
A traditional stew without the meat. Includes thin white beans, pearl barley, potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots. Delicious bread patties weave between the rest of the ingredients. The silan gives the stew a slightly sweet flavor and beautiful brown coloring throughout.
Makes 6-8 servings.
Ingredients:
5 onions, diced
1/4 cup oil
2 cups pearl barley
Salt and ground black pepper
3 carrots, coarsely chopped
1 head of garlic, halved across the width
300 g white beans, soaked in water for 1 day
6 potatoes, whole
2 small sweet potatoes, whole
Paprika
1 heaping tbsp ras el hanout spice mix (optional)
1/3 cup Kinneret Farm silan
2 dried shata peppers (hot red peppers)
Bread Patties Ingredients:
1/2 loaf of white bread or challah, soaked and drained
2 eggs
1 cup mixed herbs (parsley, cilantro, mint, dill)
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
Salt and ground black pepper
Oil for shallow frying
Preparation:
- Heat oil in a large pot and fry the chopped onions for 10 minutes on low-medium heat. Turn off the heat, and remove half of the onions to use in the bread patties.
- Mix all of the bread pattie ingredients with half of the fried onions. Place it in the refrigerator for an hour to firm.
- Return the oil and rest of the fried onions to the pot. Add more oil if necessary and fry for another minute with the barley, paprika, ras el hanout, salt and pepper.
- Add the carrot, garlic, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes and silan, and pour in the water until it covers the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and add the shata peppers. Lower the heat and continue cooking for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 120°C.
- Shape patties out of the bread pattie mixture and fry them for 2-3 minutes on each side in a pan, or in the same pot, until golden. Remove and arrange them in between the rest of the ingredients in the stew.
- Seal the pot well and place it in the oven for at least 8 hours, or overnight.
- If you’d prefer a non-vegetarian version, add chicken pieces or bone-in beef that has been browned on all sides, and add 300 g ground meat to the bread patty mixture.