It’s only been the last couple of years since I’ve started cooking with white beans (also known as cannellini beans, great northern beans, and habichuelas blancas in Spanish). I’m not sure where it started, but I know that I began making more dishes using them when I lived in Turkiye because they were so widely available.
What I love about them is that they are so soft and smooth and feel light in dishes. Sometimes after eating other beans, I feel heavy or too full, or the texture of the beans seems to be a bit rough, but that’s not the case with white beans; they are so nice in soups and stews and let the meat and other veggies take on the role of giving a rougher texture to your taste buds; this also makes them nice in salads.
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The most fortuitous of all dishes with white beans for me has been in making a hummus out of white beans, rather than the rgw traditional chickpeas. I’m not sure if this is because I have better success and luck with white beans when I make hummus as opposed to chickpeas which, for some reason just seem so much harder for me to make a really fantastic hummus. It also just feels softer on my stomach than chickpeas, but that could just be me. Whatever the actual reason, I’m just so glad I’ve made it and can share this recipe with you.
If using dry beans, be sure to cook them far enough in advance to allow them to cook thoroughly and to cool off well in advance of preparing the hummus.
Drain the beans of any excess liquid. To a blender, add the beans, water, sea salt, garlic clove. Blend on high until the mixture is quite smooth. Add the tahini and blend once again until completely smooth.
Pour the mixture into a serving dish or bowl and garnish with desired toppings such as crushed red pepper, sumach and parsley (fresh or dried).
Serve with pita chips, rustic pita bread or any type of fresh bread that will hold up to this mixture.
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One thing I love to do in Ramadan is to experiment with super simple ways to serve dates for Iftar. This one was inspired by my desire to make yogurt cheese, or labneh instead of creme fraiche or mascarpone cheese. I didn’t fill the middle of each date with any nuts, but you can if you want. Aside from pitting the Medjool dates, this was just so very easy.
To the top, I added crushed pistachios, light Acacia California honey, and a sprinkle of bee pollen just because I wanted to get those into my diet. If you have allergies to bees, you might want to be careful adding bee pollen, plus it doesn’t have the most desirable taste, but I’m used to it (I put it in my cereal).
To make your own yogurt, check out my quick-to-prepare recipe here and here.
Either way, this is so incredibly easy and quick to whip up for your guests or just for yourself at home. I think they’re pretty, too. Ramadan Mubarak!
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Have you ever come up with a dish that is so tasty you think you invented it yourself, only to find out later that it’s actually one of the great national dishes of not one but many different nations?
Well, that happened to me when I thought I was a culinary genius for coming up with the most delicious breakfast egg dish I’d ever eaten. I was simply using leftover ingredients that I had on hand from my mostly Italian/Sicilian/Mediterranean cooking. Well, little did I realize that everywhere from Palestine to Turkey to Lebanon and Algeria, everyone has been making this dish, or something very similar to it: Shakhshouka (also spelled Shakshuka).
In Turkey, the same ingredients (onion, peppers, tomato sauce) are used but the eggs are scrambled and the dish is called Menemen. An Italian version might use leftover tomato sauce, and in Algeria or Morocco they spell it Chakchouka. In some Middle Eastern recipes they add nutmeg; I do not ever put nutmeg in mine.
I recently worked on a video project for American Muslims for Palestine called Turning Tables, so watch out for that to be published in the near future. I was asked to make a Palestinian recipe or one that was inspired by Palestinian cuisine, so I decided to make my version of Shakhshouka, inspired by the cookbook, The Gaza Kitchen by Laila Al-Haddad, which now has a new and updated version.
Gently warm the olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the onion, green and red peppers and jalapeno. Cook until the peppers have softened. Add the sea salt and ground pepper as they cook.
Add the tomato paste and swirl around the pan to dissolve it as much as possible. Add 1-2 teaspoons of water to thin it out. Add the paprika. Cook until the water has mostly evaporated.
With a wooden spoon, carve out 4 round spots in the pan and crack one egg into each spot. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let cook until the white membrane of the eggs have cooked and whitened.
Remove from heat and drizzle the dish with olive oil, the crumbled feta and chopped parsley. Serve family style on a hot plate on the table, with fresh and warm pita bread.
Bismillah and Sahtein!
You can see a slightly different, faster version that I made for breakfast recently and posted on my Instagram page:
Fatteh is this super delicious Middle Eastern dish that at its base has dried or toasted bread and ground meat (lamb or beef) on top of the bread. What goes on top of the meat depends on what you have on hand or what you like. Most likely, that is how it evolved in the first place, depending upon local ingredients and availability, as it is common in Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine, just to name a few. To me, it is such an enjoyable dish and I could easily make and enjoy it a few times a month since most of the ingredients are things I almost always have on hand: bread, meat, yogurt, lemon, herbs and spices.
