Fetteh with chickpeas, tahina yogurt and nuts
Fetteh is always a hit, always. And so it is this time. The combination of soft, spiced and crunchy is a delicious combination of textures, textures and flavours.
Grapes reduced in cardamom, cinnamon and cane sugar
The vegetable garden brought in a few kilos of their newly harvested grapes. But they were small, had a hard skin and were also a bit too sour for my liking. Not to be used for our dessert in any case, I thought. But of course, throwing it away is never an option. So, I tried to turn them into something delicious by boiling them in cardamom and cinnamon. And cane sugar. And? Dessert hit. It’s too nice how things can suddenly go like this. Enjoy.
Grilled vegetable soup with fried lemon zest
We ate a soup at our friend Astrid’s who is a great cook. And since she had a French mother, we have pretty much exactly the same taste. We know exactly what we think is ‘délicieux’ from each other. She made a soup with fried lemon zest in it. Not normally tasty. And so I made it a few days later in the restaurant. Almost too good to be true.
Artichoke soup, not normally so tasty
Artichoke soup, you don’t eat it so quickly I think. And that while it is so incredibly tasty and also ready in no time. It is a soup for all seasons, but even better when the weather is nice.
Cauliflower from the oven on a bed of dadelhina and with spicy dressing
Oh cauliflower, it’s an amazing vegetable. Just the way it grows. I can’t get over it every time I divide them into roses. The ingenuity of such a vegetable to grow like this. Even with the eighteenth cauliflower in a day, I have immense respect. And then the versatile way in which you can prepare a cauliflower. Unbelievable. And always blissful. Also in this recipe in which we combine savory, nutty and sweet.
Tomato soup with borlotti beans and fennel seeds
Tomato soup is always good anyway. But if he still manages to surprise, that’s great. And this one does. The fennel seeds and borlotti beans are responsible for this. And those borlotti beans add body and bite to the soup. And that really makes a difference.
Beetroot salad with walnut-date pesto and orange
Beetroot, this way, you can’t dislike. I’m sure of that, because the week we had this salad on the menu, I heard that every day. Especially from guests who solemnly declared that they didn’t really like beetroot, but still wanted to enjoy a second helping that evening. That’s all you need to know, right?
Eggplant fries with pomegranate molasses and za’atar yogurt
Eggplant fried crispy in a few minutes. It’s possible. Truly so. Soak in milk for an hour first, that makes a difference. Together with good pomegranate molasses and za’atar yogurt a delicious snack. But you saw that yourself, of course.
Very surprising spicy onions
Onions at their very best. Well, I think onions are great gifts from nature anyway. Every dish will be tastier. But on their own, they’re also great. They really don’t necessarily need another environment to come into their own. Certainly not in this dish. We served it here as a starter, appetizer. But I can imagine that this is also delicious with a meal of green beans, for example.
Orzo salad with borlotti beans, peas and arugula pesto
This is a surprisingly surprising salad I must say. Orzo is addictively delicious because of its structure, the beans give crunch and the pesto does its spicy and spicy work together with the arugula and the red pepper. Incredibly tasty, also as a meal salad.
Pearl couscous salad with cinnamon, date syrup, spinach (and white) asparagus
We could have left this salad on the menu forever. It happened only twice, we just want a different menu every week. But it’s divinely delicious. Everything about it. The structure, the surprising spices, the sweetness, the crunch and the gift of the lightly caramelized asparagus. In one word: fantastic.
Spicy kibbeh balls of pumpkin with ginger yogurt
Crunchy, spicy and delicious. Together with the ginger yogurt fatally delicious. You can make them as big and as small as you want, of course.
Eggplant soup with pickled lemon and black tahina
I would like to make this soup just for the garnish with the black tahina. Quite a picture, right? And tasty too. This soup is everything a soup should be. Just thick enough, very tasty, surprising because of the pickled lemon and also beautiful in your bowl.
Lima bean burgers with spicy bell pepper sauce
Lima beans are so incredibly versatile, and they always bring big smiles to my face. In these mini burgers, they are a wonderful foundation for a tasty spicy snack. That’s how it was made. And to serve with any sauce of course. Also with a sweet one, by the way.
Lebanese creamy red lentil soup with crispy pit acroûtons
Red lentil soup at its very best. But really. The soup itself is already a gift, but those baked pita croutons are the stitching around it. A soup with a bite, I love it.
