Simple Veggie Middle Eastern Style

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My favourite food is Turkish / Persian / Lebanese, I guess Ottolenghi type things but I don't really cook much of it as I'm a bit lazy about trying new things. Can anyone share some relatively quick recipes that have become favourites? Thanks

Mujadera.. basically rice and brown or green lentils cooked together with cumin, served with lots of caramelised onions and plain yoghurt. Pure comfort food.

That's good and simple, thanks MrsG.

Marking place.
Falafel - packet stuff from supermarkets. Great in pitta bread with yoghurt and lettuce, or with coleslaw (which isn't very ME!)

Falafel are super easy to make from scratch if you have a blender. I had a bowl of them with some hummous for lunch and it was lovely

Greek butter beans - I use tinned butter beans because I'm lazy.

Fry up sliced onion, slices of carrot and garlic in olive oil. Add chopped fresh tomatoes and some dried mint/oregano. Cook it until the tomatoes are soft. Add a couple of tins of drained butter beans and drizzle with more olive oil. Bake in the oven until everything is meltingly soft and the beans have gone crispy on top.

We chop and roast veg (any veg) smothered in harissa paste, sprinkle with coriander and yoghurt serve with Cous Cous or pitta. Well easy. Another fave is haloumi cheese with chilli and tahini wrapped in filo sheets and baked, salad and sweet potato on the side both stand by meals at our gaff.

Greek salad - could happily eat that every day!

Fried haloumi with lovely things sprinkled on it - lemon juice, capers, pomegranate, chilli, whatever you fancy.

Dolmades are quite easy - fiddly but easy.

Yoghurt with grated cucumber (squeezed) and garlic salt and dried mint.

Steamed spinach with garlic salt and yoghurt.

Salad with mint, tarragon and parsley with feta and fredh walnuts (in brine).

Persian - well I have a look and of them. What do you like? Have you mastered steamed rice?

Fred walnuts? Fresh walnuts!

@originalmavis - tell me about steamed rice?

Ok you first get your basmati (ooh autocorrects as 'bastard') rice (a small glass or teacup per person) and rinse it under cold water to get the starch out. Soak for a couple of hours.

Rinse, then boil until almost done (so a tiny bite). Don't mess with it - just scoop off the scummy water as it bubbles up. No stirring!

Turn off heat and add a cup of cold water.

Drain and run cold water over seive to stop it cooking.

Put a thin layer of water in non stick pan with a half teaspoon of oil and snort of tumeric.

Heat on high until its hot, then dump in the rice and make into a cone shape.

Pop on lid for a couple of minutes, then take off lid.

Drizzle a bit of oil around the edges of the pan (so it dribbles skin into the base) and pour in about an eggcup of cold water onto the pointy bit). It will sizzle.

Pop a teatowel on top of the pan and pop the lid on. Make sure teatowel (it catches the moisture) won't since or catch fire (oops) and turn the heat low - nor the lowest but just above.

Leave for 20 mins plus. If you leave it for at least that time you will get 'tadig' which is a golden layer if crunchy yumminess. Too high and you get yukky charcoal! Less and it will just be lovely steamed rice.

I usually 'rake' it gently with a spaghetti spoon/server DooDah when its cooked to separate the rice and make it fluffier. You can dribble a bit if olive oil at this point.

Once you have mastered this then, you can get fancy with herbs, veg, fruit, baby garlic, saffron etc.

I'm veggie and have a Turkish chef husband so we eat a lot of middle eastern style food, these are a few favourites of mine

fasulye - white or green beans cooked in a tomato sauce with lots of oregano I sometimes bake mine with cheese on top and dip pitta in for more of a comforting meal

stuffed vegetables are also a favourite I stuff mine with Turkish rice, vegetables and olives and feta

Shakshuka is also nice and very easy and quick too cook

Lahmajun
Traditionally a meat Turkish style pizza with a herby tomato base but I put roast vegetables on mine

Gozleme
A flatbread that is usually stuffed and cooked on a griddle pan, I have mine with peppers onions and goats cheese

Manti
These sound weird but are actually delicious they are like filled ravioli/dumplings that come in a yogurt sauce

There are also lots of rice/bulgar based dishes and vegetable casseroles

If you want any particular recipes just ask

You lucky bugger! Recipes please!

Place marking

Yum!

C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon Mummyoftwo91, feed us!

Any nice recipes with aubergine. So often it is just not... Okra is beyond redemption (nasty slippery slimy stuff).

Kebabs are dead easy.

Think fillet of beef, loads of grated onions, glug of oil, salt, pepper, pinch of tumeric and ground saffrin, and marinade overnight.

Wipe off the onions and Griddle with some tomatoes. Squeeze of lemon. Can also work with skinned chicken breast. Freezes really well after marination.

Thin not think. Lean meat too, also lamb.

Sorry I took so long lots of these recipes are by memory so I had to write them down! Not everything has exact measurements so sorry about that!

