The FastDay Forum

Inspiration for my next few meals dhana yum what a feast on my "feast" days

Oh my, Dhana!!! If that was breakfast, I wonder what was for lunch and dinner, LOL! Although in Greece dinner used to be the smallest meal of the day.

Speck? Pulses? More food words I had to look up. I'm a vegetarian (for 35 years now) and it turns out I do eat a lot of pulses and there's plenty of protein in pulses and pasta. (the alliteration was unintentional)

Yes, MCC, there is plenty of protein in pulses, especially if you combine them with starch.
One of the most popular (and delicious) recipes of the Greek cucina povera is Fakoryzo, some sort of risotto made with lentils and rice. This is a recipe full of vitamins and protein, not high in calories and very tasty!

The similarities with the Med. diet in Jerusalem are striking. The rice lentil dish is a staple and is called Imjaddera, and is usually accompanied by thick plain yogurt and crisp fried onions. It is known as poor man's food, and enjoyed by everyone.

Here it is usually served with crisp fried onions and cured fish. It is delicious!

Fakoryzo and Imjaddara sound like the Lebanese dish, Mujadara. There used to be a Food Court stand in an upstate New York state shopping mall run by Lebanese and they served a rice/lentil/caramelized onion dish that was my favorite ever Food Court food, served with falafel. They went out of business and I haven't had it since. I just printed a recipe and I hope it will be similar. It is spiced with cumin and also has pine nuts. Thanks for the idea!

I make mine with cumin and allspice - there are several spice variations and cumin is almost always one of the ingredients. I've never had it with pine nuts though - that takes it out of the poor man's food category, as it is an expensive ingredient nowadays (but dekicious!).

The one I make has onion, garlic, tomato, bay leaf, salt, pepper, olive oil, basil and oregano or thyme.
Cumin is not a traditional Greek spice, so it is not used in many recipes. In fact, I know only one Greek recipe with cumin.

Dhana, pine nuts weren't that expensive in the old days. My grandmother told me that they used pine nuts and raisins/sultanas in many sweet and savoury recipes in order to spice them up.