring it occasionally. He sells it to customers in whatever amount they want and he fills the customer’s plate or heavy plastic bag with. He also sells a salad with it that consists of diced tomatoes, chopped coriander and chopped hot pepper. People prefer either to leave the salad on the side or put it on top of the Ful. They might also want to put some tahina and a little cumin on it.
Ful is usually eaten with a drizzle of olive oil or ghee and flat bread or tamees, another kind of round bread. For many people that is enough but some like to add a little flavor.
Smoked Ful:
Dice a quarter of an onion and spread it over the plate of Ful. Cut a piece of aluminum foil and make it into the shape of a little bowl and place it in the center of the plate. Put some oil of any kind or ghee in the foil bowl. Light a small piece of coal and let it heat up and then place it in the oil and immediately cover the plate with a lid. After two minutes lift the lid and remove the foil bowl.
Ful With Tahina:
Mix to your taste one or two tablespoons of tahina with the Ful and add a sprinkle of cumin. In a separate small bowl mix black vinegar or any flavored vinegar with a little diced garlic. Drizzle some of the vinegar mix over the Ful or keep it on the side for whoever wishes to add it.
Ful With Onions & Tomatoes Known as Qulaba:
Put a tablespoon of oil in a pan and put it on the stove. Dice half an onion and cook it in the oil. Dice half a tomato and half a garlic clove and add it to the onion and then sprinkle some black pepper and cumin and let it cook until the tomatoes soften. Add the Ful; mix together and serve.