Kadaifi pie with filling of palm cabbage, date and ras el hanout
Kadaifi, that’s what it looks like in the picture. Like a small battlefield, because everyone wants to eat it so greedily. The structure of the kadaifi is special and surprising. Above all, very pleasant. And the filling is the wonderful combination of spicy, spicy, and sweet. Really everyone’s friend this pie. And that’s what you want on your table, right?
This recipe will make you a celery lover
“I don’t know how she does it every time, but Damaris knows how to make me love vegetables that I normally really don’t like.” That’s what a guest told me when I had this on the menu. It’s celery at its best. Don’t be afraid, you’re going to love it. Just try a little bit at first. And then you’re convinced.
Moroccan pointed cabbage with harissa and cumin seeds
Pointed cabbage is my favorite of all cabbages, I think. The texture is great, the taste is delicious. The cabbage is versatile. I also make this recipe as a salad. Just let it cool down for a while. It can be that simple sometimes.
Afghan spicy yogurt soup
This is one of those soups of which you don’t know how incredibly delicious it is when you hear the name. So creamy, so spicy, such a delicious mouthfeel. And a soup that you can’t stop eating. Did you notice that it also contains tomatoes? No, well, it still is. Make it and then include it in your cooking repertoire forever. Beyond doubt.
Spinach salad with sour/sweet marinated date, almonds and crunchy pita
Look, these are the salads I love. Lukewarm, crunchy, sour and sweet. Everything is there. You can certainly put it on the table as a meal salad. The dates, the almonds and the bread are very nutritious.
Bolani, Afghan stuffed fritters
It is a deliciously crunchy snack that works very well as a start to a menu. The filling makes it surprising and of course you can fill it as you see fit. I filled it with a garlic/herb mixture and presented it on a bed of ginger yogurt.
Eggplant, tomato, turmeric and walnut stew
It’s like green beans and tomato, so it is with eggplant and tomato. The variations are endless and always lead to delicious comfort food. This is also the case with this classic. Everything is right, everything is tasty, everything is fine. And the more patience you have, the tastier it becomes.
Green beans in tamarind-tomato sauce
Green beans and tomato. It comes in all variants. And this one with tamarind beats a lot of other recipes I must say. Super tasty and green beans become great ‘stars’ on the table in one go.
Citrus rice
In addition to a sweet dish, I like to put down a fresher dish. I love those complementary or sometimes even contrasting flavors. That’s how I came up with the idea of cooking rice in citrus juices. Of course, depending on what you want, you can make it from quite sweet to a bit more bitter or sour. It’s just what you want. In any case, it is really very different. And that’s always nice, such a surprise.
Salad with unforgettable dressing of sun-dried tomatoes
You can simply make the green salad with the green ingredients that you like best. Here I added some edamame beans and avocado. Plus fresh herbs such as flat-leaf parsley, mint, dill and coriander. But the dressing is the winner, so don’t let the salad compete with the dressing. The salad should provide the crunch, that’s the most important thing.
Couscous salad with seasoned carrot and palm cabbage
The carrot is well and firmly seasoned, so it’s super tasty. And the palm cabbage gives colour, bite and flavour. The pickled lemon gives it that typical Moroccan feel. Lovely in the summer. Lovely in the winter. Always.
Cauliflower from the oven with green olives and large yellow raisins
It is one of the simplest dishes and at the same time also the dish of which Joris declared: this is the tastiest dish of this year. Well, let 2025 start then, I say. I’m done.
Sudanese eggplant stew
Just when you think you’re familiar with all the eggplant stews, you stumble upon this one. And what a one. So surprising. So good. So different. Guests raved. And so do we. We are going to make this very often.
Red bell pepper, celeriac and tahina soup
What a combination this is. Celeriac and red bell pepper are not a natural combination, but in this soup they definitely are. Totally complementary to each other. And the tahina makes it a creamy, nutty whole. Delicious.
Olive soup à la Ellen
We went for lunch with our dear friends and good cooks Wim and Ellen. And Ellen conjured up an olive soup that was so delicious and surprising that I immediately knew one thing: we are going to serve it with à la Damaris. I had never come up with the idea before and judging by the reactions of our guests, I was not the only one. I gave it an à la Damaris touch but other than that all credits go to Ellen.