Egypt has been on my mind constantly. It all started when I finally got Cory to watch one of my favorite movies, The Band’s Visit, just after the New Year. Then a couple weeks later, we watched Dr. Zhivago (seeing it made me even more proud to have been an extra in a film that starred Omar Sharif). Now in the wake of the protests in Egypt, I’ve been glued to Al-Jazeera English’s live stream everyday and find myself constantly refreshing certain blogs for live updates.
I miss Egypt. A lot. I spent almost a year there, over the course of three separate visits. Egypt will always have a special place in my heart. It was a place of firsts – first international flight, first time living on my own, first roommates, and the place where I first took an interest in food and cooking. Although I had a lot of frustrating experiences in Cairo (as any woman will tell you), I long for the day I can return and introduce Cory to my favorite bookstores, restaurants, and neighborhoods.
I especially miss the cats. Don’t even get me started on the cats. I have more pictures of cats than pyramids (which is easy, since cats are everywhere).
I loved all of the cats, even the ones that tried escaping my loving embrace. I could totally do without the geckos (bors), though.
And, of course, there’s the food.
I arrived in Egypt a very picky eater and returned to the States with a new love for food and cooking (lentils, fava beans, and chickpeas… where had they been all my life?). With Egypt so much on my mind lately, I started off the week with plans to only make Egyptian and Egyptian-inspired foods. So expect to see lots of Egyptian recipes here in the near future. My produce market was overflowing lots of interesting greens – butter lettuce, dinosaur kale, and brilliantly purple escarole. Once I got home, I wanted to put them all together in salad. For the record, I was never served anything quite like this salad in Egypt. It’s Egyptian-inspired, with a tahini based sauce laced with cumin and coriander. You see, I can’t help but put a somewhat foofy California cuisine spin on the dishes I make.
By the way, if you subscribe via email or RSS take a look at avocado & bravado’s new look. I planned on coding my own WordPress theme from scratch, buuut… I never quite got around to it. Instead, I found a nice minimalist theme to use as a base and customized it myself. I’m still smoothing a few things out, but the blog is finally looking the way I’ve always wanted it to. I love it.
Mixed Green Salad with Tahini Dressing
Print this recipeFor the dressing:
3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
2/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup plain yogurt (you could leave this out and add more tahini, but sometimes I find that tahini can be too strong)
2-4 tablespoons water (depending on the thickness of your yogurt. I used full fat Greek yogurt, so I used about 4 tablespoons of water)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
saltChop the garlic and toss into a blender, along with the remaining the tahini, yogurt, 2 tablespoons water, lemon juice, cumin, coriander and salt. Blend until smooth. If the dressing is too thick, add more water, a tablespoon at a time until you’ve reached your desired consistency.
For the salad:
3 cups mildly tart greens (any of the following: endive, escarole, dandelion greens, kale, purslane, watercress), washed and chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 cups mild greens (any of the following: butter lettuce, loose leaf lettuce, Romaine lettuce), washed and chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 onion, diced
1 cucumber diced
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
black pepper, for servingToss together the the greens and add to individual bowls. Drizzle the dressing over the greens and add the onions, cucumber, walnuts, and chickpeas. Grind some black pepper over the salad and serve.
Serves 6-8
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Tags: easy, egyptian, gluten-free, middle eastern, salad, side dish, vegetarian
