There are few ways to cook eggplant for making mutabbal. Some would deep fry it, while others would bake it in the oven. But nothing could beat the unique taste coming from roasting it. Roasting eggplants on stove-top or barbeque grill brings out richness in eggplant and adds smoky flavor and aroma to the dish.

About picking the good eggplants for making mutabbal, I quote Christiane Nasser: “Large and pulpy Jericho eggplants (betinjan rihawi) are ideal or frying and grilling. They are quite sharp when grilled, and intensify the flavor of many salads that accompany meat dishes”.

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Fattet hummus (also called “tis-iyeh” as in Syria) is typically served as breakfast, mostly on Friday’s breakfasts. Also it’s served as a side dish in occasional dinners.

There are many recipes of fattet hummus, but I’m going to share with you the best of them all.  It consists of four  layers: Fried pita bread, Tahini sauce, tahini paste (hummus dip) and topping of pine nuts, olive oil, parsley and cumin.

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It took me some time to begin writing on this blog after it was created good time ago. And it took me even more time to decide on the first recipe. I was thinking to myself; maybe I should start with the most classical Palestinian dish like Msakhan and Maqloubeh, or with a worldwide known one like Hummus and Falafel, or maybe with one of the basic everyday Palestinian food like Pickled Olives and Zatar (Thyme). Then I told myself, “Eman, simply start with your favorite dish!”. And here we go with Cauliflower in Tahini Sauce.

Cauliflower with Tahini Sauce is popular particularly in Palestine and generally in Levant. It’s a perfect winter dish made of healthy and tasty ingredients. One is Tahini, which is made of ground sesame seeds and is essential in East Mediterranean cooking. Adding rich flavor and texture to food, Tahini also provides good fatty acids, minerals and energy. Another ingredient is cauliflower, a cold season vegetable, usually produced in December and January. It is considered a rich source of Vitamin C and fibers. So it makes all the sense for these two ingredients to come together in one wintery dish.

In this recipe I use pan/shallow frying to cook cauliflower florets instead of deep frying for less oil intake. However roasting the florets would be the healthiest option. Also it’s good to mention here that this dish can be a vegetarian choice if you eliminate the beef from it.

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