Middle East meets Far East in this innovative tofu dish. Arabic/Japanese fusion cooking? As for marinating tofu in za’atar, we’ve got an unusual za’atar pesto recipe that fuses the Middle Easts’ favorite herb with Italian cuisine, so why not? The recipe was adapted from the Tofu for Two blog, using a modified version of our […]
Every culture seems to have its ghee. This is smen, clarified butter from Morocco. It gives a flavor to all your food.
Asparagus season is short, so rush out to the market and get your asparagus while you can. Then cook it in one of these delicious ways. If you are lucky to forage asparagus, wild is better!
Matzah in the morning, as granola. Miriam shows you how. I’m not a great fan of matzah meal- based food – always excepting our delicious matzah balls. Plain matzah, spread with cottage cheese or butter, makes unexciting but predictable Passover breakfasts. Since strawberries are in season, it’s easy to make strawberry jam from our recipe […]
Grilled and drizzled with multiple Middle-Eastern flavors, this vegetarian eggplant side dish gets raves every time. Eggplant is the poor man’s meat. There must be a hundred Middle-Eastern recipes featuring the purple vegetable, like the surprising eggplant soup and the ever-popular baba ganoush. I first ate eggplant with tahini and labneh in a tiny Jerusalem […]
“Kneidlach” may be the only Yiddish word that an Israeli knows, but everyone knows that it means matzah balls. People tend to think of Israeli food as typically Middle Eastern, (like our labneh and potato salad with fava beans recipes) and so it most often is. Yet the culinary influence of Eastern European immigrants is […]
A classical Iranian dish, Fesenjan is chicken cooked in a rich walnut and pomegranate sauce. Scientists from the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, now proclaim that walnuts aren’t only tasty, they’re also good for you. According to studies cited by an article in the BBC News, the rich-tasting nut is so high in antioxidants that small […]
White fish stew is a healthier variation of meat stew and very tasty when treated Persian-style! There are all kinds of delicious Middle East recipes to choose from on Green Prophet, but not so many from the Persian kitchen. Guest blogger Dave Bishop sent this in and we just had to share. A true Iranian delicacy, […]
Fresh, green fava beans appear in the Middle East for just a few weeks. Eat them as they are or accent another vegetable with them. Those fat, ungainly-looking pods conceal a fleeting vegetable delicacy: fresh fava beans. Maybe it’s a good thing that the season for them is so short – it makes the work […]
Spiky artichokes and bristly cardoons, to be exact. If you're looking to enrich your menus with less meat and more vegetarian food, take advantage of these thorny vegetables while they're still in season.
Make your own chocolate treats with this easy sweet recipe. Valentine’s Day is behind us, but love of chocolate lingers (see our post on why Fair-Trade or organic chocolate is the ethical way to indulge). These rich mouthfuls have no added sugar and are packed with chocolatey goodness – a real slow-food dessert (like our […]
Put up a tomato confit on your next day at home. Yes, fresh tomatoes are but a dream in frozen Northern countries right now. But here in the Middle East, hot house tomatoes are abundant and surprisingly inexpensive. I had six fat ones on my kitchen counter, just at the cusp between very ripe and […]
A fine Mideast winter dish with protein-rich lentils and comforting noodles. According to author of The Book of Middle Eastern Food Claudia Rodin, flour noodles have been known here since ancient times and owe nothing to Italian pasta recipes. It’s pasta all the same, but known in the Middle East as rishta, from the Persian […]
Piquant with booze and naturally sweet, these grilled oranges are a quick, sophisticated dessert for a winter dinner. It’s still officially winter in the Middle East, although spring is making a premature appearance with warm, windy days and scanty rain. Orange trees shed their heady fragrance over sidewalks and gardens, while open-air markets display piles […]
The sweetly named carob tree produces a fruit that can be used as a chocolate substitute. Its cultivation is less harmful to the environment and it can made into syrups, desserts, spreads, toffees, drinks or used as a sweetener.