Zaatar Burgers

I saw zaatar burgers on Bria’s blog, West of Persia, a while ago and have been wanting to make them ever since. Even though I didn’t use her recipe, I totally owe the idea to her. It would have never occurred to me to use zaatar on meats as I usually associate it with baked goods. The only way I've used it in the past is sprinkled and toasted on bread that was brushed with olive or argan oil .

Zaatar is made with a variety of dried spices, herbs, nuts and seeds so it brings so much depth of flavor to these burgers. The prevalent flavors in the zaatar I used were oregano and sesame which I could strongly tatse in every bite. It is so convenient to have so many flavors in one mix instead of having to combine separate ground herbs, spices and seeds to season food. That’s the wonder of zaatar.

Each zaatar is a little different depending on the ingredients used to make it. It can be salted or unsalted. Mine was salted so I didn’t add any salt to my burgers.

Zaatar Burgers Recipe

4 servings

1 pound ground beef or lamb
Sea salt to taste, optional (Only use salt if zaatar is unsalted)
8 teaspoons zaatar mix (or more, to taste)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 hamburger buns
4 tomato slices

Divide the ground meat into 4 equal parts and shape them into patties. Salt both sides, if necessary.

Sprinkle each burger with 2 teaspoons of zaatar using one teaspoon on each side and pressing the zaatar lightly to make it stick to the burgers.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the burgers until browned (almost blackened), about 5 minutes per side. Serve on a hamburger bun with a slice of tomato, if you wish.

Tchoutchouka: Moroccan Roasted Pepper and Tomato Salad

With a husband who doesn’t eat green peppers and a daughter who doesn’t eat anything green (with the exception of green candy, of course) I had the entire tchoutchouka to myself. Talk about excitement. I would love for them to include the joy of green peppers in their life but I must admit that, secretly, I was happy I had no competition. Next time, I will be less selfish and make it with red peppers so they, too, can experience the wonders of this marvelous dish.

Tchouktchouka is as traditional a Moroccan dish as traditional can get. I kept the recipe authentic and unchanged in honor of generations and generations of cooks who made it the same way in every big town, small hamlet, and nameless village on the map of Morocco.

Dip your bread in it, serve it as a side dish, sandwich spread or Moroccan-style bruschetta on crusty whole-grain bread. It is guaranteed delicious any way you choose to eat it and well worth a try!





















Tchoutchouka Recipe

4 servings

2 medium green bell peppers
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground paprika

Roast the peppers by charring them directly on the stove, turning them occasionally, until the skin is blackened and blistered all over, about 10 minutes. Place the peppers in a paper bag and close it, for about 15 minutes, to allow the peppers to sweat and their skin to become softer. Peel the skin off the peppers using your fingers. Discard the stem and seeds. Finely dice the peppers. Set aside.

Place the tomatoes in a medium skillet with olive oil. Add the garlic and season the tomatoes with salt, pepper, cumin and paprika. Cook the tomatoes until they become soft and turn into somewhat of a thick, chunky sauce, 10 to 15 minutes. Mix in the diced peppers and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Serve with bread or crackers.

Sumac Chicken

A simple dish that is as easy to make as it is full of flavor. Put it together in 5 minutes then forget about it for an hour, and voila: delicious, fall-off-the-bone chicken that tastes, well, of sumac. Sumac is a bit tart—but not overly. It tastes like lemon and is therefore delicious on dishes that go well with lemon such as chicken and fish. Even if you've never cooked with sumac, you may have walked by a sumac tree once or twice and thought its red berries were absolutely gorgeous, unaware that they were also the source of an unbelievably tasty spice.

It is widely used throughout the Middle East and most Mediterranean countries and adds a beautiful reddish color to food. In Morocco it is not widely used in cooking as much as it is in tanning leather and dyeing textiles.

My daughter kept asking for more of this chicken. She ate her serving and had most mine as well. She said it was the best chicken I’ve ever made. I don’t know if it is but it certainly is one of the easiest I’ve ever made.

Serve it with rice, couscous or roasted vegetables.



