Best Egyptian Brunch Recipe to Try At Home During Quarantine

Picture this: it is 10 AM. You are having classic Egyptian foul with a freshly minted cup of tea at an outdoor restaurant or cafe, while Oum Kalthoum is playing in the background.

Sadly, this isn’t usually the case anymore with the partial lockdown, and the closure of many restaurants and cafes as people are recommended to practice social distancing.

As we are all now spending extra time at home, it is the perfect time to explore recipes from renowned chefs like Maha Barsoom, who is the owner and head chef at Maha’s Brunch. It has become a top hit in Toronto and has received countless awards and reviews from famous papers and food bloggers.

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Maha’s restaurant serves Egyptian cuisine with extra mouth-watering ingredients for a more modern and fresh twist.

The most famous dish, the “Cairo Classic”, serves the traditional Egyptian breakfast of fava beans with a dollop of creamy home-made tomato feta mixed with salata balady, falafel, boiled eggs and bread.

Below is her classic foul recipe. Check out her Instagram page and Facebook page for more.

Ingredients:

-1/3 cup (75 mL) lentils

-3/4 tsp (4 mL) salt

-2 cups (500 mL) of water

-19-oz (540-mL) can of fava beans

– 1 tomato, cut up into small pieces

-1/2 medium onion, cut up into small pieces

-2 tbsp (30 mL) extra-virgin olive oil

-1 small mashed clove garlic

–1/2 tsp (2 mL) red chili flakes

-2 tsp (10 mL) fresh lemon juice

-1/4 tsp (1 mL) of cumin and coriander

-3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, thinly sliced

–3 pieces of Egyptian baladi bread

Directions:

– Pour 2 cups (500 mL) of water in a saucepan and combine it with lentils. Keep the temperature over high heat and let it boil, then reduce heat to medium until the lentils fall apart. Next, add fava beans and stir until the beans are warm, and then mash the mixture with a fork. If the mixture is too dry, add a little extra water.

-Add your sliced tomatoes, onions, garlic, oil, salt, chili, cumin, coriander and black pepper. Stir for 5 minutes and add lemon juice.

– For extra seasonings, add a sprinkle of spices and a little drizzle of oil.

– Add the bean mixture onto your plates and then place on top 3 slices of seasoned eggs with salt and pepper.

– Serve the beans hot baladi Egyptian bread cut into wedges. If desired, garnish with a little oil, red pepper, cumin and coriander.