Vegetarian recipes from Egypt

Everyday Egyptian cooking is largely vegetarian by construction: protein comes from pulses, above all fava beans and lentils, and energy from wheat and rice. The fat is oil, usually carrying cumin, coriander and garlic. The founding dish is ful medames, dried fava beans simmered for hours and then roughly crushed, dressed with oil and lemon. It is the standard breakfast, eaten with flatbread rather than cutlery.

The same bean, soaked and ground raw with fresh herbs, gives taameya, the Egyptian form of falafel, green inside because parsley and dill dominate the mix. Meals work by layering rather than by a single dish: koshari stacks rice, brown lentils and pasta, then covers them with tomato sauce, fried onions and garlic vinegar, each eater adjusting the seasoning at the table. Spice mixes are made dry and kept: dukkah, hazelnuts or roasted chickpeas ground with sesame and cumin, is used by dipping bread first in oil and then in the mix.