Skip to main content
Main

Ful

A spicy fava bean dish cooked with onions, tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and spices, served with bread.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Ful

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ful

  1. Heat oil in a pan.

  2. Add the onions and brown them.

  3. Add all other ingredients except for the fava beans.

  4. Coarsely mash the beans and add to the mixture.

  5. Cook until ingredients are well blended.

Serve

  1. Serve with bread.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

211Calories
4 gProtein
15 gFat
19 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Beannot in our table0
Coriandernot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Tomato + oreganotop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,767 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Parsley + oreganotop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fava beans
Provide the main body and starch, and mash to a thick, spoonable texture.
Onion
Browns in the oil to add sweetness and savory depth to the base.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that helps blend the mixture into a sauce.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens as it cooks.
Vegetable oil
Carries the spices and aromatics and adds richness to the dish.

The step that matters

Coarsely mash the beans and cook until well blended. Mashing only part of the beans leaves some whole for texture while the mashed portion thickens the mixture. Cooking long enough lets the starch and tomato juices combine into a cohesive sauce rather than separate components.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, onion, tomato, garlic, parsley, coriander, oregano):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, onion, tomato, garlic, parsley, coriander, oregano. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes