Happy Middle Eastern Mother’s Day! In honor of this special day and the first day of Spring, let me introduce you to my favorite salad and salad dressing. It’s so easy to make and so refreshingly delicious. This salad is such an important part of our culture. There are so many different variations and names for this salad. Some may add parsley, mint, onions, sweet bell peppers, chili peppers, or even avocados. Middle Easterners eat a variation of this salad as much as they eat rice and bread, so that’s a lot. It is also a great side for so many delicious Middle Eastern dishes, my favorite is the Palestinian dish, maklube.This salad is great on top of this Paleo rice stuffing with plain yogurt (laban), if you can tolerate dairy. [Read more…]
Paleo Middle Eastern Rice Stuffing- Hashwet Ruz
One of my dad’s favorite meals is his mom’s chicken and rice. Not just any chicken and rice, her special chicken and rice. She would make it for us every Sunday we would visit growing up. We would walk into my grandparents house and smell the chicken roasting and the aroma of all the blend of spices she used in the rice. All of my uncles, aunts and cousins would gather together and enjoy our Tata’s delicious food.
Cauliflower Rice
Rice. If you’re Middle Eastern, been to the Middle East, or have ever had Middle Eastern food, you know that our food revolves around rice. Almost every dish is rice based. The first thing that my family and friends ask when I tell them I eat Paleo or Whole30 is, “What do you mean you don’t eat rice? What DO you eat?” My answer is always, “I make rice out of cauliflower.” The stunned look on their faces is quite priceless! My little family loves cauli-rice and we eat it all the time. It is full of vitamins and nutrients and it has more calcium than milk. My daughter prefers cauli-rice over regular rice, and honestly, so do I. [Read more…]
Paleo Mayonnaise
There are so many recipes out there for homemade mayonnaise. Growing up, my uncle made it for the whole family and it always intrigued me. I never understood how a few ingredients could make creamy mayo. I have been making my own mayonnaise for a while now and I can’t remember the last time I bought some from the grocery store. [Read more…]
Protein Tuna Salad
My go-to lunch nowadays, has been this protein filled salad. It could easily feed two but I eat it alone and it keeps me very full until dinner. You can double the recipe and make it for dinner. My two year old loved to pick out the almonds and coconut flakes. She doesn’t like tuna but she loves this *salad.
Ingredients:
- 1-2 tbsp of toasted slivered almonds
- 1 tbsp of unsweetened toasted coconut flakes
- 1/2 avocado
- 1 hard cooked egg, sliced
- 1 can of salt free tuna packed in water (I like Raincoast Trading’s Solid White Albacore Tuna or Wild Planet White Albacore Tuna)
- 3 cups romaine lettuce or mixed salad greens
- A drizzle of compliant dressing (I make my own)
Instructions:
- Arrange the greens on a plate.
- Place tuna, sliced avocado and egg on top.
- Drizzle your dressing on top.
- Add toasted coconut flakes and almonds at the end for extra crunch.
Sahtain!
*Arabic word for salad: salata