Feast in the MIddle East

They call me condiment queen in my house. I have been known to scoop gobs of dijon from the jar to accessorize my turkey sandwiches. Actually as a kid I thought, screw the sandwich, just gimme the mustard, all by itself. From the jar. As I got older, I explored every condiment imaginable to go with my chicken, fish, or salads. Tapenade? Oh hell yes. I never met a pesto I didn’t like. BBQ sauce, ketchup, garlic aoli, Syrian muhamarra, hummus, lebnah, and peanut sauce all are daily staples for my lunches. Then, there is cucumber yogurt sauce, ohhh yeah: tzatziki. Notice I gave the Greeks credit for this one, simply because they gave it the most interesting sounding name. (Shout out to the Greeks yo)

Although cucumber yogurt sauce is used liberally all over the Arab world, they just call it labnah mah khiarra, or cucumber yogurt sauce–which doesn’t sound nearly as seductive as tzatziki. I really think this dip is the equivalent of ranch dressing in the Middle East, only the ingredients are far more pure, tangy, and fresh tasting than any old bottled ranch. These days I notice they are selling vats of the stuff in places like Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods. But I wondered…do people really know how easy this sauce is to make? I think not. That’s why I felt it was my duty, or calling to spread to the masses how incredibly easy and delicious it is to make your own. Use this ranch in your tuna sandwich, as a salad dressing, in your felafel or shawarma sandwiches, with your kebab and rice plates, as a dip for veggies, as a chilled soup, or as a facial (just wanted to make sure you were paying attention :). There are really so many uses for this dip! Now if you decide to make this sauce for your Memorial Day BBQ, it would make me tremendously happy. Have a wonderful weekend everyone, check out my video below, share it, make it, eat it–comments welcome 😉