Minestra nera with fennel seed and pine nuts
One day Elisiv from Tuinderij Geworteld sends me a message that she can harvest ‘minestra nera’ for me. So I had never heard of that. She gave me a kilogram of it to try. Felt, squeezed, took a bite raw. Also looked around on the internet. And I decided to cook and bake a little of it. The latter turned out to be great. It was like my beloved cavolo nero, but softer. I combine it here with fennel seeds and pine nuts. A brilliant combination as it turned out quite quickly.
Garlic saffron soup with harissa
Garlic soup, maybe you think ‘that’s a bit too intense for me’. But if you knew that this and the other garlic soup on this site are ‘the soup hits’ in the restaurant… you might consider making it. Really super tasty, surprisingly tasty and ready in no time at all. Although that’s never a recommendation for me, but still…
Stew of chard, chickpea, tomato in tamarind sauce
Delicious deep taste, a wonderful combination of vegetables and herbs. The tamarind brings it all home. Here on a bed of lima bean puree, but in the restaurant I also serve it with ‘green couscous’, a couscous in which I mix a spice paste (coriander, parsley, mint). It’s a great comfort food.
Moroccan desert soup
Sweet and spicy. Savory too. Exactly the right consistency. Soft in your mouth. Complex flavors without being distracting. It sounds like literature, but it is simply a hero of a soup. An every day soup. Stand up whoever doesn’t like this soup. I accept the challenge. That’s how confident I am.
Green beans on a lovely bed and crumbly blanket
Tahina has the ability to turn something that is a bit boring into something interesting. Or even better, something that instantly turns into comfort food. In other words, something you can never get enough of. It also has that effect in this dish. In the plant based yogurt it gives this dish a delicious foundation. And the crumb on top gives the dish something surprising, playful and a little spicyness.
Lebanese spicy and slightly sweet rice with vermicelli
This is a very Lebanese way of preparing rice. First you bake the vermicelli, you add the Lebanese seven spice powder. Then cook the rice, sweeten it with a little agave syrup and let it rest. Sprinkle some fried slivered almonds on top and you have a delicious side dish on the table. Rice like you’ve never eaten before, but which you will probably put on the table much more often after today.
Summer Arabic zucchini soup
A delicious velvety soup, fresh because of the lemon zest, even a bit spicy. Great for a summer day or any other day of the year.
Sabayech (spinach à la Fati
Whenever I can, I dive into a kitchen to cook with someone. I think that’s the nicest thing there is. It immediately creates a bond, you both do what you like best, you immediately exchange knowledge and passion with each other and in the meantime you are just making delicious things. You do not even have to speak each other language fluently in order to understand each other. So that’s exactly what I did in Tamragth, Morocco, two days after I tasted this dish for the first time. t hit like a bomb and I immediately made an appointment to cook together with Fati(ma). And that’s what we did. And now I serve it in restaurant and the guests say unanimously…. you get a star for this. Well, Fati deserves it.
Crispy coeur de boeuf tomato
I was recently in Madrid to visit my daughter Lalaine who has just moved there. In the evening we went out for dinner at la Musa Latina and chose some delicious dishes. This was one of them and it was an instant it. My brain went into a creative mode and once back in the restaurant I made this à la Damaris variant. This one is to stay.
Watermelon tomato salad with capers and baked bread
Bettich, that’s what you call watermelon in Arabic. We had it soooo often in Lebanon. And every time I eat it now, I’m there again. I think many associate it with holiday feeling, warm summers and the like. This salad is delicious, with different taste sensations. Sweet, salty, crunchy, soft. Delicious.
Pasta with a velvety green sauce and oven tomatoes
There are never enough pasta sauces. And this one should not be missing from your list. Spinach, avocado, pine nuts, lemon zest and delicious sweet tomatoes that have been cooked in the oven. Ready in no time, healthy, tasty and nutritious.
Pea soup with allspice, basil oil and pistachios
Doperwten, het is misschien wel mijn minst favoriete groente. If I wanted to call it that. Anyway, I had a big bag in the freezer. Don’t ask what he was doing there, but it lay there. And I didn’t want to throw it away. And then I came up with this soup. Bull’s eye, peas have risen in my estimation. It turned out to be a delicious soup.
Bulgur with spinach, chickpeas, fennel seed and orange zest
This is an ‘oh mom, this is nice’ dish. It’s fresh, nourishing, sparkling. A dish that makes you happy. Well that’s no surprise, because that’s goes for all the dishes on this website. It is summery and sunny.
Blackened zucchini with roasted garlic and tahini yogurt
It is in one word and in one minute your favorite dish. It’s a bit of hard work, but worth every minute. So complex in taste, so well matched, so full of flavor and so light. And very surprising too. So much tastier than you expect.
Kadaifi pie with aubergine-tomato filling
You take a bite and you get a few sensations at once: super crispy, super soft and super flavorful. So, kadaifi dough is really a find. It is normally used for baklava, but here I used it in a savory patty. And man oh man, what a find. You don’t get over it, you keep talking about it after a few days.
