With so many reports of tainted, rotten food hitting the market, Lebanese consumers are desperate to source organic, pesticide-free food from responsible suppliers. And their options to do so are growing alongside their burgeoning demand. Our friends from Green Traveler Guides sent over a fabulous overview of the top cafes, markets and restaurants leading Lebanon’s […]
A plant-rich diet is best for your sexual and reproductive wellbeing. The Mediterranean Diet is often hailed as an excellent choice for those who want to ensure lifelong vitality, fertility and reproductive stamina. This diet is noteworthy for what’s it in – whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, fresh fruits and vegetables, fatty fish and […]
An Israeli company makes a mini-sewage plant to help small wineries, olive oil and cheese-makers deal with the pollutants from their industries. Waste from small olive presses, cheese factories and wineries is not good for the water or soil. Organic farming and the 100-Mile Diet have influenced new college graduates to establish farms instead of seeking […]
Shuk Bites – for $26 you can eat your way through Jerusalem’s famous food market There are plenty of self-guided tours in Jerusalem, and even a few culinary tours. But combining the two approaches, “Shuk Bites” is the first self-guided culinary tour. [“Shuk” is the Middle Eastern word for market place, seen commonly throughout the […]
The authentic flavor of Tej or t’ej beer made according to a centuries-old process. It’s sweet, funky, perfect with injera. An Ethiopian friend supervised my making Tej at home. It’s a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. It requires Gesho, a dried leaf used instead of hops (Rhamnus prinoides, a relative of buckthorn). But it’s as authentic […]
Mafroum potatoes melt in your mouth and fill your senses with truly Middle Eastern flavors. A festive dish, mafroum is one of those foods that reminds me of Moroccan grandmothers who bustle into the kitchen, don an apron, and lovingly conjure delicious food out of vegetables and meat fresh from the shouk.And one of the […]
Looking to build a city or vertical garden in a cramped space? These designer planters from Israel grow deep, and are good for carrots and tomatoes. Gardens growing on your patio or deck can get a facelift this year with a new planter from Israel that just won a prestigious design award. The Greenbo concept […]
You eat more under stressful conditions. Did you ever notice that you eat much more popcorn during the tense scenes at the movies? It’s a self-comforting thing to do, a response to stress. Researchers Brian Wasink and Koert van Ittersum at Cornell University recently discovered a parallel in a study done at one of the […]
Drinking beer is definitely more of a Western tradition than one of the East where wine is preferred, but beer has its place where tradition allows. Miriam has covered beer expos in Israel where there is a rise in boutique breweries like the Dancing Camel and a demand for organic beers. My mom always said […]
Kelly learns to cook like a local (vegetarian) Jordanian at Beit Sitti in Amman. For all those tourists in Amman who want to gain authentic Arabic cooking experience to bring back home and impress their dinner guests, or for the local Jordanian who wants to throw a unique rooftop party in the area, Beit Sitti, […]
The City of the Dead in Cairo isn’t known for its fertile soil, but Liveinslums is working to change that with an awesome mini urban farming initiative. Although everybody seems to understand that population growth is exploding, and that space – particularly in cities – comes at a premium, the extent of our vulnerability to […]
Eating only whites or buying Eggbeaters? Read more on the nutrients and benefits of whole eggs. (Above is Green Prophet’s editor Karin Kloosterman a few years back in her family’s chicken coop.) Eggs have been slandered, persecuted, and vilified for the last 50 years. However, in spite of their bad rap, eggs are a highly […]
Maimonides, a Jewish scholar, prescribed tahini almost 1,000 years ago. It’s a calcium food for vegans. When my friend Elia consulted her doctor complaining of debilitating pain in some of her joints, she was surprised to hear him suggest tahini (or tahina) paste rather than prescribing a pill. He explained that this cure came to […]
Call me Olivias de Maurico: This Syrian olive tree is loaded with fruit, most of which will fall to the ground, unpicked. The autumn olive harvest is still in full swing, and those of you who are now enjoying picking and preserving this ancient Middle Eastern fruit are surely aware that this year’s crop is […]
A traditional Arabic dish of ancient origins, mouth-watering Maklubah (maqlub, maqlube) is a gala menu all by itself. “Maklubah” means “upside-down” in Arabic, and this dish must be stood on its head to deserve the name. A Turkish translation of the 13th-century Baghdad Cookery Book has a recipe for Maklubah, but I’m sure that people knew […]
Smooth and heavy – a guide to choosing the best raw olives for pickling at home. There’s nothing like the sensation of running your fingers through a heap of smooth, heavy, fresh olives. And now is the season. Open markets of the Middle East display stands heaped with the green and purple fruit, perfect for […]
This mountain gazelle can be seriously injured or killed if it tries to reached fenced in vineyards in Israel’s Judean Hills. Wineries like Barkan are “open” to solutions, but not at their expense. Israeli wildlife are already threatened by illegal hunting and development projects that result in a lack of available land for animals to roam […]
Locavore life on an almost invisible budget. Robin Mather has over 30 year’s experience working as a journalist with a passion for the truth behind food production. And she lets nothing get in her way. The head of Michigan’s largest dairy co-op once told her, “Young lady, if you write about rBST (a GMO hormone […]
How can you tell if a food is probiotic and good for your guts? Ruth gives a general guide. You may know all about the ecosystem of a pond or a woodland, but have you stopped to think about the ecosystem of your own gut? Sandor Katz did and wrote a whole book on fermented […]
Modern agriculture started in the Middle East. Can people here switch to the Paleo Lifestyle and eat like Cave Men? What should humans eat for optimal health? The key word here is optimal. Our bodies are remarkable machines, and we can manage, more or less, on a wide variety of foods. But what foods work […]
Find a good spot and plop down in your picnic dress for an impromptu meal on the grass. Picnics are great because they allow us to appreciate the great outdoors (sometimes motivating us to take more efforts to protect it). But sometimes picnics are not so great because they result in picnic littering, or the […]
Karin goes on a 2-night stay at Kasbah du Toubkal, an eco-lodge in the foothills of North Africa’s highest peak. Soul-shifting is how I’d describe my two night stay at the Kasbah du Toubkal in the high Atlas mountains. From the gut-wrenching heat of Marrakesh, within an hour and a half we were transported to […]
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 […]
In early summer, mornings are still cool and soft sunlight comes streaming into my room. I wake up feeling energized and optimistic, and ready to start the day really well. If I feel like spoiling my family or just treating myself to an excellent breakfast, I fetch a pre-cooked mushroom sauce from the fridge – […]