Farida Abdel Malek 
We're going green today inspired by our chef takeover today from Living Green with Yasmine. This is a healthy light vegetarian Ramadan Iftar menu today but of course, as usual we're spoiling you in the end with the quickest and yummiest dessert.
Main Dish:
Buddha Bowl Recipe
Yasmine Nazmy is a Plant-Based consultant and author of Happy Belly, which has over 100 plant based recipes. Watch her takeover to see how you can make this delicious veggie plate.
Side Dish:
Crisp Carrot Fries Recipe
Image Credits: See & Savour
Ingredients:
- 6-8 Carrots (makes 3-4 servings)
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp of dried herbs (perhaps parsley and rosemary)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- Baking Sheet
Steps:
1. Wash the carrots and cut each carrot into 4 sticks or even thinner if you'd like. It's up to you whether you'd like to peel off the carrots or leave them as is, as the recipe works both ways.
2. Toss the carrot sticks in olive oil, dried herbs, salt and pepper.
3. Preheat the oven at 200ºC.
4. Arrange the carrot sticks in a single layer over the baking sheet and make sure to flip the fries (aka carrot sticks) two or three times so they can brown evenly.
5. Bake the carrot fries about 35-40 minutes or until they turn into golden brown and of course crisp. Keep a close eye on them so they wouldn't burn.
6. Serve them with a nice dipping sauce, like the hummus recipe coming up next.
Edamame Hummus Recipe
Image Credits: Greatist
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of edamame (cooked and shelled)
- 10ml of olive oil
- 1/4 clove of garlic
- 25g of sesame paste
- 25 g of peanut butter
- 5 g of Hondashi powder
- 2.5 ml of light soy
- 22 ml of water
- 7 ml of Yuzu juice (or lemon juice)
- 2.5 g of Wasabi paste
- 5 g of salt
Steps:
1. Combine all the ingredients and pulse with a food processor. If you cannot source the sesame paste, you can add some fresh roasted sesame seeds that have been grounded.
Also, instead of Hondashi powder, a purely vegan substitute would be some vegetable stock powder.
2. Finally, after the first couple of pulses with the food processor, adjust the recipe to your taste with more or less salt, garlic, peanut butter, or water (to suit your degree of hummous density).
Soup:
Broccoli Soup Recipe
Image Credits: Cook2Nourish
Ingredients:
- 600 g of broccoli
- 4 Tbsp of butter
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 3 Tbsp of all purpose flour
- 1 big chopped onion
-1 medium sized chopped carrot
- 1/2 cup cream
- Handful of croutons
- Salt and pepper to preferance
Steps:
1. Heat the butter in a pan with medium heat temperature until it completely melts.
2. Add the broccoli, chopped onion and carrot together and leave until fully cooked.
3. Add flour to the mixture until flour turns gold.
4. Pour chicken broth and leave it to boil. Uncover the pan and simmer all the soup components till the broccoli is soft. Add the cream while mashing it up till it turns to puree. Cover the pot back and then turn off the heat.
5. Add salt, pepper and croutons for an added taste and bon appétit!
Dessert:
Syrup Soaked Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
- Egyptian Fino Bread
- 2 Eggs
- 2 packs of Vanilla
- Water
- Milk
- Sugar
Steps:
1. Start off by cutting the Egyptian Fino bread into rounded pieces (the same shape as the bruschetta). I recommend you get the bread out of the freezer right before you start to avoid breadcrumbs causing a mess when cutting the bread. Keep in mind you need to cut the bread in a thickness of 1 cm approximately if not more.
2. Now it's time to take another bowl and put the following ingredients in it and mix until they blend perfectly: 2 eggs (mix first), 1 cup of milk, 1 Tbsp of sugar and one packet of vanilla.
3. Time for another mixture, the syrup. You would want to have that ready in advance and here's how: add 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water into a bowl and add the bowl on the heat until the sugar melts completely. Once the syrup starts boiling, squeeze a lemon and following it a packet of vanilla.
4. Now take the bread you cut and dip them into the bowl with the mixture you prepared in step 2. Make sure to dip both sides and then place the bread on a plate. Don't put two bread pieces over one another to avoid them getting softer than they should.
5. Add some oil to a pan and after 20 seconds of being on the heat, add the bread and make sure to turn it every once in a while. Once the bread starts turning into a goldish color, make sure to take it out of the heat and add it into the syrup.
6. All you need to do is dip the bread into the syrup and then add it to a plate with kitchen tissue in between to absorb some of the oil and extra syrup.
