3 Deliciously Healthy Egyptian Recipes to Help You Stay Cool This Summer
The weather is really starting to warm up now and we’re all looking for light, healthy and refreshing meals to help us cope with the heat. While a nice, cold Gazpacho is sure to hit the spot, it’s also nice to keep things local, so we’ve decided to pay tribute to some Egyptian classics that work well during the hot summer months.
Besara
This fava-based dish has a long history that might even go as far back as the Ancient Egyptians, and while it fell out of fashion for a while, it’s making its comeback these days and we couldn’t be happier to see it on menus once again. Very similar to taameya (Egyptian falafel) in terms of ingredients, Besara is best served cold with some toasted baladi bread.
1 cup of yellow fava beans
2 onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped dill
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
3 cups boiling water
4-5 large onions, thinly sliced (for frying)
Heat the oil in a saucepan, and stir the onion and garlic until they turn golden. Add the fava beans, parsley, cilantro and dill, and add water until it covers your mixture. Once the water starts boiling, turn down the heat and leave all to cook slowly for about an hour. In a separate saucepan, add the thinly sliced onions to about 3 tbs olive oil and fry until crispy and golden brown, set aside for later. Leave to cool down, then process until smooth, adding the salt, pepper and cumin until you get a flavor you’re happy with. Keep refrigerated and add a generous amount of crispy fried onions on top just before serving.
Keshk Almazeya
Many of you might already be familiar with Keshk, a silky smooth pudding-like savoury dish traditionally made out of chicken broth and dried fermented milk (or yoghurt) mixed with cracked wheat, a specialty of Upper Egyptian cuisine. Keshk Almazeya, however, is a slightly different and less common take on the dish, where the addition of rice gives a completely different consistency to the final product. This dish can be served hot or cold.
1/2 cup Egyptian rice
2 cups milk (or 1 ½ cups yogurt mixed with a little extra broth)
2 1/2 cup chicken broth
4 tbs flour
1/4 cup olive oil
1 big onion, shredded
salt & pepper (black or white) to taste
Boil the rice in the chicken broth on medium heat, once the broth reaches a boil turn to low heat and let it cook till the grains become tender, then mix the flour with the milk or yoghurt well and add them to the rice, adding salt and pepper to taste. Let it simmer till it gets thicker and loses its starchy taste. Add the onion to the olive oil in a pan and let cook on medium to low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring regularly and making sure not to let them become too brown. Add the sautéed onion to the Keshk while it's simmering and stir for 2 minutes or so then turn of the heat. Serve with a side of roast chicken if you like, and sprinkle some fried onion on top of it for extra flavor and crunch.
Asab with a twist
Sugarcane juice is about as traditional as it gets, and is definitely a highlight of summer for so many here. But it can be a little too sweet for some, so to make it lighter and even more refreshing, let’s add a little twist.
1 liter sugarcane juice
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup fresh mint
Mix all 3 ingredients together in a large pitcher with ice, adding as much lemon juice as you like until you reach the perfect balance of sweet and sour (to each his own!). For the mint, you can finely chop it or blend it together with the juice, or you can choose to keep it whole, which looks absolutely gorgeous and won’t leave you with leaves in your teeth!
Bel Hana Wel Shefa!