Cooking With Kids is a weekly recipe series on getting creative in the kitchen with the family.
Falafel may get all the attention, but the Sabich, another popular street food favourite found all over Israel will go down a storm in your household.
London-based chef and owner of Tel-Aviv style restaurant Shuk, Mark Jankel, shows us his Middle-Eastern vegetarian sandwich recipe he originally created for Cities Break. The sandwich is made up of fried aubergine slices, hard-boiled eggs, houmous, Israeli salad and parsley – all wrapped up inside a pitta and drizzled with tahini sauce and amba (a mango pickle).
“Kids can help prepare every step of the way in this straightforward recipe from peeling the eggs to mixing the tahini paste with water to get the perfect texture,” explains Jankel. “They can learn how important it is to prepare the components before starting to construct and layer all of the ingredients.”
Aside from getting a crash course in sandwich-building 101, they’ll learn about seasonings, texture and balance. “Kids will love the satisfaction they get from carefully preparing the various components that go into the Sabich,” he adds.
Sabich Sandwich
Serves: 4 | Prep time: 10 mins | Cook time: 5 mins
Ingredients:
2 aubergines, sliced
4 pittas
2 tbsp oil
4 hard-boiled eggs (hard-boiled and sliced)
½ cup houmous
½ cup tahini sauce
4 tbsp amba sauce (Iraqi tangy mango pickle condiment)
Israeli salad
For the tahini sauce:
4 tbsp tahini
4 tbsp water
2 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp garlic powder
For the Israeli salad:
1 tomato, diced
¼ cucumber, diced
¼ red onion, diced
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Method:
1. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Brush the aubergine slices with oil and fry for about five minutes on both sides until golden brown.
2. Assemble the Israeli salad and mix together the tahini sauce ingredients in a bowl. Season to taste.
3. Warm the pitta in a toaster and split to form a pocket. Spread the houmous across the bread and top with the fried aubergine slices and sliced eggs. Top with the Israeli salad and drizzle with tahini sauce and amba to taste.