Red Lentil Soup (Easy & Quick Style)

Prep. Time: 15 min.
Servings: 4

1 cup red lentil, washed and cleaned
4 cups vegetable stock
1 teaspoon dried mint
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt (to taste)

Directions:

1 Place the red lentils in a colander and rinse.
2 Sift through to remove and debris or damaged beans.
3 Place the washed and cleaned lentils into a medium pot with the stock.
4 Bring the pot to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
5 Loosely place a lid on the pot leaving slightly ajar as to allow some evaporation.
6 Cook for 20-30 minutes until the lentils are tender.
7 Pour 1 tablespoon flour in a dry skillet, stir stir constantly until evenly browned and reaches golden brown color.
8 Add browned flour, salt and pepper to the cooked lentil.
9 Place a handheld blender into mixture and blend briefly.
10 Add dried mint.
11 Heat through.
12 Serve.

Baklava

Baklava Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pack phyllo dough

1 cup butter 

2 cups walnuts ( finely chopped)

Syrup:

2 cups sugar

3 cups water

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Chop nuts in food processor. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan.  Put one half in the pan. Spread the walnuts evenly on the dough. Put the other half of the dough on the walnut layer. Cut the dough evenly into small squares.
3. Melt the butter in a stove-top pan until it gets caramelized. 
4. Pour the hot melted butter on the prepared dough.
5. Bake 20-25 min. until it gets brown.
6. Take the pan out of the oven, after it settles down for a couple of minutes, pour over the syrup (syrup should be at room temp.).

Syrup:

Put the ingredients in a pan and let it simmer on a medium heat for about 20 min. Then let it cool, syrup can be made ahead of time.

Chicken Meatballs in Yogurt Sauce

Prep. Time: 20 min.
Cook. Time: 20
6 servings

Ingredients:
Chicken meatballs,

• 1/2 lb. ground chicken
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tbsp. finely chopped parsley
• 1 tsp. Vegeta (all purpose seasoning)
• 1 package Fant mix (mixed with 1/2 cup of water)
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil for cooking

And,

• 4 gloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 2 cups of warm water

Yogurt sauce,

• 5 green Anaheim peppers (roasted and peeled)
• 2 cups labneh yogurt (*)
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 tsp. salt
• vegetable oil for sautéing peppers

Preparation: 

• Mix all ingredients except flour, garlic, paprika, warm water and vegetable oil.
• Make little balls about 1 1/2" in diameter and lightly fry in a pan with vegetable oil until absorbs all its juice.
• Use the oil to in the pan to sauté garlic and flour after removing all meatballs. Add paprika and meatballs. Cook thoroughly.
• Slice roasted and peeled green peppers.
• Lightly sauté in the pan, remove from heat, add labneh yogurt and sour cream, mix well.

Serve meatballs with yogurt sauce.  Bon appetite!


(*) Strained yogurt or labneh is yogurt which has been strained in a cloth or paper bag or filter to remove the whey, giving a consistency between that of yogurt and cheese, while preserving yogurt's distinctive sour taste. (Source: Wikipedia)