Fassoulieh, or Great Northern Bean Stew

fassoulieh by the kosher foodiesThis is a classic Syrian dish. We often eat it on Shabbat, but really it’s the perfect weeknight dinner. It’s a make ahead meal, so you can make it on a weekend, pop it in the fridge, and heat it up, make rice and a salad or simple roasted veggie, and dinner is ready! Continue reading

Vegetable Soup

What do you do with all the leftover veggies lying around your fridge? Well, we know one option is to make a pot pie out of them. Or you can always roast them. But it’s cold out, so soup is another option. If you also have some dried beans (or a can) lying around, you can have a healthful lunch or a wonderful side with dinner (or add a crostini or garlic bread to dip into the soup and voila – dinner!). Add your favorite mini pasta and you’ll get a thicker and more hearty soupy meal. Continue reading

Quesadillas

You can put almost anything inside two tortillas and pan-fry them. The insides get gooey and the outsides get crisp and you can cut them into tiny wedges and they will be delicious.

quesadillas

I prepared six of these in advance, fried them up a few hours before I was ready to serve them, and then heated them on a cookie sheet immediately before serving. Continue reading

Vegetarian Chili

I’m not really sure how it fits in to our Middle-Eastern style of cooking, but chili is a staple at the Blanco family’s Shabbat dinner. Our mom always makes it the same way, but when I make it I like to experiment a bit.

chili

I had the perfect variety of fresh peppers on hand from my vegetable-picking trip to a farm in New Jersey so I decided to bring chili to my brother’s house for Friday night dinner. What I didn’t have readily available was ground meat. So I left it out.

veggies

I also wanted to put some chopped green pepper (also picked at the farm) in here, but when I cut it open I found a caterpillar, so I threw it out. It was green and fuzzy and still alive. And it freaked me out.

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