A Little Lunch Party: Some of the Old, Some of the New

Starting out with a lentil soup.

Then a salad of cherry tomato and wild rocket with chopped walnuts and parmesan shavings.

Followed by kidney bean tahina.

Together with zaatar chicken.

Topped off with a pudding-ish thingy made with crumbled cake and date syrup, shot through with chopped dates, walnuts and almonds.

Rajmmus: Red Kidney Beans with Tahina

Hummus, hold the hummus. Substitute with red kidney beans (rajma), soaked overnight, slow-boiled until very soft. Blend to a thick paste (or manually mash till your arms scream for mercy). Add tahina, lemon juice, crushed garlic, olive oil and a little salt and voila!

The good thing about hummus is that much of it can be prepared to taste, so there's little that can go horribly wrong unless one is completely incompetent and/or careless. I just bought a new masher, so I took the mashing route. The results are a bit lumpy, but still good.