Bean and Legume

This is an instant salad to make with canned chickpeas, but they must be good-quality.

You need young fava beans, not tough old ones. Some supermarkets sell them shelled in the season. Good-quality frozen ones are also fine to use. An Iranian grocer near where I live sells frozen skinned ones from Iran which are exceptional. The dish can be served hot or cold. The yogurt can be poured over the rice or served in a separate bowl.

This famous Turkish salad makes a light snack meal.

This Lenten specialty of the Orthodox Christian communities of Syria and Lebanon can be served hot or cold. Accompany with yogurt.

Megadarra is immensely popular in Egypt, as it is all over the Arab world (elsewhere it is pronounced mujadra and sometimes called mudardara). It is a modern version of a medieval dish called mujadarra, described by al-Baghdadi (see appendix) as a dish of the poor, and still referred to as Esau’s favorite. In fact, it is such a favorite that, although it is said to be for misers, it is a compliment to serve it. An aunt of mine used to present it regularly to guests with the comment “Excuse the food of the poor!”—to which the unanimous reply always was: “Keep your food of kings and give us megadarra every day!” The proportions of lentils and rice vary with every family. Large quantities of dark, caramelized onions are the best part. It is served either warm or cold, as a mezze or as part of a light meal, usually accompanied by yogurt.

A rustic Lebanese salad.

Chickpeas are so common in the Arab world that they could be a symbol of it. The pureed version combined with tahina has become ubiquitous in the West, but this one, without tahina, called “hummus habb” or “sada,” is nice too, if you dress it with plenty of lemon juice and olive oil.

This salad puree is the most widely known and appreciated of all outside the Middle East (abroad it is known simply as hummus). It is the constant companion of shish kebab and ta’amia in Oriental restaurants and is also good with fish or eggplants.

For this flavorful Egyptian dip, buy the split fava beans which are sold with their brown skins removed and look creamy white.

This is one of Egypt’s national dishes, welcome at all times, for breakfast, lunch, or supper. The Christian Copts, who are said to be pure descendants of the ancient Egyptians, claim this dish as their own, along with melokheya soup (page 146). Their claim might be justified, since these dishes are extremely old. During Coptic religious festivals, and particularly during Lent, when they are not allowed to eat meat for many weeks, every Coptic family produces mountains of ta’amia for their own daily consumption and to be distributed to non-Coptic friends and neighbors. Ta’amia (called “falafel” in Alexandria) are patties or rissoles made from large dried fava beans (ful nabed), which look white because they are sold skinless. Splendidly spiced and flavored, and deep-fried in oil, they are delicious. I have never known anyone not to like them. The best I have eaten were in Alexandria, with my aunt and uncle. Every year they rented a flat there, the balcony of which was directly above a café which specialized in ta’amia. My relatives were both rather large, which was not surprising, since we always seemed to come upon them eating; and I could never visualize them eloping, gazellelike, in their youth, which was the romantic legend that was told to us. On each visit, we would sit with them for hours on their balcony overlooking the sea. Time and again, a basket would be lowered on a rope to the café below and pulled up again with a haul of fresh ta’amia, sometimes nestling in the pouch of warm, newly baked Arab bread. We would devour them avidly with pieces of bread dipped in tahina salad, and then wait anxiously for the basket to be filled up again. You must buy the large broad beans which are sold already skinned as “split broad beans” in Middle Eastern stores (again, they look white without their brown skins).

A number of dishes that go under the general name of fatta all have in common a bed of toasted bread, soaked in stock, and a topping of yogurt. The name denotes the manner of breaking up crisp, toasted bread with your hands. To me, they recall a special person, the late Josephine Salam. Many years ago I received a letter from her from Beirut saying that she had a number of recipes she thought I would like. On our first meeting, at Claridge’s tearoom in London, where a band played Noël Coward tunes, she offered to come to my house and show me how to make fatta with chicken. We made that and many more meals together. It was the time of the civil war in Lebanon, and as she came and went from the country, I received an ongoing account of everyday life in the ravaged city. Her daughter, Rana, has become an artist and designer. For her thesis at the Royal College of Art in London, she asked me to give a lecture on the history of Middle Eastern food. She had ten portraits of me painted on cloth by a poster-painter in Egypt (he used photographs I gave Rana) and hung them around the college to publicize the event. She laid out foods and spices as in a souk, put on a tape of sounds and music recorded in an Egyptian street, and passed around Arab delicacies. When she visited me a few years later with her husband and new baby, I offered her the fatta with stuffed eggplants on page 300.

Serve this creamy soup with thin Lebanese flat bread cut into triangles, opened out, brushed with olive oil, and toasted in the oven until crisp.

A layer of chickpeas, spread over bread soaked in their cooking broth, smothered in yogurt with an elusive taste of tahini, and topped with pine nuts may sound heavy but it is surprisingly light and delicate in the eating, and the mix of textures, temperatures, and flavors is a joy. The bread must be the very thin flat bread known as khobz halabi, which is sold by Lebanese bakeries. You need either 1 large one measuring about 12 inches in diameter, or 2 smaller ones; or use 1 pita bread instead.

This can be eaten hot or at room temperature, like a pasta salad. The tagliatelle is usually cooked in the same water as the lentils, which gives the pasta a pleasant earthy color and flavor, but you can also boil them separately.

Use black-eyed peas or haricot beans for this dish. You can use frozen spinach (defrost it thoroughly). If using fresh, wash it well and remove the stems only if they are very thick.