Muslim Mamas: Let's Talk Suhoors and Iftars

[umsami]

Assalamu Alaikum Muslim Mamas:

I know we have a lot of Mamas from different backgrounds. I was wondering if you could share what your traditional suhoors and iftars are? (Plus recipes if possible).

I'm American, but DH is Egyptian.

Let's see... for suhoor, we love fuul (fava beans mashed with tomato, onion, tahini, salt and pepper) and eggs, plus bread (pita bread).

For iftar, a typical meal would be...
break fast with either dates and milk or apricot paste drink.
Pray...and then...
Lentil soup (shorbat ads)
rice with meat of some sort
veggies.. green beans in tomato sauce are a favorite
break
fruit
Arabic/Middle Eastern desserts... could be baklava, kunafa, milk pudding, rice pudding, etc.

[umsami]

Fuul (vegan... by design)

Oh...for those of you who aren't Muslim, suhoor is the meal eaten before sunrise during Ramadan when one fasts. No food or drink until sunset. Iftar is the meal that you have after fasting the entire day.

So here's my recipe for fuul.

Saute one half of an onion and two chopped tomatoes in olive oil until soft. Then add in two chopped garlic cloves and sautee for a few seconds (until fragrant). Add in one can of fuul (fava beans)... available in Middle Eatern grocery stores. (You can try it with chickpeas... it's still good, but not the same.) Mash them with a fork and kind of smush into the hot oil/tomato/onion mixture. Add a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and cumin (optional). Add in 1 tablespoon of tahini (optional). Cook a bit more. Can add some more olive oil if you like. Serve with hard boiled eggs (if not vegan), pita bread, lemon slices, and chopped flat leaf parsley or cilantro.

Fuul is called "the screw of the stomach"... which means it keeps you full for a long time.

[Amatullah0]

i'm american, dh is pakistani

pakistani iftar usually completely lacks nutrition

last year, it was just us, and for suhoor, we'd eat naan/paratha with honey, milk, juice, water, fruit chaat, and maybe some of the previous nights iftar.

for iftar, dates, then i'd make samosa or pakora(fried dough with onion, potato, peppers, cauliflower, or whatever else you can think of to put in it), then we'd eat chole(chickpea salad), fruit chaat(fruit salad with chaat masala), and for the actual "meal" part, either rice or bread with daal(lentils) or some salen(usually chicken, sometimes veggie), and sometimes biryani.

we're definitely not the most nutritious people but inshallah, this year, we're eating healthier:

umsami, inshallah i want to try that recipe!: hehe probably with chickpeas, cause thats what we have i'm not 100% sure what fava beans are, are they like kidney beans? (we have a ton of those! cooked, in the freezer) does anyone have a good kidney bean recipe? (not chili, please!) hehe

[Liquesce]

Beans-wise, we add finely diced green pepper with the onion, leave off the tahina, add lemon (or lime if it's what we happen to have), and use water to thin a bit rather than adding more oil. I'm guessing this might be one of those Alexandria vs. Cairo things. I've also been known to use pinto beans. : I like the texture better.

[umsami]

Amatullah, I'd love your recipe for chole. :

Liquesce: I totally have to try with pinto beans. We have a gigantic bag and all I seem to make with them are pintos and rice (sort of a Southern thing)!

[Liquesce]

With pintos, it's basically fancied-up halal refried beans.

[sky_and_lavender]

Originally Posted by umsami

Fuul is called "the screw of t
he stomach"... which means it keeps you full for a long time.

In Lebanon, fuul is called "the nails of the knees" to mean it gives you strength, I guess. Interesting that both phrases involve metal fasteners!

Are you vegan?

I love fuul! We (Lebanon-influenced) make it a little differently, but basically the same.
---
I have never fasted in the Muslim world, just at home.

But I broke fast with dates every night. Shorbat ads (a lentil soup) was a staple food, along with a huge, tasty salad containing everything yummy, from fruit and nuts to seasoned tofu along with regular salad ingredients. The dressing my husband makes has olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pomegranate syrup.

My suhoor meals were utterly lame. I tried to push lots of veggie sources of protein and I was so exhausted that I never made the effort to make anything particularly yummy or traditional. I was just concerned with nutrition.

[Liquesce]

Erm ... am I the only one who usually makes mostly American or international hodge-podge food, not middle eastern fare? For example, Saturday's iftar plans revolve around pizza.

