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Discover · vegetarian + lemon + snack

13 recipes

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Bessara

Bessara

Dried split fava beans (foul mudammas) soak overnight with bicarbonate of soda. Simmer with garlic, bay, coriander seeds and water for 1 hour until completely soft. Blitzed (or mashed) with garlic, ground cumin, ground coriander, salt and lemon juice into a thick spoonable purée, looser than hummus but thicker than soup. Plated in a wide shallow bowl: a swirl in the centre, doused with the green oil (olive oil + paprika + cumin + chopped parsley), maybe a sprinkle of dukkah on top, served warm with hot baladi bread.

Snacks 1 hour 30 minutes Serves4
Dolmadakia (Greek Stuffed Vine Leaves)

Dolmadakia (Greek Stuffed Vine Leaves)

Brined vine leaves are soaked for 20 minutes to leach the brine. Filling: short-grain rice is par-cooked for 10 minutes with onion in olive oil; off heat, dill, mint, parsley, pine nuts, currants and lemon zest are stirred through. Each leaf is given a teaspoon of cool filling and rolled into a tight cigar. The rolls are packed tight in a heavy pot lined with broken / extra leaves. Olive oil, lemon juice and stock are poured in to barely cover. Weighed down with an inverted plate. Slow-simmered for 50-60 minutes. Cooled in the liquid; served at room temperature.

Snacks 2 hours Serves40
Falafel Lebnani

Falafel Lebnani

Dried chickpeas soak overnight (never cooked, chickpeas must remain raw). Drained, blitzed with onion, garlic, a heaped pile of fresh parsley and coriander, ground cumin, ground coriander, salt, black pepper and Aleppo pepper into a coarse green paste. Rested for 30 minutes. Baking soda mixed in just before frying. Shaped into small (3 cm) patties or balls, a falafel scoop (zalabia) gives the cleanest shape but two spoons work. Optionally rolled in sesame seeds. Deep-fried in oil at 175°C for 2-3 minutes per side until amber-gold and crisp. Stuffed into pita with tahini, salad and pickles.

Snacks 37 minutes Serves4
Falafel Palestinian

Falafel Palestinian

Dried chickpeas (or a chickpea-fava blend) soak overnight. Drained, blitzed with onion, leek, a heaped pile of fresh parsley AND coriander (the Palestinian style is herb-heavy and notably green), garlic, ground cumin, ground coriander, salt and Aleppo pepper. Left to rest. Baking soda mixed in right before frying. Shaped into small patties or balls; pressed into sesame seeds; deep-fried until amber. Stuffed into khobz with tahini sauce, salad and pickled vegetables.

Snacks 37 minutes Serves4
Iraqi Falafel

Iraqi Falafel

Dried chickpeas soak in cold water 24 hours, the long soak hydrates them fully without cooking. Once drained, they are ground with onion, garlic, fresh coriander, parsley, dill, green chilli, cumin, coriander seed and ground cardamom to a coarse pale-green crumb. Bicarbonate of soda adds at the last minute for the open, fluffy interior. The mix chills for 30 minutes; small patties form; deep-fry at 175°C for 3 minutes until deep gold outside, fluffy and bright green inside. Eaten in warm samoon with the trimmings.

Snacks 25 hours 15 minutes Serves4
Kartoffelpuffer with Tahini

Kartoffelpuffer with Tahini

The classic German kartoffelpuffer - grated potato fritter - meets the Middle Eastern tahini drawer. Tahini does the work that egg and flour usually do: it binds the grated potato, and brings richness without dairy. The mixture is spiced confidently with cumin, turmeric, garlic, parsley and coriander, formed into patties, and baked on a tray rather than fried in oil. The result is crisp at the edges, tender in the middle, deeply savoury - a halfway dish between latke and falafel, owing both.

Snacks 55 minutes Serves6
Sabich

Sabich

Aubergine slices salt, drain 30 min, pat dry, fry crispy in olive oil. Eggs hard-boil (or for the traditional Iraqi-Jewish version, slow-cook overnight in a hamin pot, the brown eggs become beigene). Israeli salad: cucumber, tomato, red onion, parsley, lemon, olive oil. Tahini whisks with lemon juice and water to a pourable sauce. Pita warms briefly. Build: hummus smears inside; aubergine slices layer; egg quarters; salad; tahini drizzle; amba spoon; parsley.

Snacks 40 minutes Serves4
Sambusak

Sambusak

A simple flour-oil-water dough with a little turmeric for colour rests briefly while the filling cooks down. Cooked chickpeas are pulsed (not pureed) with caramelised onion, cumin, sumac and parsley. Dough rolls to 3 mm; cut in rounds; spoon in filling; fold to half-moon; crimp with a fork or twist a rope edge. Either deep-fried at 175°C until amber-gold, or brushed with egg, sprinkled with sesame and baked at 200°C. The texture is half-pastry, half-cracker, and the filling is dry and warmly spiced.

Snacks 1 hour 35 minutes Serves6
Samosa

Samosa

A stiff oil-rich plain-flour dough (maida) rolls thin and crisps in the fryer with the characteristic blistered surface. The filling is dry: boiled potato, peas, ginger, green chilli, cumin, coriander seed, garam masala and amchur (dried mango powder) for sourness. The pastry is rolled into ovals, halved into semicircles, formed into cones, stuffed, sealed and fried in two stages: low-temperature first to set the pastry without browning, then a hot finish to blister and crisp.

Snacks 1 hour 40 minutes Serves6
Socca

Socca

A simple batter of chickpea flour (also called gram flour or besan), water, olive oil and salt is whisked to a smooth thin consistency; rested at least 1 hour (overnight is even better; lets the chickpea flour fully hydrate and removes the raw bitterness). A heavy ovenproof frying pan (cast iron is ideal) is heated to smoking-hot under a high broiler / grill. A generous slick of olive oil goes in. The batter is poured in to a 5-mm depth. Under the broiler 8-12 minutes until the surface is golden, the edges are crisp-charred, and the centre is just set with some bubbling. Slid out, sliced rough, scattered with pepper and salt, eaten hot with the fingers.

Snacks 1 hour 17 minutes Serves4
Tameya

Tameya

Dried split fava beans (sold as "split foul" or "ful asfar" at Egyptian or Middle Eastern shops) soak overnight (never cooked, that's the key). Once drained, the favas are blitzed with onion, garlic, parsley, coriander, dill, leek and a generous dose of cumin, coriander and chilli into a coarse green paste. Rested for 30 minutes; baking soda mixed in for fluffiness. Patties shape between palms; pressed into sesame seeds + crushed coriander seeds; deep-fried 175°C for 2-3 minutes per side until amber-crisp. Drained and stuffed into pita with tahini, salad and pickles.

Snacks 42 minutes Serves4