Middle Eastern Vegetarian Madness!!!

What you see here, is "fast food." From a pita palace. I am lucky enough to live in a metropolis that offers cuisines from around the world, and from cultures that typically don't eat meat, such as India and much of the middle east. Now lamb and chicken is often used, and of course at a pita place you can get the classic lamb meat Gyros and chicken kabobs.

This however is the vegetarian lunch platter, featuring classic staple items such as Hummus

More about Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, More on Baba ghanoush Stuffed grape leaves, Falafel, Tabbouleh Salad. Baba Ghanoush is an eggplant dip, the falafel is like hush puppies. Tabbouleh salad is oil,lemon, parsley, mint and tomatoes with bulgur, classically. Tab salad



Often  this is what dissuades people from eating vegetarian because they associate it with granola and sprouts-or stuff like this. Now, this stuff happens to be delicious-but it's 'exotic' and outside of a big city or the countries of origin-you probably never had it and find it gross sounding or looking.

It's anything but. I grew up with a Mom who made fried pork chops and potatoes. I didn't have my first taco until I was 12, so I didn't grow up knowing this stuff, either-I had to be 'turned onto' it.

So I urge you to keep an open mind. Though I'm going to focus on foods most know of and tweek them to be healthy-I still will be introducing different cultural foods as well.

Go get Hummus. Even Aldi's has it. Its in the dip section. Made from chick peas-it's also quite healthy. Traditional has a slight lemony nutty flavor, but now there's all sorts of hummus from roasted garlic to spicy to my favorite-roasted red pepper. If you're near a big town, look for a pita place. Look for tabbouleh salad, often  in the deli salad section of grocery stores. I'll be adding the recipes also, but to try before you make at home is always a good idea.

So Google these foods, see what's in them. I provided some links (and yes, I do trust Wiki for food descriptions, food kinda like math-I mean facts are facts with food)