What would you feed me…Linda?

This week I have a story to tell you before we get onto the lovely recipe below: a story of travel, connections, foodies, family and sharing….

Earlier this month my husband, Graham, and travelled to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and stayed with my Mum, who lives there, for a few days. Lovely Linda from La Petite Paniere lives down the road from Abu Dhabi in Dubai; I thought this provided an excellent opportunity to be able to send Linda a little food parcel from me so we started to discuss a handover between Linda and my Mum….

As it turned out, Linda and her husband travelled from Dubai to Abu Dhabi to visit Mum whilst Graham was there and they all got to meet one another! How fabulous is that??? I was SO jealous not to be there, but equally loved how this blog world had brought Linda and I together, and that she was now sitting in my Mother’s home and meeting my husband. How totally amazing and wonderful! I love it 🙂

They all enjoyed meeting each other and Linda left Graham with a bag for me of the most wonderful gifts, completely unexpected and completely lovely, all so beautifully wrapped, I was absolutely overwhelmed at her generosity and pure loveliness. 

  I always admire Linda’s crockery as well as her cooking, and she sent me the bowl and plate above and the spoon, that is carved from a lemon tree, which you will see she also owns herself and has used below in her recipe shots – we are now, therefore, crockery twins!!! I love it! 

The dried rose buds are from Iran, their perfume is wonderful, and a lovely addition to my green tea; the herb is called ‘fliou‘, again, I’ve tried it in my tea so far, it has a fresh, almost mintlike flavour; the bag of spices is Ras El Hanout, a Middle Eastern spice mix, which I used last weekend to marinate and grill chicken for my boys..it smells STUNNING! The fliou and Ras El Hanout are both from Algiers..

 And yesterday (23rd) I very proudly wore the pashmina, that everything is photographed sitting on, whilst out celebrating my birthday 🙂 🙂 I am so lucky! And so very grateful!! Thank you again, Linda xx

So, this week’s guest post is my birthday meal, and comes to you from lovely Linda, an amazing cook, and lovely lovely lady, I admire every photo she takes and drool over every dish she produces (her pastries and baking always look amazing!!!!), so, all I can say is, enjoy…

Title: El Bissara, Broad bean Soup

Last year when my fellow blogger Elaine from Foodbod  proposed me to do a Guest Post for her, and the title of the challenge was “What would you feed me”, I was absolutely delighted! Elaine loves creating food, delicious food with flavorful spices and ingenuity. It begin as a challenge, as Elaine specified it would be vegetarian, gluten free, sugar free, healthy & tasty!! Oh!!! But I have found a rustic, delicious soup perfect for Elaine!

This soup is known across all North-African region from West to East, and can also be prepared with dried peas.

I hope you will enjoy it!

Serves: 4/6 bowls

Ingredients:

• 200g of dried broad beans soaked overnight
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of cumin powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of sweet red paprika
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of black pepper
• Coriander
• Lemon
• Olive oil
• 1 liter 1/2 of water

Procedure:

1. Wash and rinse the broad beans.
2. Remove the excess skins.
3. In a large pan add the cloves, the cumin, the paprika, the salt, the black pepper and the broad beans.
4. Mix all the ingredients together.
5. Pour the water.
6. Cook on a medium heat until the broad beans becomes breaking up and soft (1 hour for me).
7. Mix the broad beans as a purée.
8. Transfer the purée into the pan and add more hot water for a creamy and unctuous texture if you want.
9. Serve in individual bowls.
10. Add a pinch of cumin and red paprika on the top of each bowl.
11. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.
12. Add a few coriander leaves for more flavor.

The soup is hot and smooth. The cumin enhances the flavor of this rustic soup!

Elaine, I hope you will like and enjoy this soup as much as I did 🙂

Bon Appétit

PS: Do not forget to visit Elaine blog: Foodbod

I love it! I love the soup, the presentation, the bowls, everything! Thank you so much for this lovely post and my wonderful gifts x x