I have made fatteh before with beef and eggplant, and pomegranate on top. I also made the yogurt sauce in a little more complicated way than in this recipe. For the yogurt sauce in this particular recipe, I simplified it a lot and have found that the result is just as good.
This recipe also has chickpeas, which gave it a hearty texture and made it even more filling than I expected. No need for side dishes on the table, in my opinion. Maybe just some extra yogurt sauce since that is so very good.
*Some people even refer to this as “Middle Eastern Nachos”. Hmm…what do you think?
One large or two medium pieces of pita bread, cut into 1-inch thick long strips
Directions
Using a large saute pan, heat the olive oil very gently. Add the onion, increase the heat to medium and cook until translucent.
Add the meat, ground cumin, paprika, salt and pepper. Let cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chickpeas and pepper flakes and combine well. Continue to cook for another 5-7 minutes.
While the meat is cooking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the bread on a baking tray and bake for 5-7 minutes or until the bread has toasted. Remove from the oven and set aside.
Prepare an extra large bowl or deep bottom serving dish. Arrange all of the toasted bread pieces along the bottom. Add the cooked meat and chickpeas mixture on top.
Drizzle the yogurt sauce on top generously, reserving 1/2 cup for additional use at the table for anyone who would like more. Top with the dried parsley and sumac, then serve.
My friend and sister Zainab Ismail is a powerhouse of a teacher of Prophetic foods (the foods that the Prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him, used to eat). She always posts really beautiful photos of sunnah foods on her Fit for Allah Facebook and Instagram pages and recently posted a photo of dates with cucumbers because this combination is a sunnah. it’s also said to make a person gain weight, which is not a bad thing for people who actually need to safely put on a few pounds/kilos. It should be done healthily and safely, right?
*That said, I need to make a disclaimer here and say – this information is NOT intended as medical advice. Please seek professional medical attention when necessary.
It’s also interesting because the reason for combining the two is a way to gain weight. Well, who really wants to gain weight? I wouldn’t think so, but in terms of calories, fasting in Ramadan would actually be a great time to gain highly nutritious calories. This is one way to do it.
According to Tib-e-Nabi (Medicine of the Prophet), there are not only numerous benefits to cucumber and date alone, but the combination proves a healthy, complementary marriage of nutrition.
Cucumber is insipid and tasteless, and dates are sweet which results in the cucumber also tasting sweet. Both are opposite to each other & cucumbers are rich in water contains.
Tib-e-Nabi
Combine Medjool dates with fresh cucumber and add some mascarpone, creme fraiche, sour cream, or labneh on top. Or, to keep it dairy-free, simply toss it in a salad with oranges, cucumbers, add some other greens, if you like. You could even add some extra virgin olive oil, too. There are so many ways to eat clean, healthy, and Halal. Bismillah!
On the dairy side of things, I have already included links to individual products, but I’d like to say that my favorite dairy products (USA) come from several key sources. These are places I have been to personally, visited and spoke with farmers and locals– and seen the cows! So, I believe their farmers and businesses, many of which are co-ops, should be supported so that they can continue to bring us the very best of what they do.
I also show you how to make your own mascarpone and creme fraiche in the My Halal Kitchen cookbook, and there is a recipe for homemade labneh on this site.
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I expect to be indoors for about a month, although it could be a much longer time than that. Before going stir crazy, I think about food projects I can do that will actually empower me to extend or preserve foods that I don’t always do. Yogurt is just one of those foods that I’m not so great at eating very often, but I like to keep it in the fridge for a variety of recipes, as a sour cream substitute, and for any tummy aches because it’s such a good probiotic, which is essential to gut health- but….it can be a little difficult on those of us who are lactose-intolerant and for me, this has become an even bigger issue while I’ve been in Turkey, for some reason. That said, I opt for making yogurt cheese, commonly known throughout the Middle East as labneh. Here’s how I make it:
I use four things: a cheesecloth to hold the yogurt, twine or a clip or rubber band to tie the cloth, a colander/strainer where the yogurt can drip, and a bowl underneath that to catch it all.
I prefer to use organic cheesecloth because other cotton towels may be bleached, which is no bueno for our food…
I use twine or rubber band to tie the cloth and also make a loop if using twine because sometimes I like to drain this over the sink for a couple of hours.
Anything longer than that and I put the whole contraption I’ve showed you into the fridge.
This is the process of how I make it. Here’s how the final result looks at this link. You can make this delicious recipe with the yogurt cheese as a spread with pomegranates, hazelnuts or other nuts. Get it here.
You can also get this recipe in my cookbook, available here.
If you want to even go further and make your own yogurt, you can get your own starter and begin that process, too. From there, you should never have to buy yogurt again!
