Tomatoes stuffed with bulgur and fava beans

June 3, 2009  •  Category:

 

I wanted to make a vegetarian dish for my son.


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INGREDIENTS: Quantity will feed up to 6 people

  • 1 cup of coarse burghul #4, rinsed and soaked in 2 cups of tap water for 15 minutes
  • 3 cups of broth (can be  vegetable or chicken)
  • 1 medium onion (5 oz), chopped
  • 3 Tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 Tablespoon of cilantro pesto
  • 1/2 bag of frozen beans ( about 2 cups)
  • Spices consisting of salt, pepper, allspice, cinnamon, coriander, paprika or smoked paprika if you like a bit of heat (1/2 teaspoon each, or to your liking)
  • 6  tomatoes, preferably vine tomatoes
  • 1 cup of yogurt

METHOD:

  1. Core the tomatoes and puree the tomato flesh in a min-processor, removing the seeds.
  2. Simmer the broth gently in a small saucepan and add the tomato puree.
  3. Heat the oil in a pot and fry the onion  for a few minutes until golden. Add the drained bulgur and stir it in the pot until all the grains are coated with oil and it gets a bit toasted. Add the spices and stir. Add the beans and stir one minute.
  4. Add all at once 2 cups of  the hot broth and stir the pot once, then cover it and let the grains swell up and absorb the broth for  20 minutes. At this point, add the cilantro pesto and stir a bit.
  5. Stuff the tomatoes  with the bulgur mixture and cover them with their tops. Place them in an ovenproof serving dish and pour the remaining broth at the bottom of the dish. Cover and bake in a moderate oven about 30 minutes.
  6. Serve warm with some cold yogurt to spoon over. Sahteyn!

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NOTE:

If you don’t have cilantro pesto in your freezer,  use some fresh chopped cilantro (about 3 tablespoons) with a teaspoon of mashed  garlic, sauteed only thirty seconds in a small skillet with one tablespoon of  extra-virgin olive oil.

Comments

8 Comments  •  Comments Feed

  1. Reply

    Nick says:

    I followed your recipe to the letter and it tasted fantastic.

    Thank you!

    On June 3, 2009 at 5:53 pm

  2. Reply

    Leyla says:

    Hello Joummana,
    Do you know the dish riz belfoul?

    On August 31, 2009 at 11:08 pm

  3. Reply

    dana says:

    Hi Joumana,

    This is a very nice presentation. I prepared the bulgur with the fool only for a quick lunch. Per my mother-in-law such a combination is called “ba’let fool”.

    To me, the first crop of tender green fava pods signaled the beginning of spring. I used to love eating straight out of the pod 😉 My mom had myriad ways of preparing it: in a stew, with rice pilaf, with olive oil and lemon (fool mzayat0 and with yoghurt (fool b’laban), but my favorite way is when it is served with cocktails and mezze:

    Drop shelled fava beans in a pot of salted boiling water and cook till tender. The frozen variety often takes about 10 minutes.
    Drain into a serving bowl, reserving some of cooking liquid. Add the reserved cooking liquid and enough cold water to submerge the beans,
    Add the juice of one lemon (or more to taste), a dash of salt, 1/2 tsp of cumin and 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper.
    Mix all and server.

    Yummy 😉

    On January 24, 2010 at 8:40 am

    • Reply

      Joumana says:

      Dana
      I have never had it like this and it sounds so good and easy! My mom loves fool too especially with laban. I just saw a recipe for it with similar spices but crushed in oum mouncifrayan’s surmatable.blospot.

      On January 24, 2010 at 9:42 am

  4. Reply

    dana says:

    I love the fool b laban recipe. I just asked my Mom about it today. She told me to get the most tender pods, remove the side strings and then cook in boiling water until tender and well done.

    Drain in a colander then squeeze all moisture out of the pods and the beans by hand. She said to keep on squeezing and mashing the pods and beans till a smooth mixture results (sounds like a labor intensive step).

    She them mixes them with garlicky yoghurt and garnishes the surface with lots of scallions and fresh mint.

    I’ve never seen young pods of fava beans here before. Have you had better luck?

    On January 24, 2010 at 10:08 pm

    • Reply

      Joumana says:

      No! But I will keep my eyes open! I like your mom’s recipe a lot and I’m not familiar with it, it sounds perfect for spring season. My mom’s was the one with cooked laban mixed with coriander and garlic. I just saw some fool at the palestinian grocer but they looked old and tired!

      On January 24, 2010 at 10:27 pm

  5. Reply

    dana says:

    I have never had it that way with cooked laban. I hope you’ll get to post the recipe sometime 😉

    On January 25, 2010 at 10:53 pm

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