This Lebanese Ful Medames with Soft Boiled Eggs is a PCOS-friendly recipe with 426 calories, 25.3g protein, and 37g carbs per serving. Ready in 22 minutes. High in fiber (9.5g), which supports insulin sensitivity.
Nutrition per Serving
Ful medames is warm fava beans dressed with garlic, lemon, cumin and olive oil. It is breakfast across Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. Here it gets two soft boiled eggs per bowl and fresh tomato on top. Each serving has about 426 calories, 25g of protein and 9g of fibre. It is dairy free, and cucumber stands in for the usual flatbread.
Grocery list:
- Fava beans (canned ful or dried)
- Eggs
- Tomato
- Spring onions
- Fresh parsley
- Cucumber
- Lemon
- Garlic
- Ground cumin
- Chilli flakes
- Olive oil
Nutrition notes: Figures are per bowl, worked from USDA FoodData Central values for every weighed ingredient, using unsalted cooked fava beans. Canned ful is often salted, so check the label.
Keeps: The dressed beans keep 3 days in the fridge. Warm them with a splash of water and add fresh toppings.
Ingredients
Instructions
-
Bring a small pan of water to the boil. Lower in the eggs and cook for 6 to 7 minutes. Cool them in cold water, then peel.Put the fava beans in a pan with 3 tbsp water. Warm over medium heat for 5 minutes.Add the garlic and cumin. Mash about half the beans with a fork so the mix turns thick and rough.Take off the heat and stir in the lemon juice and most of the olive oil. Season with salt.Spoon into two bowls. Top with the halved eggs, tomato, spring onions and parsley.Drizzle with the last of the oil, add chilli flakes, and serve with cucumber on the side.
Why this works for PCOS
Beans for breakfast sound odd at first. But a bowl of ful has the things a PCOS breakfast needs: protein, fibre and slow carbs. Each serving has 25g of protein and 9g of fibre against 37g of carbs.
Fibre and protein slow down how fast the carbs from the beans reach your blood. That makes ful a steadier start than toast or cereal, which digest fast.
The ingredients doing the work
- Fava beans: 300g give the fibre and half the protein in the bowl.
- Eggs: two per bowl, which lifts the protein to a full meal.
- Olive oil, lemon and garlic: the classic dressing, and the reason ful tastes so good.
Make it your own
Some cooks add tahini to the beans. If you do, a tablespoon is enough. Chickpeas work in place of half the fava beans if that is what you have.
How this fits a PCOS week
PCOS Meal Planner builds your week around meals like this one, keeps out the foods you avoid, and gives you one shopping list.
Why this Lebanese Ful Medames with Soft Boiled Eggs works for PCOS
With 25.3g of protein per serving (about 24% of calories), this Lebanese Ful Medames with Soft Boiled Eggs sits at the top end of the 25-35g per-meal range that the 2023 International PCOS Guideline recommends for managing insulin resistance and supporting lean mass. Higher-protein meals also blunt the glucose response when carbohydrates are included, which matters for women with PCOS because chronic insulin elevation drives androgen excess and irregular cycles.
The 37g of carbohydrates here come paired with 9.5g of fibre, which slows glucose absorption and produces a flatter post-meal blood sugar curve. Fibre is one of the most under-rated tools for PCOS: it feeds gut bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids linked to improved insulin sensitivity, and it modestly lowers circulating androgens by binding bile acids in the gut.
Fat makes up about 43% of calories in this dish. Dietary fat plays a load-bearing role in PCOS because sex hormones are synthesised from cholesterol, and very-low-fat eating can suppress hormone production over time. The 2023 PCOS guideline does not specify a strict fat target, but most clinicians recommend at least 25-35% of calories from a mix of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated sources.
Eating a substantial breakfast like this Lebanese Ful Medames with Soft Boiled Eggs is one of the highest-leverage moves you can make for PCOS. In the Jakubowicz et al. 2013 trial published in Clinical Science, women with PCOS who front-loaded calories to breakfast reduced fasting insulin by 56% and increased ovulation rates 50%, with no change in total calories. Front-loading works because insulin sensitivity is highest in the morning and lowest at night.
You Have a Recipe. But Do You Have a Full Week?
One great recipe is a start. A complete PCOS meal plan is a system. Here is how to go from one meal to a full week of eating that supports your hormones.
Free. Personalized. No signup required to start.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, this Lebanese Ful Medames with Soft Boiled Eggs recipe is designed to be PCOS-friendly. At 426 calories per serving with 25.3g of protein, it supports balanced blood sugar and hormonal health. It also provides 9.5g of fiber, which helps with insulin sensitivity.
This recipe takes about 22 minutes total. Prep time is 10 minutes and cook time is 12 minutes. It makes 2 servings, so you can meal prep for multiple days.
Per serving: 426 calories, 25.3g protein (24%), 37g carbs, 20.4g fat. Plus 9.5g fiber. PCOS meal plans typically aim for 30% protein, 35% fat, 35% carbs to support insulin sensitivity.
Yes, this recipe works well as a PCOS-friendly Breakfast. At 426 calories, it fits within typical PCOS meal plan targets for Breakfast. Pair it with other PCOS-friendly foods throughout the day for balanced nutrition.
This recipe can be part of a structured PCOS meal plan. It makes 2 servings, making it great for meal prep. For a complete weekly plan tailored to your PCOS type, take our free 60-second quiz at pcosmealplanner.com/pcos-quiz to get a personalized 7-day meal plan.
Cook Another PCOS-Friendly Breakfast
Each recipe you add to your rotation makes PCOS management easier. Variety keeps you from getting bored and quitting.
Rate this recipe
Register or log in to rate this recipe