Cool Off with 4 Amazing Summer Foods from Egypt

Summer is a demanding season. While the beach time and all the late-nights out are undeniably fun, making it through the scorching summer heat in the Middle East can be tricky. With so much heat, you need refreshing cold meals to fulfill your hunger and quench your thirst at the same time.

Over the years, Egyptians have contributed quite creatively to the summer menu of cold meals. If you're up for a little change, you can try one of the following refreshing meals.

No matter how hot it gets, nothing officially declares the official start of summer like watermelons. And Egyptian sure do love their watermelons, to the extent that they made a meal out of it.

Ingredients:

• Feta cheese
• Watermelon
• Pita bread

Preparation:  This meal requires zero preparation time. You just nibble as much feta cheese and watermelon until there's no more room. You can also have some pita bread with your meal to make sure you won't feel hungry an hour afterwards.

Another version of this meal is feta cheese and green grapes.

While watermelons are seasonal, a yearlong hallmark of Egyptian cuisine is fava beans. Among the myriad of ways you can prepare and eat fava beans is the chill summery besara.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of yellow fava beans
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 3 garlic cloves. crushed
• 1/2 cup of parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup of green cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup of fresh dill, chopped
• salt, cumin, pepper to taste
• 4 Tbs of oil
• 3 cups of boiling water

Preparation:

• Heat the oil in a saucepan, and stir the onion and garlic until they turn golden.
• Add the fava beans, parsley, cilantro and dill, and add water until it covers all the components.
• Once the water starts boiling, turn down the heat, and leave all the ingredients to cook slowly for about an hour.
• Leave the mixture to cool down, then process until it becomes a smooth paste.
• Season it with salt, pepper and cumin.
• Refrigerate the mixture and you have a meal ready in the fridge for any given extra hot day.

Upon serving: for a little sprinkle of caramelized onion on top, finely chop some onions, stir them in a saucepan until they turn golden and add them. Yum.

The other thing Egyptian cuisine has plenty of options  is salads. You can basically boil any kind of beans, add veggies of your choice, season it and you have yourself a filling healthy meal. A perfect example is the white bean salad.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup navy beans
• 1 small red onion
• 1 cup parsley
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• 1 garlic clove
• 1⁄ 4 teaspoon cumin

Preparation:

• Soak beans overnight.
• Cook without salt until soft, about 40-50 minutes.
• Drain cooked beans.
• Chop tomatoes, onion, and parsley.
• Combine cooled beans, tomatoes, onions, parsley and dressing.
• For the dressing, combine olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, pepper and cumin.

Kishk has always been one of my favorite plates since I was kid. It can be served hot or a cold. Most people prefer to serve it with roasted chicken, but it can stand alone, maybe we some dried pita bread.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons white rice, or more to taste
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/3 cup sunflower seed oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 container plain yogurt
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Preparation:

• Heat broth in a saucepan over medium heat, add rice and leave to stew until rice is slightly tender.
• Heat butter and oil in a skillet over medium heat, constantly stir onion in the hot butter-oil mixture until onions are golden brown. Reserve about 1 tablespoon caramelized onions for garnish, spoon the remaining caramelized onions into the simmering broth.
• Mix yogurt, lemon juice and salt in a bowl; whisk flour into yogurt mixture until smooth. Blend yogurt mixture and 1 cup broth (free of onion and rice) in a blender until smooth.
• Add yogurt mixture to simmering broth and leave to boil together. Reduce heat and simmer until flavors have blended.
• Garnish with reserved caramelized onion.