Fasulye-
2 tins cannellini bean/any white bean
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 onions
2 red peppers
Tin of tomatoes/passata
1-2 cup of water
dried chili peppers (only if you like spicy food)
Garlic
Dried oregano
Cheese feta/cheddar

Heat oil in a pot and sauté onion, garlic and pepper until soft
Add tomato paste and stir for another 2 minutes.
Pour in beans, then tomatoes, add salt, black pepper, chilli and oregano.
Cover and simmer on low for 15 minutes. I like to put mine in an oven proof dish and cover with cheese then dip in with pita! You can also use green beans for this

Stuffed aubergine/imam bayildi
Aubergines
Onions
Passata
Black Olives
Red peppers
Tomatoes
Garlic
Fresh parsley
Toasted pine nuts

Half the aubergine length ways and score with a knife, rub with olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper and bake in oven untill the insides are soft.
Fry the chopped onion, peppers and tomatoes and scoop out the middle of the aubergine, add the passata and the olives and cook for a few minutes.
Scoop mixture back into the aubergines and cook for a further 20 minutes, top with parsley and pine nuts.
We usually eat this drizzled in cacik(tzatziki)

Stuffed peppers/biber dolma
Whole red or green peppers
Cooked rice/bulgar wheat works well too
Onion
Garlic
Tomato(grated)
Parsley
Dried mint
I add whatever vegetables I have in the fridge usually courgettes/aubergine
Olives
Feta

The traditional recipe contains currants, pine nuts and all spice but I choose to leave these out of mine!

Cook the onion and add the tomato, garlic and olives and add to the rice along with the mint and parsley
Pop mixture into the peppers and top with feta and cook untill the peppers are nice and soft

Shakshuka
olive oil
1/2 onion
1 clove garlic
1 pepper
1-2 cans of chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
Cumin
Chilli powder/chilli flakes
5-6 eggs how ever many you can fit in your pan
fresh parsley

Cook the onion, pepper and garlic untill soft then add the cumin and chilli. Add the tomato paste and cook for a few minutes then add the chopped tomatoes. Crack the eggs into the sauce one at a time making sure they are nicely spread out and cook them to your desired preference , I like mine nice and runny! Top with the parsley and it's ready to serve, big crusty bread/flatbread to dip in is delicious!

Lahmajun
Traditionally served with spicy minced lamb which is a favourite in our house but here is my veggie version that I actually found online as I didn't want to miss out!

www.onegreenplanet.org/plant-based-recipes/vegan-lahmajun-armenianturkish-pizza/

Gozleme
500g strong bread flour
Half a packet of yeast
150g plain yogurt
225g water
Salt
Olive oil

For the filling
Feta cheese
Baby spinach
Onion- I like to use red for this and very finely chopped
Turkish chilli flakes

Combine the flour, salt and yeast in a bowl then add the yogurt and water and mix, cover for about 10 minutes, it will look very wet at this point don't worry! Oil your work surface and knead the dough for about 5 minutes then leave to rest for about 45 minutes. Divide the dough into balls and on a Floured surface roll out like you would a pizza, the gozleme dough should rectangle shaped and very thinly rolled out to about 25x30.
For the mixture just combine all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix well. Place some of the mixture on one half of each rectangle then fold over to enclose the filling pinching the edges, place on a hot griddle or frying pan u till golden brown on each side
You can add anything to these they are so versatile! I freeze the dough in batches too

The manti recipe is very complex and quite hard to master so I will only post if someone really wants it! Moussaka and falafel have been done to death so I hope you all enjoy something abit different I have a lot more recipes both vegetarian and meat too should anyone need any!

Can you share your Shashuka receipe Mummy91? I tried Ottolenghi's but my version wasn't that nice......

Minimisa look above

I am totally making Gozleme tonight! Thank you so much they all sound delicious!

A Persian dish called Gheimeh bademjan (pronounced: gay-meh bod-em-June)

This is an aubergine dish with yellow lentils.

1: Peel the skin off an aubergine, cut length ways and then rub salt into the pieces. After this, fry in oil until brown all over and set aside on grease proof paper.

2: Cut an onion and soak the yellow lentils.

3: Heat oil in a sauce pan and then add the onion. Once softened add one teaspoon of turmeric and stir in. Drain the lentils, wash through and add to the onion.

4: Add one can of chopped tomatos, a table spoon of tomato purée, the juice of one lemon (plus the rind), seasoning and the pieces of aubergine. Then cook through on a gentil simmer until the lentils are soft.

Serve with Persian steamed rice.

The way I was taught to cook rice by my Persian MIL.

1: Soak basmati rice in water for a few hours (if you are in a rush I would soak in hot water for ten minutes) and put on a large pan of water on the hob to boil.

2: Drain and rinse the rice through until the water is clear. Once the water is simmering or just boiling add the rice.

3: When the rice is cooking, you should stand over it so that you can skim off the white froth (this is the starch). When the rice is just about cooked, drain the water off in a colinder.

4: Once the saucepan has been emptied, pour a tablespoon of oil and yogurt and mix together at the bottom of the pan. Then slowly add the rice, once added lay a tea towel or kitchen towels on top of the pan and then add the lid (The heat should be quite low). By putting a tea towel etc on top, this allows it to trap any water from the steam that is produced.

5: after twenty minutes or so (you may have to check), the rice should be ready so you can empty the rice from the pan. You should be left with two types, most of it should be fluffy/separated and the other (known as tadiq) should be hard/crunchy and golden in colour (most Persians, love tadiq and its common to see them have both types on their plates).

Phoenix - dried lemons (nods wisely).
Don't tell them about the tadig - tell them its burned and keep it for yourself!

There's a recipe with pomegranite syrup walnuts and sour grapes but I need to rack my brains.