afoona
Salads

Homemade Sabich with homemade raw tahini

Classic Iraqi sabich with fried eggplant, hard-boiled egg, hummus and amba in a warm pita

⏱ 33 min🍽 4 servings 🌍 Israeli👩‍🍳 Afoona🧩 3 parts

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Tahini sauce

  1. 1
    Grind the sesame seeds in a powerful blender about 3 minutes, until smooth paste forms.
    Blender
    💡At first the sesame looks like dry crumbs: keep grinding, scraping down the sides, and after a few minutes it releases its oil and turns liquid.
    💡In a food processor, grind in short pulses and check between pulses: it's easy to go from coarse to paste. (Sesame for tahini, on the other hand, is ground continuously.)
  2. 2
    Taste and adjust the seasoning.
  3. 3
    Mix the tahini, lemon juice and garlic.
  4. 4
    Gradually add cold water while stirring, until the sauce is smooth, pale and pourable.
    💡When you add the first water, the tahini thickens and looks like dough: that's fine. Keep adding water and stirring, and it loosens into a smooth sauce.

To assemble

  1. 5
    Sprinkle the salt over the eggplant slices, leave for 30 minutes and squeeze out their liquid.
    Colander
  2. 6
    Heat the oil in a deep pot and fry the eggplant slices in it until golden, and drain on paper towels.
    StoveSlotted spoonCandy/oil thermometerDeep pot for frying
    💡Fry eggplant for sabich until golden and completely soft, and drain well: it soaks up oil, and the paper draws out the excess.
    💡Keep the oil at 170–180°C: too cold, and the food soaks up oil; too hot, and it browns outside before the inside cooks. Without a thermometer, dip the tip of a wooden spoon in the oil: when medium bubbles form around it right away, the oil is hot enough.
    💡Don't overload the oil: every piece that goes in cools it down. Fry one piece as a test, then the rest in several batches, and transfer to paper towels.
  3. 7
    Open the pitas and spread the hummus inside.
  4. 8
    Arrange the eggplant and slices of hard-boiled egg in the pita.
  5. 9
    Add the amba and salad and tahini sauce on top.
1327calories
33 gprotein
148 gcarbs
66 gfat
● protein 10%● carbs 45%● fat 45%

Per serving, servings (calculated for this version)

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⚖ About the ingredients

🔧 Tools needed (4) · 🍳 One cooking vessel

  • Stove · 💡 Workaround, changes the dish: Portable hot plate (one weaker burner) · Camping gas stove (One burner, outdoors) · Electric pressure cooker (multicooker) (One pot, no real shallow frying)
  • Deep pot for frying · Also works: Electric deep fryer (None) · Wok (Less oil, less stable)
  • Colander · Also works: Lid (a lid held slightly open over the sink, you lose a little) · Slotted spoon (for small amounts)
  • Slotted spoon · Also works: Spider strainer (None) · Tongs (For large pieces)

Helps, not needed: Candy/oil thermometer

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