Spicy za’atar crackers
These crackers are not exactly secondary to any dip that can go on them. In fact, they are quite pronounced in taste. And that’s not a bad thing, because they are very tasty. And not difficult to make.
Asparagus hummus
I can be a puritan, especially when it comes to hummus. Must with tahina, decorated with za’atar, paprika or cumin.
But for an asparagus menu I like to use the free space. And so it came to be that I made asparagus hummus. Delicious, the lightness and taste of the asparagus and the always ‘down-to-earth effect’ of the tahina. Love it. And with that, this is a great variation on the hummus theme that I can fully support.
Sweet onion soup
I was never much of a soup maker, but in recent years I have become an avid soup maker. Soup can be so delicious. So warming, so surprising, so comfort food. You know onion soup, but this is a great Arabic variation.
Asparagus on a bed of lima bean puree and with hazelnut pesto
We know asparagus from traditional preparations. In our restaurant we also prepare them in the Middle Eastern way. In this case with a delicious spicy lima bean puree and a fresh crunchy hazelnut pesto. The asparagus is still deliciously crispy but cooked through, straight out of the oven. Sensational, nothing less.
Eggplant fennel soup with a touch of orange
This is not ‘an easy does it’ soup. It keeps you busy. And as it should be, you will be generously rewarded for that. It is a delicious soup. The orange subtly surprises you. The substance is delicious. It looks amazing. In short, go make that soup. Do not hesitate.
Pumpkin kibbeh with macadamia nuts and caramelized onion
Kibbeh is a household name in the Middle East. It is a dish with a bottom and top layer of bulgur with ‘something’. In this case, this is squash. And between those two layers there is something delicious. In this recipe, these are macadamia nuts and caramelized onion. It’s a very tasty dish, surprising when you cut it open (hence this photo) and your table mates will go wild.
Fried leek with tomato, almond and arak
Leek is such a comfort food. In this dish, some guests do not even recognize the leek. If I were leek, I would take that as a compliment. That is how it is meant. The combination with the tomato, the crunchy almonds and the surprising Arak (Arabic variant of Ouzo/Pernod) makes it a dish where the fingers point to approvingly during dinner.
Dandelion honey or ‘miel de pisenlit’
In the summer of 2021, we had lunch at the plant-based restaurant ONA near Bordeaux, which has a Michelin star. With our coffee and tea we got ‘miel de pisenlit’. Honey from dandelions. Honey?, I asked. In a plant-based restaurant? But no bee was involved in this honey. It was so delicious that I really wanted to make it myself. Had to wait a year for the dandelions to return. Now it’s time. And the result is astonishingly delicious. Honey that isn’t technically honey, but it tastes like it and is truly delicious.
Lebanese leek with seven spice powder and coarse bulgur
Leek is of course delicious anyway, if properly cooked. Bulgur is delicious anyway, provided you choose the right coarseness for the dish. Seven-spice powder is a wonderful powerhouse in any case, provided you do not use too much and not too little of it. All in all, a delicious dish. And also quick and easy to make.
Börek with spinach and pine nuts
I do not know why. You wrap something in filo dough and it immediately becomes spectacular. In the end it is a simple dish, but it does not look and taste simple. Spinach becomes the star of the dish, filo dough plays a modest but not unimportant role. All in all, the combination is fatally delicious and a stunning picture on the table.
Tasteful lentil puree
As a guest at the restaurant said recently, “You get a spoon with something brown on it and you think, ‘Okay.’ And then you take a bite and you think: ‘woh’. That’s in short what you should think about this lentil puree. Tasteful, lovely. Can be eaten at room temperature or warm. As an appetizer or part of a mezze or menu. And the crispy fried red onion gives just that little bit of bite that you would like to have with it.
Green beans ai ai ai so divinely delicious
You have to admit it, green beans are just a really boring vegetable. Not interesting at all. Too soft quite quickly. Overcooked really. Really boring. Unless, of course, you do something extraordinary with them and they become the center of your feast. The French often serve them with some butter and some crushed garlic. I do this all the time as well. This is a variation on that theme, but next level.
Blood orange salad with red onion and fennel
Orange with fennel and red onion. Not very obvious, until you taste it. Then you understand completely. Perfect combination, brings out the best in each other without one ingredient dominating. Delicious.
Creamy garlic almond soup
I don’t know what you’re thinking when you read this, but I immediately thought: ai ai ai, this is probably one of the best soups ever. And that’s exactly what it is. Hands down. In the restaurant I never make enough of this soup. Guests all want a second serving. If it is up to them of course. It is so surprising. So delicious. The next day you still think about that soup. You start talking about it. You want to make it yourself. That kind of soup.
Asparagus salad with bulgur, mustard and pistachios
Using the so called white gold for a salad. Yes, I also had to cross a threshold. But, I’m making this salad from ‘broken’ asparagus. And unfortunately, or in this case fortunately, that sometimes happens. So in this case, we turn the negative into something great. This salad brings out everything in an asparagus that makes it so delicious.