Tomatoes are still, mercifully, quite readily available. Though we hate to think about it, this won’t always be the case. In just a few short weeks, tomatoes—at least the good, locally grown varieties—will be gone on winter hiatus. It always seems to come too soon, and it always somehow seems to take us by surprise. […]
Turkish Ezme Recipe • Unicorns in the Kitchen Ezme means “mashed” which served well here since all the ingredients are chopped very finely by hand or a food processor. It's made mainly with tomatoes and olive oil, which makes it a healthy addition to the table. Each region of Turkey has a different way of making it and some like it spicy, known as acılı ezme.
Umm…remind me, what’s vegewarian again? It’s enjoying plenty of sustainable, local, and delicious vegetarian foods, with meat dishes only once in a while. As summer climbs towards its peak hot weather, hefty eggplants and tomatoes make a natural partnership in savory dishes like this one. Using the blender, the sauce takes little effort, and […]
Hot weather meals call for lots of cool salads. Here’s an easy and attractive one featuring summer’s tomatoes. Sometimes all I want for lunch is about six kinds of salad. I can get my protein from one like our luscious quinoa salad, fill up on a satisfying potato/fava bean salad, go on the sweet side […]
Put up a tomato confit on your next day at home. Yes, fresh tomatoes are but a dream in frozen Northern countries right now. But here in the Middle East, hot house tomatoes are abundant and surprisingly inexpensive. I had six fat ones on my kitchen counter, just at the cusp between very ripe and […]
Summer time is tomato time, and not just for salads. Slow-roast some to taste the depth and sweetness of all their flavors. In Middle East open-air markets, we now see piles of ripe tomatoes. And since they’re seasonal and cheap, we enjoy them raw and sliced into all kinds of salads, sometimes cooking them when we […]
With the Middle Eastern olive season in full swing, it’s natural to think of cooking with those fleshy, savory olive morsels. If you’ve been lucky enough to get olives pickled on the farm, as I did at the Olive Branch Festival in Israel, most of your work has been done for you.
A recipe for making your own whole wheat pita bread. If you don’t live in the Middle East, where the pita is the staple bread, and can be used instead of napkins for wiping humus off your face, chances are the pita breads you will find are old and stale. Or packed with chemicals, or […]
The Pure Rootz fashion label brings organic cotton to the Lacoste customer. Whereas organic food has been a relatively easy sell to high-end customers, organic clothing has been a little tougher to get going. Organic goat cheese or cherry tomato confit sound delicious to just about anybody, but organic clothing might call to mind tie-dyed […]
Figs come into Middle Eastern markets twice a year, in July and in September, but their seasons are always short. There are about 750 kinds of figs in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Turkey and Iran.
When it comes to organic and environmentally conscious dining, Tel Aviv definitely has a reputation for getting with the program. The white city (which is currently celebrating its 100th year) already has a vegan burger joint, organic hummus, organic falafel, organic coffee shops, and an environmentally friendly food festival. We realize that dining out has […]
Purim, the Jewish holiday coming up this week, is a time for Jews to cut loose. Some people will drink until there is no tomorrow (until you have no idea of how drunk you really are). A lot of people forget that there are to-do mitzvahs associated with the Purim holiday. Green Prophet decided to […]
Last week with our recipe for the Syrian dip muhamarra, we embarked on a perilous culinary adventure: trying to recreate authentic versions of classic Middle Eastern dishes. Why perilous? Well, my grandmother and grandfather couldn’t, between the two of them, agree on the best way to make charoset. Trying to come up with a recipe […]
Starting a seed bank at home is a great way to preserve family traditions of food and gardening. You don't need to be a biologist or forester: Many families have unique heirloom seeds that have been passed down from generation to generation.
If you live in the near Middle East or the middle Middle East, or are just visiting - take this handy guide with you to find and taste what's in season for the month of March.