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Fattoush is a zesty salad that has all fresh ingredients, cut, diced and chopped small to medium cuts, tossed with dressing of olive oil and lemon juice. This is a very healthy and hearty dish if you use toasted bread instead of fried and less olive oil than the recipe requires.
Depending on the size of your family, use your own judgment regarding the quantity of the ingredients.
Ingredients for Fattoush:
Romain Lettuce, chopped
2 or 3 tomatoes, cubed
2 or 3 Small cucumbers, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and chopped
1 Medium green pepper, seeded and diced
five to six pieces of radishes, diced
5 Scallions, chopped
4 tbs. Finely chopped parsley
2 tbs. Finely chopped fresh mint or 1 tsp. dried mint
Half a cup Baqleh- similar to watercrest, or any greens of your choice
1 tbs. Cilantro- Optional
1 loaf Pita bread, toasted or fried and cut into cubes
1/2 cup Olive oil
1/2 cup Lemon juice
You may add any vegetables you like to your salad. I usually add pitted green olives to it that gives it a great taste.
Other variation for the dressing: in addition to the lemons juice, use red vinegar with one minced clove of garlic, mix with olive oil and sprinkle on the salad.
Sprinkle Sumac, Salt and black pepper to taste.
Preparation
1. Cut and toss veggies together
2. Whisk oil, lemon juice and salt/pepper.
3. Pour dressing over veggies.Mix well.
4. Top with toasted or fried pita.

Watch the video for more detailed recipe. Enjoy!

Spicy Potatoes, Batata Harrah in Arabic, is a hearty dish and easy to make.

INGREDIENTS:
About three or four large potatoes, wash and cut into cubes -You may keep the peel, I do!
1/2 Cup Oil for frying
3 cloves garlic crushed or you can add more depending on how garlicky you like it
Two or three spicy green peppers, chopped
Small bunch of fresh chopped cilantro (coriander)
1 tsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:
There are two easy ways to cook this recipe.

First method, high in calories, you need to use more oil , about half a cup, to deep fry the potatoes.
Fry the diced potatoes in the skillet until done and golden brown. Drain from the oil. Add the garlic, cilantro, season with salt and pepper and toss together well while heating up. Add the lemon squeeze right before serving. Serve hot. This method needs a lot of oil for frying the potatoes to make sure that it is well cooked from the inside.

Second method, less in calories, less oil used because the potatoes are already boiled.
Boil your potatoes until soft but still holding its shape. Cut into cubes. Fry in less than 1/3 cup of oil until golden brown. Add about half a cup water, salt and pepper to cook some more. When the water boils, lower the heat and cover the lid for few minutes until it all the water is absorbed. Toss in the chopped cilantro, minced garlic and the cut green pepper for a minute over the potatoes. Add the lemon squeeze. Remove from the heat and serve hot. You may add red crushed pepper if you like it spicier.
Watch the video for a detailed recipe.

This recipe is dedicated to meat lovers. You may use beef or lamb for the meat, depending on what you like. It is an easy dish to cook, filling and tasty. The ingredients should be enough for three or four people…or a meal for two days!

Ingredients and method to make the kofta (meat mix with onions and parsly):
*Half a kilo or 1.5 lbs finely ground lamb or beef.
*1 large onion diced small,
*1 bunch of washed and finally chopped parsley .

You may use the food processor to cut up the onions and the parsley really fine.
If you live in the Middle East, it is easy to get the Kofta mix already made by any butcher shop or your local supermarket.

To make this dish, you need 2 sliced onions, a 12 OZ. can of tomato paste.
Prepare the meat, put in a large mixing bowl, add the chopped onions, chopped parsley and the spices (all spice, black pepper and salt to taste). Combine and mix thoroughly with your hands. You may add some garlic if you like, I do not.
Place the bowl in the fridge covered with plastic wrap.This helps flavors to blend. You may freeze the meat for future use or you may cook it the same day. Make sure that you do not re-freeze the meat.
With your hands, Shape the meat into egg-sized balls of kofta and fry lightly so the meat holds its shape . Do not stir otherwise it will break apart. You may add some oil to the meat if it is too lean to the frying process.

Add the sliced onions and saute’ until it is golden in color.

Add the tomato paste to the meat and onions. Add 1.5 cups of water to the sauce.

Add the same spices you used with the meat (all spice, black pepper and salt to taste), let simmer on the stove top for at least half an hour or until the meat is done and the sauce looks, smells and tastes cooked.

Serve with white rice on the side. Enjoy!

Here is a recipe for Tabbouleh….Enjoy the video.

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Here is a home made recipe for this delicious dish…you can have it anyway you want; in a sandwich or plated, Sa7en 3arabi. Bread of your choice, any additions to it according to your liking.

Musakkaa is a popular dish in the Mediterranean countries. I have listed a basic vegetarian version of this recipe here although there are different variations such as adding cooked ground beef or lamb, or mix cooked chickpeas, add green peppers, garlic or hot spicy peppers, depending on what you like in your dish.

