Roasted Red Beet Hummus -( The Pink Hummus )

Ingredients:

- 2 Cans of (chickpaes) garbanzo beans drained and boiled for about 10 minutes, or boil dry chickpeas from scratch if you would prefer so, add salt and 1 spoon baking soda after boiling, take skin out of beans, if possible, it gives smooth Hummus 

- 2 red beet medium size cover with foil and put in container in the oven. broil in the oven until soft, Peel skin out when it is cool down and cut into quad pieces 

- 1 Cup tahini sauce.

- 2 garlic gloves minced 

-salt and pepper to taste 

- lemon, squeeze 1 juice lemon.

-  2 table spoon of white wine vinegar. Or just plain vinegar

- 3 table spoon of olive oil.

- add 5 spoons of cold ice water to smooth the mix when you use the food processor 

Procedure:

- put all the ingredients in the food processor, and make sure you peel the beet and cut before you add it to the mix.

- blend all together until smooth and add little water if feel it still thick.

- garnish with some olive oil on top and pine nuts or olives.

 

It can stay in the fridge for a week if use small different containers so open one at one time class containers in best .

Roasted Red Beets with Tahini Sauce

This is a very delicious and vibrant and elegant side dish, very easy to make.

Ingredient:

4 medium size Red Beets
1/4 cup Tahini sauce
1 cup plain 2% Greek yogurt
2 garlic gloves mashed
salt & pepper to taste
2 table spoon lemon Juice
2 table white vinegar
2 table spoon olive oil plus one for finish
1 sliced cucumber or parsley to garnish ( optional)

procedure:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F ,Rap the beets in aluminum foil and place them in baking pan or oven proof dish and roast them until they are tender.

Peel the beets when they are cool enough to handle, cut them into small pieces and put them into food processor add the tahini sauce, yogurt,garlic,lemon juice, vinegar,and  salt and pepper to taste plus 2 spoon of olive oil. and mix until smooth.

Serve with sliced vegetables or toasted pita or Lavash bread , Like to use sliced cucumber and carrotts

Spicy Marinated Carrots

This healthy Salad is addictive and easy to make. you can also add these carrots to any salad or just eat it this way.

ingredients:

6 large carrots
salt & pepper to taste
1 table spoon ground cumin
1 tabe spoon ground corriander
2 table spoon harrissa or 1 table spoon cayenne pepper
3 table spoon white vinegar or white wine vinager
1 table spoon olive oil
3 garlic gloves minced
2 lemon juice
minced parsley


procedure:

- Boil the Carrots with salt only for about 15 minutes , it should be still firm and has a bite to it
- Drain the Carrots and cut them into rounds and in a mixing bowel mix carrots with all the spices and with the lemon juice, parsely and vinegar and olive oil . store in the container in the fridge. let it marinate for one day. you can store in the fridge for about a week.

Tortilla De Patatas ( Spanish Omelet)

The National dish of Spain, you almost find all over Spain, easy to make, you can either eat it hot or cold, and it is a delicious leftover as it taste better the next day.

Ingredients:

• 4 medium size potatoes
• 4 eggs 
• 3/4 Cup Extra virgin olive oil for frying the potatoes.
•  1 Yellow onion thin sliced,
• 2 Garlic cloves skin on. 
• Salt to taste 

Procedure:

• Cut the potatoes thin round slices and soak them in salt water for about 15 minutes, then drain them.
• Heat the olive oil in non stick skillet and start frying the sliced onions first then do the potatoes, and make sure you use towel paper to release the access oil. 
• Beat the eggs with generous pinch of salt  in a large bowl for about 1 minute. Add the potatoes and the caramelized onions and stir with a fork to lightly break up the potatoes and leave it for 5 minutes to soak up the flavors, in the mean time use 2 table spoon of the olive oil and add the garlic cloves with skin on to the skillet to flavor the oil then remove them after they start to get brown.
• Add the mixture of the eggs, potatoes and onions to the skillet and cook on one side then use a plate to flip the omelet and return it back to the skillet.
• After it is done and cool down you can cut it onto tringles or squares and use picks if you want to serve it tapas style.   

Smoked Eggplants with Tahini Sauce

Eggplants are one of my favorite vegetables , you can do tons of recipes with it, you can grill it , smoke it  and even just boiled with adding spices and sauce to it,mix it with ground beef etc... it easy ,simple with tons of flavor, and you can make it to last the whole week, it is the kind of food that taste better everyday as it get marinated.  

Recipe: for 4 people

Ingredients:

1.       4 Small Italian eggplants, or 2 medium size

2.      4 table spoons of Tahini Sauce

3.      1 Lemon juice

4.      Salt /pepper to taste

5.     3 garlic gloves minced

6.     2 table spoon of vinegar
- .  2 table spoon of water

7.     Parsley ,paprika and olives to garnish

8.     Optional (you can add cayenne pepper if you like it  spicy

      Pomegranate for garnish

Procedure :

1.     You will need a grill, or you can simply use your stove top burner.

2.     Put the eggplant on top of the stove burner one by one, and turn it around until skin is burned and feels soft inside

3.     Set the eggplants aside until they cool down

4.     Peel the burned skin from eggplant, and clean any remaining black skin

5.     On the side mix the 4 table spoons of tahini sauce with lemon juice , vinegar, water to liquefy the sauce, add salt and pepper and garlic and mix well .

6.     Make horizontal slice  with the knife in the eggplant, so when you pour the mixture of tahini sauce it goes through the whole eggplant .or you can blend the mixture of tahini sauce and eggplant with hand held blender and make it smooth like hummus.( below  I have both ways done)

7.     Garnish with parsley and paprika .

8.    

The Kitchen is my Lab

My Passion for cooking has no limit, I Can spend most of my day trying new recipes and new ingredients, isn’t cooking is about creativity and inspiration .it is an art by itself , I am obsessed  with olives and cheese , a French bread with cheeses is my joy I can eat that all day , since I was a child , I used to prepare my father Mezza since we had gathering every weekend at our house, this is how I started my cooking experience,it also helped me during my college years , I used to go to farmers markets around Baltimore area, and get fresh ingredients. It is healthier and a way to save money as a student.

I guess every one consider their mom is the ultimate cook and no one deliver better than her.I think so too. I am influenced by my mother cooking she does thing with perfections and not afraid to try new thing, my brother also owns several restaurant , my younger sister was the Dessert queen of the family.

I grew up living between different countries, also traveling and exploring became a habit for me throughout the years, I like to explore different cuisines through my travels and my camera,I am originally from North Africa ,and my husband is from Spain , which also influenced my cooking , merging these two cultures together can really elevated the food to another level , in my grandfather hometown Al-Kuru the main corps of that region is dates. When I used to visit my grandfather town always volunteer to go pick all the fresh vegetables and fruits from farm overlooking the river Nile. my husband family owns several olives farms in his hometown Carcelen .Also cooking with that fresh olive oil pressed with old techniques is unbelievable, I can say that my cooking is strongly influenced by Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine,

What leads a microbiologist who is mainly work in laboratory doing clinical work and research to cook ,I guess the kitchen is my lab.

 looking forward to post some of my recipes in my next post.

 * These are some pictures I took during my visit to my in laws olive farm in Carcelen,Spain.