Category Archives: yogurt

Eggplant in yogurt sauce (Batenjane be-laban)

The recipe for this dish was generously shared with me by a lady chef who told me that it comes from Tripoli, Lebanon’s Northern coastal city. It is simpler to make than other eggplant and yogurt dishes and just delicious; the eggplant is silky and the cooked yogurt sauce light; the ensemble is divine. Recipe courtesy [...]
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Yogurt soup

If I had to make a sweeping statement about Middle-Eastern culinary taste,  I’d say ” You’ve got to love yogurt!”. Yogurt is an intrinsic part of our food. When I was a kid growing up in Beirut, we’d get our weekly supply of yogurt delivered by a man wearing a sherwal (traditional trousers) and wearing a villager’s [...]
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Eggplant casserole (Fattet betenjan)

Hardly any dish in the Middle-East is more finger-licking or easier to prepare. Layer a food with fried pita croutons and a  yogurt sauce flavored with tahini and a touch of garlic; oh, and a sprinkling of butter-fried nuts to top it off. Above is a diet version of the eggplant fatteh which is poor [...]
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Eggplants in a pomegranate and walnut sauce

This eggplant dish is meatless however it will leave you totally satiated. The walnuts and bulgur do the trick: Paired  with fresh pomegranate juice, pomegranate molasses,  garlic and a touch of cinnamon, they deliver depth of flavor and a sweet/tart taste. I came up with this last summer but go back to it whenever it [...]
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Homemade yogurt

One of my grandmother’s weekly tasks at home was making a fresh batch of yogurt every week; I could still see her, stirring the pot with the long wooden spoon and wrapping it with a blue wool blanket. If you care about your health and want a long life, switch to yogurt and eat it [...]
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