Sumac Chicken Recipe

4 servings

4 chicken leg quarters
1 tablespoon olive oil or cooking spray
2 garlic cloves, minced
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon ground sumac

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Trim the chicken quarters of excess fat.

Place the chicken in a rimmed baking dish. Brush the chicken with olive oil or spray it with cooking spray. Rub it with garlic then sprinkle it with salt, pepper and sumac. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake the chicken for 30 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake the chicken for another 30 to 40 minutes.

Cranberry Hummus

Waiiit…don’t throw away your leftover cranberry sauce. Recycle it!

OK, I know you haven’t digested your Thanksgiving dinner yet, but you’re not done with Thanksgiving flavors yet. I haven’t digested mine yet either but I know that as soon as I have I will want more pumpkin, more cranberries, more pecans in my life. I know I will be having them many times many ways before the year is over.

So, if you have any cranberries or cranberry sauce left, please make this hummus. You’ve got to make it, for your own sake, please! Chances are you still have family over and you want a great dip to mingle around. Everybody loves hummus and has a great conversation at its presence. I know so. Imagine how pleased everybody will be to see yesterday’s cranberry sauce in the hummus. They’ll love you for that.

Now a bit of description, so listen up. This is not a traditional hummus, meaning it’s not made with hummus (chickpeas in Arabic). It is made with cannellini beans which give a smoother dip. The cranberry sauce adds a tart, almost lemony taste. The flavor is bright and redolent of half traditional hummus, half cranberry dessert. All in all, a fantastic dip!








































Cranberry Hummus Recipe

4 to 6 servings

1 garlic clove, peeled
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (or 1.5 cups home cooked beans)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ cup cranberry sauce


In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the garlic until finely minced. Add the cannellini beans, lemon juice, tahini and olive oil. Purée until you obtain a smooth paste. Transfer to a serving bowl. Stir in the cranberry sauce until the dip becomes pink. Serve with pita, flatbread, chips or crudités.


Basic Cranberry Sauce

Yields ½ cup

1 cup fresh cranberries
½ cup orange juice
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons honey
¼ teaspoon grated orange zest

To make the cranberry sauce, combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally and pressing the cranberries down, until you get a thick sauce, 10 to 15 minutes.

Lamb and Carrot Tagine

It’s time for a tagine again! As soon as the weather starts cooling off a bit, I feel the need for a comforting, all-in-one-pot tagine—the salad dinners simply don’t cut it anymore and I find myself craving more flavor, more substance. This particular one is very flavorful and often made by combining carrots with peas, which makes it pure eye candy. Use lamb, veal or beef to make this tagine. I used lamb in mine.

Bessaha! Enjoy!

For other tagine recipes, click below:
Meatball Tagine with Onions and Raisins
Shrimp and Mushroom Tagine
Beef Tagine with Fall Vegetables
Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Olives



P.S. Check out the post I wrote for About.com










































Carrot Tagine Recipe

3 to 4 servings

1 pound stew meat
4 medium carrots, sliced lengthwise and cut into bite-sized cubes
1 medium yellow onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
Juice of half a lemon
¼ cup olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 1/2 cups water


Place all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir the ingredients to combine the flavors. Transfer the ingredients to the base of a tagine, placing the meat on the bottom and the carrots on top. Sauté the contents of the tagine over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes. Add water , lower the heat to low and cover with the tagine lid. Cook the stew for about 3 hours, checking occasionally and adding water if necessary.

Alternatively, use a slow cooker.

Caramelized Pumpkin

All of my Halloween pumpkin went into this dish. A Moroccan-inspired caramelized pumpkin recipe. The pumpkin is steamed then lightly caramelized with honey and flavored with cinnamon and orange blossom water. It can be made with butternut squash as well and is perfect for Thanksgiving or any occasion as a side dish.

Miam Miam!


Caramelized Pumpkin Recipe

4 servings

4 cups cubed pumpkin (about 2 pounds)
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon orange blossom water
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper


Steam the pumpkin until tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

Heat the honey and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the pumpkin, cinnamon or pumpkin spice and orange blossom water. Season with salt and pepper and cook until lightly caramelized, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.