Lentil soup - شوربة عدس

Will cure most ailments! Or at least bring temporary relief and warmth to your body.
I have always loved my mother's lentil soup but I never actually watched her make it. While living in Albuquerque with my sister Saba, I learned (or created) my own way of making it which is different from how my mother makes it. It's still very good and mama seems to like it too!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups red lentils
1 cup angel hair noodles
two cubes of chicken (or vegetable) broth, Knorr brand is good
1/2 tbsp cumin
1/2 onion chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Process:
Bring to a boil 8 cups of water with the 2 cubes of broth
Wash and rinse the lentils and add them to the boiling water
let boil for about 20 minutes

Check if the lentils have become soft, they will no longer look red or orange

Add the noodles and simmer until the noodles have become soft as well.
heat some oil and saute the chopped onion

Once the onions have been cooked to slightly brown pour them(with the oil they were cooked in) into the soup, adding the cumin at this point.

If it looks like it is getting too thick you may add a cup of water.
Let it simmer for another 10 minutes then it is ready to serve!

Spiced tea, or Chai

This one goes out to Sarita, she was my mentor for Elementary school student teaching in Albuquerque. She's from Nepal and always brought this tea to school and was kind enough to share it with me. She even had copies of the recipe with her so whenever she shared tea with anyone and they liked it, she would hand them a recipe.
I cannot find the paper she gave me, but I've been pretty successful at recreating it. Here it is, just in time for the colder evenings!

Ingredients:


1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tbsp ground cardamom
About 1 inch piece of fresh ginger root chopped into small pieces OR 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
6-8 cloves
5 tbsp loos leaf black tea (or about 6 teabags)
Sugar
Cream, milk or soymilk

Process:

Place 6 cups of water in a pot along with all the spices (cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves) and bring to a boil. After it has boiled turn down the heat and simmer for 45 minutes stirring every now and then.

Add the loose leaf tea (or teabags) and bring to a boil again, then simmer for another 30 minutes.
Add cream or milk and sugar as desired, (approx 1/2 cup of cream or two cups of milk plus 6-8 tbsp sugar) stir and bring to a boil again.

Use a tea strainer to serve, especially if you have used loose tea.

Enjoy!

Hummus (Chickpea dip)

Hummus is like the default lunch for me. When I'm lost in the kitchen, hummus always finds me. It can be eaten with so many things! Try it with pita bread (classic), carrot sticks, celery sticks, crackers, potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels! It can also be used as a sauce inside a falafel or Gyro sandwich. It's just plain good stuff.
I usually use canned garbanzo beans to make hummus, but this time I've made it from scratch and it tastes much better.

Ingrediants:

1/2 lb (8 ounces) of dried garbanzo beans
3-4 cloves of garlic (more of desired)
3 tbsp Tahini sauce (sesame seed sauce)
1/2 lemon
olive oil
salt

Process:
Wash the garbanzo beans and then soak them overnight. Make sure they are in a bowl larger than the amount of beans you have, they will expand.

Drain the water and place the beans in a large pot with fresh water, make sure there is twice as much water as your amount of beans. Add salt to taste and heat to boil. Let it boil on medium heat for about two hours, checking occasionally to see if the beans have softened.

Once they are soft enough remove from the stove. Wait for them to cool a bit. Place the beans, grated garlic, tahini sauce and some lemon juice all in the blender. Don't put all the broth into the blender, only add as needed if it becomes so thick the blender won't work. blend until smooth.

If you're making hummus using canned garbanzo beans, just open the can and put the beans and their juice into the blender along with the rest of the ingredients. 

Place in a dish, squeeze the rest of the lemon juice on top and drizzle with some olive oil. Garnish and serve as a dip with a variety of things (mentioned in the first paragraph)

 

Enjoy!

Baba Ghannouj (Eggplant dip) بابا غنوج

One of my favorite appetizer dishes is the eggplant dip. I guess I really like eggplant in general and I use it in many dishes.
Baba ghannouj reminds me of when I was young and my mother would take us to the swimming pool in the summer (in Baghdad). She would pack a bag of snacks and drinks, call a taxi and we'd be on our way to the pool for 4 to 6 hours of swimming. She would sit at the table reading her book as we swam and splashed about, running to the table when hungry. We always had potato chips to eat with the baba ghannouj and she often made us hamburgers for lunch. Every time I eat baba ghannouj I remember those days and a slight hint of swimming pool chlorine passes through my nose!

This is how I make Baba ghannouj, Enjoy!

Ingredients:

One medium/large eggplant
3-4 table spoons of yogurt (lowfat/fat free works too)
3-4 cloves of garlic (or more if you're into garlic)
One lemon or lime
One teaspoon of Tahina sauce (sesame seed sauce)
salt
Olive oil

Process:

Place the eggplant on a baking sheet or in a pan and bake in the over at about 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and poke a few times with a fork, turn it over and poke the other side and put it back in the oven for another 20-30 minutes.

When it is baked all the way through it will be very soft, remove from the over. Carefully (because it's hot) cut off the top.

Peel off the skin and cut the eggplant into pieces or shreds

 Throw it all in the blender with the yogurt, grated garlic, salt (however much you think you want), tahina sauce and half the lemon squeezed

Blend well until it's creamy and everything is mixed in. Place in a serving dish and decorate with tomato bits and any kind of greens you have. Squeeze the other half of the lemon on the surface then top it off with some olive oil. Serve with Pita bread or pita chips, kettle chips are very tasty with this dish too!