Shahan Ful
ሻሀን ፉል·(sha-han ful)
Qurs: The Slow Saturday Morning
If you close your eyes and imagine the perfect, lazy Saturday morning in Addis Ababa, it smells exactly like this: onions caramelizing, berbere blooming, and the sharp, bright promise of something deeply comforting. We're not soaking dried beans for seven hours or burying earthenware pots in embers today; high-quality canned fava beans get you that exact, soul-warming taste of home in under twenty minutes. This is "Special Ful," loaded to the brim with raw vegetables, yogurt, and eggs to cut the heat. Put away the injera—this is canonically scooped up with warm, crusty French bread, a delicious phantom limb from the brief Italian occupation.
Before you start
Hard-boil the eggs ahead of time.
Having the eggs boiled and peeled before you start the kulet ensures the fast 20-minute timeline of this recipe stays intact.
Ingredients
- olive oil2 tbsp
- red onion1 med
- garlic cloves3 large
- berbere spice blend1 tbsp
- ground cumin1/2 tsp
- tomato paste1 tbsp
- tomato1 med
- canned fava beans15 oz
- water1/4 cup
- ghee2 tbsp
- ground cardamom1 pinch
- ground fenugreek1 pinch
- berbere spice blend1 pinch
- tomato1/2 cup
- jalapeno1 med
- plain whole-milk yogurt1/4 cup
- eggs2 large
- French baguette1 large
Method
- 01
Build the aromatic foundation slowly.
Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, then add the diced red onion (save the reserved raw onion for later). Cook until deeply softened and translucent, about 6 to 8 minutes, before adding the minced garlic for one final minute.
- 02
Bloom the spices to wake them up.
Lower the heat slightly and stir the tablespoon of berbere and the cumin directly into the onions. Let them toast in the oil for 30 to 45 seconds until wildly fragrant, then stir in the tomato paste and chopped cooking tomato to meld for 2 minutes.
- 03
Simmer and mash the beans into a porridge.
Pour the entire can of fava beans and their starchy liquid into the pot along with the water. Bring to a gentle simmer and use the back of a wooden spoon or potato masher to roughly crush about half the beans directly in the pot, aiming for a thick, creamy texture. Simmer gently over low heat for 10 minutes.
- 04
Hack the niter kibbeh.
While the beans simmer, gently melt the ghee in a small pan or microwave and stir in the pinches of cardamom, fenugreek, and berbere to mimic the complex flavor of traditional clarified butter.
- 05
Plate the Special Ful mosaic.
Divide the piping hot stew into wide bowls, arranging neat piles of the reserved raw diced tomato, raw red onion, and minced jalapeno around the edges.
- 06
Garnish and serve immediately with bread.
Drop a dollop of yogurt in the center, nestle the halved hard-boiled eggs into the beans, and generously drizzle the spiced ghee over the whole bowl. Scoop it all up with torn pieces of the warm crusty baguette.
Notes
Sourcing the right berbere is non-negotiable.
Generic supermarket chili powders will entirely fail to replicate the complex flavor of this dish. Find a high-quality Ethiopian berbere blend online or at a local specialty market.
Respect the bannini.
Do not bend over backwards trying to source injera for this on a weeknight. Shahan Ful is one of the few Ethiopian dishes canonically eaten with crusty wheat bread.