Recipe: Cranberry Bean "Fool Mudammas" (aka Borlotti Beans)

Cranberry Bean "Fool Mudammas" (aka Borlotti Beans)

I'd never worked with Cranberry beans (also known as Borlotti beans) before. By appearance they reminded me of pinto beans with more spots. I knew they were best known for use in Italian soups. But when I boiled them up and tasted them, the flavor immediately reminded me of dried fava beans. And that got me craving Foul Mudammas. (Which can also be spelled Fool Mudammas, or Ful Medames, or Foul Moudammas, yikes!).

Foul is a dish that originated in Egypt and is eaten all over the Middle East and East Africa. It is most often served for breakfast, with a flatbread. And of course there are many local variations. I've had it with a mix of fava beans and garbanzos (chickpeas), thick as refried beans or thin as a soup, insanely garlicky or totally mild, topped with a hardboiled egg or not, and even served with Italian bread at an Ethiopian restaurant, with lots of sliced chilis.

For American tastes, most people (sadly) wouldn't want this for breakfast but would love it for a healthy, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free dinner.

Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure cranberry beans are not an authentic choice! I suppose not by definition since "foul" means favas. But the flavor and texture was so close, I thought it would work, and it did to my taste.

For the recipe below, you can of course use canned beans, just skip to step 2. Feel free to switch back to fava beans instead of the borlotti beans.

Cranberry Bean (aka Borlotti Beans) "Foul Mudammas"
Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free
Serves about 4 as a main course, or more as part of a meze

1.5 c. dry cranberry (borlotti) beans or 3 c. canned beans of your choice
6 cloves garlic
juice of 1-2 lemons
2 T. olive oil plus more for garnish
salt
cherry tomatoes, cut in half
green onions, white parts only, cut in half lengthwise and then 1/4" pieces
radishes, sliced thin
black pepper

If using dried beans, rinse them, pick over to get rid of any extraneous material, and boil in a large amount of unsalted water until tender. You can also soak them overnight beforehand to reduce the cooking time.
Crush the garlic to a paste in a mortar and pestle with a bit of kosher salt. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, use a garlic press or a knife.
Drain the beans and return them to a saucepan with water to just cover. Bring back to a boil and reduce to a simmer for five minutes.
Add the garlic, the lemon juice, olive oil and 2 t. of salt. Turn off the heat.
With the bottom of a glass, or something else large and flat, carefully crush some of the beans to create a thick broth with about 1/2 the beans remaining semi-whole.
Taste and adjust with more salt and/or lemon juice.
Put the beans in a bowl, and garnish with a good quantity of tasty olive oil, cherry tomatoes, green onions, radishes, and black pepper. Sliced hard-boiled egg is nice too.
Serve with pita bread or other flatbread.

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Published on May 08, 2008.

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Jim Fowler commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

Thanks for honest and thoughtful writing on this subject. I am very like you but not as eloquent... Jim

renato commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

When I say umans, I'm meaning HUMANS.

renato commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

I've always seen myself as a "potential vegetarian" or an omnivore with vegeterian tendencies, or whatever, but that was never something I gave thoughts about.

Since childhood I've prefered salads and vegetables over meat - with the exception of fish. But you know, living with people who eat meat all the time, you end up eating meat too, even not liking it at all.

Well, I went to Argentina, my favorite neighbour country (time to say, I'm Brazilian). In Argentina all they eat is meat. They are much more carnivores than omnivores. So, that was ok for me, cause since then I didn't have any concern about eating meat, except its taste. But one week of it made me so sick.

When I returned to Brazil I thanked so much God or the deities or the powers of nature (you see, I have no standard religion) for the incredible amount of vegetables we have here - I believe it doesn't compare to anywhere in the world. Fresh vegetables! I decided to stop eating meat. Many of my friends were going vegetarian at the same time. Thanks to the Universe and its forces, or to simple coincidence. And most importantly, add to that that my pet dog was run over by a bus and I could see all that suffering and trauma in her eyes. And my own despair. There came the realization that there are feelings between us umans and animals. "Do animals have feelings?" is not a necessary question for me, since I have feelings towards them, and that's enough. For your curiosity's sake, she recovered very very well. Dogs are so resistant!

I do very ocasionally eat fish and seafood - so I'm actually pescetarian, which is a specific kind of omnivorism. But meat... since I made my decision I tried meat one more time, but it tasted quite rotten, like a dead thing (which indeed it is). I can't stand the smell of animal fat anymore.

Hard to put up with people that think you'll die or get terribly sick if you don't eat meat. So to deal with it I started reading a lot about vegetarianism, and related issues. You know, a little database to try to argue with meat lovers. Most of the texts I've found are just ideological pamphlets, just too irate to be valid. Yours, Michael, is one of the few that address the issue in a nonpassionate, tolerant way. It made me realise that a diet is a matter of choice and should be adressed in a simple, natural way. It's as simple as choosing a pair of shoes to wear (assuming you're not a girl), especially when you feel good about it.

Sarah commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

My reasons are similar to yours, but slightly different. I just find the idea of eating the flesh of another living creature, a creature that can feel pain, and has free will, simply barbaric. We're all connected, I don't see a tremendous difference between eating a cow and eating a human, both disgust me beyond belief. I don't think we should be feeding ourselves on death, it just seems wrong. Armed with this, I can combat any possible circumstance people hypothetically construct for meat eating.
It frustrates me when people demand explanations for my choice, and mock me for my lifestyle, thank you for writing such a well voiced and intelligent article that helps to combat the antipathy many meat eaters seem to feel towards vegetarians.

Michael Natkin commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

Thanks Amber! I started when I was 18, so I remember well how much flak you take at that age. For what it is worth, it gets a lot easier as you get older and the people around you are more accepting.

Spa Flyer commented on How to Make Fluffy Couscous - Easy Couscous Recipe:

Wow, thanks for the tip. I only recently discovered cous cous and just love it. I was curious why it was fluffy sometimes, and not others, and thought it was the water. I think now it was the depth or narrowness of the various bowls I was using. I'll use my big, flat roasting pan next time. Thank you!

frantic foodie commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

Michael, love the way you wrote this one, was a vegetarian for 5 years. You should print this and wear it on your forehead, that way people won't even have to ask

Amber commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

I've been a vegetarian for 4 years. I'm only 17, so I seem to get more flack from meat-eaters about my decision. It's always pretty hard for me to get my point across to people who ask because I tend to get angry or flustered and I just drop the subject before I start crying or yelling. This article explains exactly why I made my decision and continue to live by it. So, when people ask me from now on, I do believe I will tell them the URL to this article. Thank you, and I will also be checking out this website from now on.

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