[umsami]

Nah, I'm not vegan but have gone through vegan phases. I just added that as I know a lot of MDC Mamas are vegan... and IMHO, the best vegan recipes tend to be the ones that are designed to be cook that way in the first place. Trying to veganize things doesn't always work well. There's also a whole bunch of Middle Eastern vegan recipes from the recipes Coptic Christians use when they are fasting (not the same as us... basically, it's a nothing with a soul phase that takes up a lot of the year).

We do American iftars, but honestly, DH would be happiest if I didn't. His ideal meal involves hunks of meat, rice, salad, and bread.

[Nabbe]

Originally Posted by Liquesce

Erm ... am I the only one who usually makes mostly American or international hodge-podge food, not middle eastern fare? For example, Saturday's iftar plans revolve around pizza.

I am Norwegian, and so is my husband, so I stick with a mix of foods. Anything from Middle Eastern, Norwegian and Swedish, to Algerian, Somali and Pakistani.

I am not a huge fan of Middle Eastern food, though, I prefer North-African amongst the Arabic cuisines.

We try to limit rice and pasta in Ramadan, eat more potatoes and most of all veggies, and a little meat too on the side.

I love somali samousas, and I will be making some in Ramadan, deffinately! http://tammyssomalihome.blogspot.com is a GREAT place.

I want so bad to blog in Ramadan, like I did two years ago, but I dont know if I can find the time...

[1jooj]

: Ramadan Mubarak! :

We just finished our first suhoor of the year (which dh does not usually eat . I had coffee with milk and a bagel. Dh had leftover homemade pizza and eggs, and ds had hot cocoa and a bagel. We usually have something with milk, maybe eggs, a banana, and often leftovers from the previous day's iftar.

We almost always break fast with the same food. Dates, the most perfect and delicious soup in the world, harira(or some other shorba later in the month when I have had it with harira), boiled eggs, mint tea, bread and honey, and often a fruit and milk/yogurt smoothie. I also like to serve pickles or something spicy. And I need coffee for my headache. : Anything else we eat is based on what I crave while fasting. Could be liver and onions, could be egg rolls, could be gazpacho. You just never know.

This year, I have an abundance of vegetables from the garden, so we will be eating a greater variety of soups and stews using chicken and beef. We have no lamb in the freezer and no plans to slaughter for a while, so beef and lamb it is. There will also be green beans, tomatoes, eggplants, bell peppers, and cucumber salads.

We do Saturday iftar at our mosque, and the meals are "designed" by the women who cook together, and this usually organizes itself ethnically. A lot of Indo-Pak, so a lot of biryani and fried things and chickpea salads.

[gigismom]

: Happy Ramadan, Sisters!:

dh is egyptian and i am american so we also eat a mix. this morning we had fuul as described above with bread, fruit, coffee, oj, beef breakfast sausage. tonights iftar is dates, mango juice, followed by good old american style meatloaf (because it is soooo easy to prepare), baked sweet potatoes, broccoli rabe, followed by more fruit, nuts, yogurt etc.... need to make non dairy rice pudding for myself and ds (allergies) and regular rice pudding for everyone else.... insha Allah... all of us have a happy, peaceful, blessed Ramadan..

peace

jen

[vegk8]

This is my first time fasting.

I don't feel like eating at suhoor. Does anyone have that trouble? I usually don't eat immediately after I rise but a couple of hours later. I don't think I'll wake up at 4 to wait for that point. Do you all stay up after suhoor or go back to bed after praying?

Last night when I broke my fast, I ate fruit and soup. Later on (at midnight), I ate a salad. I don't feel hungry yet after no suhoor. We'll see how the day goes.

[umsami]

My husband almost never eats suhoor. He'll drink water, but usually he prefers sleep over eating.

For me, I always always eat suhoor. I try and drink at least 1 liter of water... and eat.

Maghrib isn't until 8 p.m. here.... last time I fasted, it was in the winter, and I think maghrib was around 5:30. Big difference. I was just thinking that my kids will probably start fasting in summer time, which may mean going until 9:30 or so... in Florida. Yikes. Maybe we'll have to move North for Ramadan.

1jooj... fuul is fava beans. They're also called broad beans. They kind of look like lima beans. I think you could definitely try it with kidneys. One of my good friends is Indian and she makes a yummy kidney bean dish. I'll see if I can get a recipe.

[1jooj]

Thanks...I think someone else asked about fuul...We actually tried growing some, but I don't really like fava beans and they didn't grow well. Dh likes them, but not so much that he's committed to getting them to grow.

vegk8, I usually eat later in the morning, too, so suhoor is definitely not a big meal. This morning I had a couple of eggs and milk with honey, and water. Dh got up for water and a couple dates. I wish he'd eaten more, since he's driving about 300 miles today.

