As-Salaamu Alaykum,

In my opinion we all need one more soup recipe. This is one i found and adapted ever so slightly from UmmSafia

I'll admit I don't know much about beans, dh brought these home and they look a lot like Lima/Butter beans, no? I'm sure you could substitute these for any other type of bean if you prefer.

A great tip I learned recently from a friend; when soaking any dry beans/pulses overnight, use boiling water from the kettle. I hadn't been doing this previously, it's total common cooking sense which as you can tell I'm still working on.

Important: when your sautéing your vegetables/meat, season! this will draw the moisture out and speed up the softening process.

This recipe is similar but not quite the same as another Algerian favourite of mine Loubia which uses large white haricot beans without the extra vegetables.

You can use as much lamb as your budget dictates, on or off the bone but remember on = more flavour.

I substituted chicken stock for a vegetable stock cube, but again the choice is yours.

Bismillah

Lamb & Lima / Butter Bean Soup

Ingredients

As-Salamu Alaikum,

Here are a few photos & links to recipes I've recently tried and love masha'Allah wa Alhamduillah

Moroccan Chicken, Carrot & Potatoe Tagine -   My husband recently bought me a heat diffuser so I could use my Tagine on the hob even though he assured me it wasn't necessary, the label it came with said otherwise. I find putting the tagine inside the oven for an hour+ uneconomical and thought maybe it would use less energy on the hob? I halved the recipe and didn't add as much chicken but the whole family, kids and all really enjoyed it as it uses a few spices than what I am accustomed to using.

Sesame Seeded Hamburger Buns With Homemade Lamb Burgers - I followed the King Arthur Flour Recipe except I used sesame seeds only and the homemade lamb burgers were adapted from cooking with Alia's 'Merguez' style ground meat, I didn't use any harissa because I wanted my children to at least have a chance of liking them and I shaped them into burgers instead of sausage shape.
I made the mince stretch further by cutting the burgers in half once cooked (next time make them more like sliders as the buns aren't huge). The leftover mince which I didn't cook then got turned into spaghetti and meatballs that same evening.
Chicken Kofta Curry - My curry was more orange in colour than the original recipe, maybe that was because I used half a tin of chopped tomatoes in place of the 2 large fresh tomatoes it called for in the recipe and despite that the spicing was there but nice and mild (no chilli's involved) due to using 1 cup of yoghurt to make the sauce. I used half the quantity of chicken mince to make koftas, I'm on a budget maybe next time I should add some vegetables to bulk it up.
Instead of using an egg to bind the kofta together, I added 1/2 teaspoon no egg orgran egg replacer without adding any extra liquid as I felt it wasn't necessary as this mince was rather wet from just being defrosted in the microwave. In fact adding the egg replacer altogether was probably not necessary but I wanted to be sure the kofta wouldn't fall apart once cooking that's happened to me before, usually when using any type of lean mince meat.

In sha Allah your inspired to try one of the above dishes, if you were to ask me which one was my favourite I would say the homemade burgers and buns because it involved a bit of my favourite past time, baking!

Before I forget, in all the recipes that call for parsley I used coriander as I dislike parsley.
 

Asalam Alaykum,

Warm, hearty comforting Meat and Potatoes is satisfaction 'foodified' Alhamdu lillah you will definitely be satisfied when eating this tagine.

Saffron is the power house again in this recipe that gives that sunshine golden hue and the pleasant bitter honey taste.

The recipe can be found over at cooking with Alia  i made a few small changes:-

• Halving the recipe quantities except the spices to make it suitable for 2-3 people
• Missed out the finely chopped parsley as i don't like parsley
• I used 1 Turnip and 2 potatoes instead of 3 Turnip
• I used lamb on the bone instead of small chunks

I certainly plan on making this dish again in sha Allah

Salam Alaikum / Greetings readers,


Homemade wholemeal bread can be heavy but not if you follow my recipe i promise! the only 'out there' ingredient that the original recipe called for, was a vitamin c tablet... as i didn't have one of those to hand i missed it out completely and still ended up with a loaf which was light, tender and a good nutty flavour comes from using wholemeal / wholewheat flour which is more expensive but healthier than bleached white flour.
 
You do get what you pay for in this instance although i should think processing flour to make it white would end up costing the manufacturer(is that the right word?) more in the long term?  
 
Now soup, my children are not yet lovers of spicy food. Even a pinch of black pepper is pushing it with my 3year old son but alhamduillah my daughter seemed to enjoy this while he stuck his nose up at it and ate the bread. I know it's common thing for toddlers to be picky eaters so i try not to worry too much, some days i will cater to my son's picky ways more than others because at the end of the day i don't want to be cooking separate meals for everyone for the rest of my days...am i alone on that?
 
Let's get down to the nitty gritty the recipes, peace until next time inshaAllah
 

Wholemeal Bread

Ingredients

Method

Chickpea And Lentil Soup

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
½ tsp fennel seeds
1tbsp tomato puree
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp ground Cinnamon
1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp brown sugar or to taste
1 stock cube dissolved in 2-3cupswarm water
¾ cup lentils that have been rinsed, soaked over night
1 ¼ cup canned chickpeas,drained and rinsed
3 sprigs coriander
1 dried bay leaf
salt and pepper, to taste.

Method



Recipe can be found here http://moroccanfood.about.com/od/breadandrice/r/Wheat_bread.