Tag: Banned Countries VeganFest

As Muslim Ban 2.0 enters into action and colleagues around the country volunteer to help travelers in distress at airports, we continue cooking food from banned countries. Today, it’s Iran, with a beautiful celery stew called Khoreshte Karafs. It’s very fresh and nutritious and has an intriguing tangy taste, thanks to a special ingredient: dried Persian lime.

1 tsp olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
7-8 stalks celery, diced
1 large bunch fresh parsley, chopped
1 handful mint, chopped (I admit I used fresh catnip! no mint in the house)
1 cup neutral-tasting beans, cooked (I had white beans lying around)
1 tsp fenugreek leaves
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper
3-4 small Persian limes, ground
water

Heat up olive oil in big wok or pot. Add onions and saute until soft and translucent. Add celery, parsley, mint, beans, fenugreek, criander, turmeric, paprika, and pepper, as well as water. Cook until celery is soft and thoroughly cooked. Add Persian lime and cook for another few minutes. Serve over rice.

Growing up in Israel, I enjoyed lots of Iraqi food: I especially loved sabich, the special sandwich with fried eggplant and tahini, which is delicious and easy to make. But today, as part of our Banned Countries food tour, we’re making something a bit more elaborate: Maklouba.

I was taught how to make maklouba many years ago by one of my clients, who was doing a life sentence at an Israeli prison. He was vegetarian, and received dispensation from the prison authorities to make his own food. He would get an allowance for some cheap vegetables, cut them up, fry them, and then layer them with rice to produce this fragrant, delicious cake. Making his own food made him feel just a bit freer and more independent than he was, and helped his spirit soar under difficult external and internal circumstances.

This version is a bit different than the traditional: rather than frying all the vegetables, I slice and pre-bake them on a silpat mat, reducing the overall fat content and oxidation of the dish without missing out on the taste. I also include more vegetable layers, because anything is better with more colorful layers!

1 medium eggplant
1 butternut squash
1 medium-sized potato
1 golden beet
1 large carrot
1/2 medium cauliflower
1 onion
3 roma or beefsteak tomatoes
1 cup brown rice
2 cups water or vegetable broth
1 tbsp baharat
1 tbsp ras-el-hanout

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Slice all vegetables into 1/4-inch thick rounds. Place all of them, except the tomatoes, on baking sheets, drizzle a bit of lemon juice or vegetable broth, and bake for about 20 mins or until eggplant is soft.

Coat the bottom of a Dutch Oven with a circle of parchment paper, and atop it, place the tomato slices in a layer. Don’t be afraid to overlap.

Remove vegetables from oven. Place layer of eggplant rounds atop the tomato. From here on, the layering is up to you! I continued with onion, beet, and carrot, then put a layer of rice, and then did a second layer of squash, potatoes, and cauliflower, and placed the rest of the rice. Whatever you do, aim at finishing with a layer of rice.

Mixing the spices into the water or broth, gingerly pour it on top of the layers, without disturbing the architecture of the thing. Place on stove and cook on high heat until water boils, then lower the heat and let simmer for about 30-35 minutes or until rice on top is ready.

To eat, place a sturdy plate, inverted, atop your pot. Carefully invert the pot and place on stable surface. Remove the pot and carefully peel the parchment paper layer. Voila, maklouba!

Today we visit Somalia on our tour of banned countries’ cuisines. I learned this satisfying rice and bean dish, which is a great lunch or dinner option, from the wonderful blog Somali Kitchen. You can follow the recipe there to the letter or make the few adaptations below, which make the recipe slightly less traditional and slightly more nutritious: more lemon juice in lieu of vinegar, brown in lieu of white rice, and broth for sautéing the onions.

1 cup brown rice
1 cup aduki beans, cooked (if you have uncooked beans, soak them and then cook in water for 20-25 mins. It’ll take about the same time as the rice if you’re cooking them at the same time. Drain.)
3 tbsp water or vegetable broth
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili flakes
2 juicy lemons
cilantro for garnish

Cook the brown rice as you always do (these days, I cook it in the Instant Pot, with a 1:1 1/4 rice to water ratio.)
Mix the aduki beans with the rice.
In a wok or pan, heat up water or broth, and sauté the onion for a few minutes until translucent. Add the garlic and sauté another minute. Then, add the tomatoes and spices and cook for another five minutes on low heat. Juice the two lemons, pour into tomato sauce and cook another five minutes.

Ladle the tomato sauce atop the rice and bean mixture and garnish with fresh cilantro.

Getting a bit of a head start on our Banned Countries VeganFest, I made muhammara today! It is a spread/salad made of roasted red bell peppers and walnuts. It has a sweet and rich taste, and in the past, when I bought it, I often used it as pasta sauce. You can use it as a dip for vegetables or as sandwich filling.

Muhammara originates from Syria, but made its way to Turkey, where people are very fond of it. I like the idea of starting the Banned Countries VeganFest with an immigrant dish to honor its country of origin!

My version here has no added oils (plenty of healthy fats come from the walnuts) and, in lieu of breadcrumbs, I add a small amount of cooked chickpeas to make it stick. Any difference in taste from the original recipe is unnoticeable, and the chickpeas give it a small protein boost.

3 large red bell peppers
2 cups raw walnuts
juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup cooked chickpeas
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chili flakes

Heat up a grilling skillet or a wok with no oil in it and place the three bell peppers in it. With a turning fork or wooden spoon, turn the bell peppers around in the pan to roast all the sides. They are ready when they have a lot of black marks on them all over from being roasted – this should take around 10 minutes.

Then, carefully pick up the roasted peppers and drop them all into a plastic bag. Tie the bag and let it rest for about fifteen minutes.

After the peppers seem to have cooled down a bit and “sweated” a lot of steam, open the bag. At this point, removing their center and seeds and peeling them should be very easy.

Place the peeled peppers in your food processor with the walnuts, chickpeas, lemon juice, cumin seeds, and chili flakes. Pulse until mixed and still a tad chunky.

Serve with fresh vegetables or in a sandwich.

Breaking bread with others is an experience that can move mountains. Sharing flavors leads to sharing stories and values, and it also creates appreciation for the special things that make a culture distinctive and unique.

On the week of 2/13 through 2/19, every evening, I will be cooking, eating, and posting a vegan recipe from one of the seven countries under the new administration’s travel ban: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and Lybia. 

I would like to invite YOU, dear readers, to submit vegan recipes from these countries in the comments! And maybe, with the recipes out there, we can all humanize and empathize a bit with our friends from these countries, or with countless people who are not our friends yet, but could easily be, over a nice meal.