I am making a pile of zucchini bread today, trying to stay ahead of the garden. I'm baking and canning all day, and now that dh is traveling, I feel much less like I have to do a big thing for Iftar. I might try a little harder, also since dh is out of the house, to do a smoothie for suhoor, some fruit to go along with the eggs. It's hard to get enough fiber, especially when eating with friends. Lots of white rice and white bread...

Anyone else have caffeine withdrawal? I really have kept my consumption down over the last few weeks, but this first week of Ramadan is always hard for me.

[Amatullah0]

I made fuul, with a few differences. chickpeas are really hard to mash(especially when you're using the wrong kind of spoon), so i put about 1/4-1/2 of them in the blender and pureed, so it was thicker, but with some whole chickpeas. i also didn't put tahini(cause we don't keep that on hand :P) also didn't use olive oil, though next time i might try with that. instead using oil to water it down, i used water(if i used anything at all) hmmm, now that i'm thinking of it, it night be good with lemon, corriander, or maybe even spinach......

Originally Posted by umsami

Amatullah, I'd love your recipe for chole. :

Liquesce: I totally have to try with pinto beans. We have a gigantic bag and all I seem to make with them are pintos and rice (sort of a Southern thing)!

chole
Ingredients
1 Can Goya Garbanzo Beans (chick peas)
1½ Lemons
1/4 tsp chili (Lal Mirch) powder
1/2 tsp Chaat Masala (you can buy at a pakistani/indian grocery, or find a recipe online to make it yourself)
1/2 Tomato
1/2 Green Chili
1/4 Medium Onion
1 tbs. fresh coriander (Dhaniya) leaves
Salt to taste
Instructions
Rinse the garbanzo beans.
Dice the tomato
Dice the onion
Dice the green chili
Mix everything into a bowl and add
the lemon juice, everything else.
Mix and serve.

i actually get most of my recipes from desicookbook.com (thats where this recipe is from hehe)

[Amatullah0]

Does anyone have any good salad recipes(with or without meat)? Or recipes that DON'T cause gas? (DH's request)

[umsami]

Originally Posted by Amatullah0

Does anyone have any good salad recipes(with or without meat)? Or recipes that DON'T cause gas? (DH's request)

My absolutely favorite salad recipe is for fattoush... which is Syrian chopped veggie salad with toasted pita bread. I'm not even a salad fan, and I could eat piles of the stuff.

To make the pita chips, take old pita bread and put it in a hot oven until they become crunchy. You need to watch it, because they can go from crunchy to black if you're not watching.

Dressing Bit:

Dressing is from Claudia Roden...so it's traditional... I just don't add all of the variety of greens (usually because I can't find them.):

5 T olive oil
1 to 1-1/2 lemons (juiced)
2-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
salt & pepper

Whisk together in a small bowl. I usually start with juice from one lemon, and add more if needed.


Salad Bit:
1/4 onion, 1-2 shallots, or a few scallions
2-3 tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 carrot or handful of baby carrots
handful of parsley (flat leaf, if available)
Hearts of Romaine Lettuce
Pita Chips (see above)
Salt
Pepper
Vinegar

Slice the onions very finely and put in a big bowl. Sprinkle with salt (1 tsp or so) and pepper. Then add one capful of vinegar.

Dice the tomatoes finely and add.

Dice the cucumber finely as well. (You can peel and de-seed if you like. I'm usually too lazy. If you use an English cucumber, you don't need to de-seed.)

Finely chop carrots and add.

Finely chop parsley and add.

Finely chop romaine lettuce as well. (Think of chopped salads you've had.) You don't want to use too much... want relatively even amounts of lettuce, tomato, and cucumber.

Mix with your hands. Add pita chips and mix again with hands.

Pour on the dressing...mix again.

Enjoy!

NB: More traditional fattoush includes mint (which I don't always have on hand), pulsane, etc. Also, one adds sumac to the dressing.

[Liquesce]

Originally Posted by umsami

My husband almost never eats suhoor. He'll drink water, but usually he prefers sleep over eating.

I'm socially famous for my all-water suhoors. The only thing to ever get to me with fasting has been dehydration ... I've found if I fill up on only water in the morning it makes things easy for me where I once found it a little hard.

[athansor]

I'm hoping it's OK to ask here (I'm not Muslim but work with a number of folks so try to fast for a day or two during Ramadan with my co-workers) and I have a question about fava beans. I haven't seen them in cans, but I did find some dried at a local store. Is there any easy way to get the skins off the beans, or can you just leave them on?