Jordan: Fasoolya Khadra

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE I USED

The weather's been cold and a hearty stew was pretty appealing to me this time around.

Fasoolya Khadra isn't a traditional beef stew, with carrots and potatoes, but the meat still has the same texture and the cooking process is similar. (It does take some time to reduce so it's not a quick meal.)

The flavor profile is different than what we typically call beef stew - it is made with cumin and ground coriander and a nice amount of garlic. I usually add more garlic than recipes call for but I left this one alone and it was the perfect amount! The vegetables in this stew are green beans and canned stewed tomatoes.

There are no starches in this stew, as written, but many different sites with this recipe recommend eating it over rice or with naan or some sort of bread. I ate it over Basmati rice but it would be really good with naan too!

Some sites recommend serving it with Greek yogurt and I bought some which I promptly forgot about and did not use. I will attempt to remember it exists when I eat the leftovers.

All in all, this was pretty good. I really enjoy cumin and coriander (and garlic) so it was right up my alley. I wasn't sure how the green beans would work with the spices but they worked well! Would I make it again? I don't know. I like it but it's a lot of food for one person to contend with. I might experiment with freezing it because it really is a good cold day meal.