Ingredients:
-Two big eggplant peeled and sliced into ½ inch thickness
-Canola oil for frying
-1 medium diced onion
- 4 medium size diced fresh or canned diced tomatoes
- Small can of tomato paste
- Salt and black pepper to taste
-1/2 to 1 cup water

Method:
Peel eggplants and cut into 1 cm (1/2 inch) thick slices.
Brown lightly with oil on both sides, You may deep fry it too for faster results.
Remove from pan, drain from oil over paper towels.
Layer eggplants in a shallow baking pan.
In another pot, sauté the diced onions. Add the diced tomato, tomato paste, water, salt and pepper. This will be your sauce that you will add to the layered eggplant in the baking pan.Boil the sauce for about five minutes. It will continue cooking when you bake it with the eggplants.
Pour the sauce mixture over eggplants and spread evenly. Top with sliced tomato if you like.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 45 minutes in a 420-450 Fahrenheit degree oven (depending on your oven temperature) until the edges are turning brown and the tomato sauce looks and smells cooked!
You may remove the foil the last 5-10 minutes to brown the top .
Serve hot or at room temperature with white rice on the side.

A short note: do not miss out on watching the video.

Musakhkan – Bread, Baked Chicken and Onions with Sumac. This is a Palestinian dish; a favorite made by the peasants but became one of the national dishes in Palestine. This dish is eaten with one’s hands and which literally means “something that is heated.”
Ingredients:
1-One cut up chicken into six pieces, or a combination of chicken legs and breasts.
2-One cup virgin Olive Oil
3-One pound or a bit more of large diced onions
4- Fried pine nuts for garnishing
5- One table spoon ground cardamom
6-Two table spoons Sumac
7-Salt and pepper to taste
8-Flat sheet bread, marquq or Taboon bread. I usually get the wheat flat bread….Delicious!
Method:
1. Cut the chicken into up into two breasts, two thighs, two legs, and two wings. Prepare it for cooking by washing, cleaning and drying. I add a little bit of lemon juice and olive oil to my chicken to keep it smelling nice.
2. Sauté one medium diced onion, add the chicken, enough water to cover the chicken, cardamom, salt and pepper and boil over high heat and then let simmer until the chicken is done.
3. Add 1 cup olive oil to a casserole and cook the rest of the diced onions until translucent, this takes about 25-35 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sumac and cook for 2 minutes to mix. Do not over cook the onions, you do not want them burnt and you do not want them mushy…they should hold their shape nicely.
4. Fry the pine nuts to a golden brown color. Make sure to watch them frying, they tend to burn quickly. This process takes about couple of minutes.
5. Right before serving, and to keep warm, remove the chicken from the pot, bake until golden brown.
6. In the mean time, you may cut up the bread or use it whole, and assemble in the serving platter. Add the first layer of the onion mix on top of the bread, add pine nuts. Repeat with another layer of bread, onions and pine nuts. It is up to you if you want to have one layer of bread and onions; I like to have two layers because the bread I use is very thin. At this point, add about half a cup of chicken stock if you feel that the bread is too dry.
7. Arrange the baked chicken on top and garnish with pine nuts.

If you are a meat lover this recipe is for you.

This is my simple recipe for roast beef. I usually take short cuts when I cook and choose simple method to cook…by all means this is not the traditional roast beef recipe that is cooked in a roasting pan in the oven!! But my recipe is just as delicious and tasty!
Roast Beef Ingredients:
-1.5 Kilo (about 3.5 pounds) boneless rolled rump roast beef, already prepared by your butcher or available at your local supermarket. I am talking about the kind of beef that is already tied up with thread all around.
-4-6 large onions cut into big pieces.
-Carrots, cut up in on inch pieces, you can use as much as you like…I used about eight big ones.
-Lots of crushed garlic and chopped parsley, mix together. Salt and black pepper to taste. Cooking oil for browning. Water.
Method:
-Wash the meat and pat it dry.
-Make small but deep incisions with a sharp knife in the roast beef, make sure you do not cut up the thread it is tied with.
-Stuff the garlic and parsley mix all the way deep inside the beef roll.
-Season the meat from the outside with salt and pepper. -Usually this dish is cooked in a roasting pan, I cook in on the stove top in a big covered pot, it worked out like roasting in an oven without getting the kitchen too hot.
-In a big pot, add oil, brown your meat all around to seal the juices in.
-Add the cut up onions and carrots to the meat, brown the veggies also for a short while. -Add water to cover up the meat.
-Cook on high heat until the water boils over then lower the heat to medium-low heat and let simmer for 2.5-3 hours.
-At the end of the cooking time, the water should be almost absorbed and thickened.
-Do not over cook it otherwise the meat will be too tough.
-Make sure that you turn the roast over couple of times during the cooking process.
-Do not stir the veggies in the pot, this way all the onions and carrots will hold some shape to them and will mix , thicken the sauce and will absorb the meat flavor….Delicious!
-Take the meat out of the pot, let stand for ten minutes and then slice it up into ¼ inch slices.
-Spoon out the sauce and the vegetables and arrange in a serving dish.
Mashed Potatoes recipe:
Wash your potatoes, do not peel. Boil in a pot until tender. Strain the water. Cut up the potatoes while hot, add salt, half a cup of boiled hot milk, mash with your potato masher or a big fork. Add about a table spoon of butter to it, stir and serve hot. I ldo not mash it smooth, ike to make it chunky. Keep the peel on, it tastes great and looks fancy, just like eating at a fancy restaurants!
I make simple gravy of roux which is browned flour, hot milk; add a little bit of the meat sauce to it, season and serve.
Serve green salad on the side to balance out all the nutritions.