Hummus Kawarma

Light and bright hummus paired with the deep notes of spicy beef is God’s answer to summer comfort food. I grew up with the luxury of air conditioning so the idea of cooking heats up your house was a weird concept to me. Fast forward to the land of cool summers at 7,000 feet in elevation. We had no AC, pretty low ceilings, and a gas oven that heats up the kitchen faster than I could get hot water running though my faucet. That led to a season of gazpachechos, salads, and occasional things on the Weber (I’m so lazy when it comes to grilling and to be honest not my strength). While many dishes that fall into the ”summer category” are delicious, sometimes you crave the soul-warming foods.

This recipe is heavily based on Ottolenghi and Tamimi’s Hummus Kawarma (lamb) with Lemon Sauce in Jerusalem: A Cookbook.

Makes 6 servings
Kawarma Ingredients
2 Tbl of olive oil
½ tsp ground allepo pepper
2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp grated nutmeg
2 lbs ground beef
1.5 tsp salt
½ tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp of dried za’atar (or oregano leaves)
1 Tbl white wine vinegar
2 Tbl fresh mint, chopped finely
2 Tbl fresh parsley, chopped finely
¾ c of raw pine nuts

Lemon Sauce
1 c light pack fresh parsley, chopped
1 green chile
4 Tbl lemon juice (have 3 lemons on hand)
2 Tbl white wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic
¼ tsp salt

Hummus
1 batch of hummus (room temperature or slightly warm) made with 4 c of chick peas (here’s a good recipe)

Kawarma Directions
Heat 2 Tbl olive oil in a large frying pan until it shimmers. Add ½ tsp allepo pepper, 2 tsp allspice, 1 tsp cinnamon, and ½ tsp nutmeg. Stir it until the spices become fragrant and slightly darkens. Do not skip the oil in this step. Toasted ground spices without oil will rapidly lose flavor (you can dry toast whole spices but we’re using ground here).

Add 2 lbs ground beef and you should hear a sizzle. If you don’t, turn up that heat a little. Add 1.5 tsp salt and ½ tsp black pepper. Use a spatula to flip and break up the ground beef. Usually, I like to cook my ground beef until it’s dark brown, but please don’t go that far. You’ll dry it out and we won’t slow cook it to bring back moisture. There’s plenty of spices so it will not lack flavor.

Add 2 tsp za’atar (or oregano leaves), 1 Tbl white wine vinegar, and 2 Tbl fresh parsley. Stir well. Taste. Add salt if needed

While the meat cooks, make the lemon sauce. In a small bowl, add 1 c of light-packed parsley.

Remove the stem from the chile. Try to pull out the knob of seeds with the stem, if not, remove them now. Slice the stem in half longways. Not all chiles are hot. If you have a hot chile and are sensitive to heat, remove the veins. If not, leave them be. Slice the chile into thin strips then slice crossways.

In a small fying pan, on medium low heat, add the pine notes. Stir them occasionally until they become fragrant and light brown.

Take a lemon and roll it back and forth on the counter while applying pressure with the heal of your hand. Once you feel the rind, give, slice it around the equator. Remove seeds. Stick a fork in a half and squeeze out ¼ c of juice. Add the chile and lemon juice to the bowl with the parsley. Add 2 Tbl of white vinegar.

Take 3 cloves of garlic. Slice off the dry end. Place a knife’s flat side on top of the garlic, give it a good whack to pop off the garlic skin. Mince the garlic. Add it to the bowl along with ¼ tsp salt. Taste it. It should be acidic. Add salt if needed.

Pour the lemon sauce over the meat and mix. If the meat seems dry, you can add a little oil and/or water. Taste. Add salt if needed.

To serve. I forgot to measure the amount of hummus to meat ratio every single time I’ve made this. However, I consistently get 6 servings, so go ahead and eye ball it. In a bowl, add a layer of hummus, put a mound of meat in the middle and sprinkle 2 Tbl of pine nuts on top.

Do me a favor. Take just a bite of hummus, take a bite of only the meat, then take bite of it together. See the magic? Now, make sure every bite here on out has both.

PS Most recipes you see for this dish will tell you to serve it with pita bread. My Armo is fan of that, but I could take it or leave it.

Notes
Allepo pepper reminds me of crushed red pepper but far more flavorful. You can substitute crushed red pepper for allepo but use 1 Tbl. You could also use a red chile powder.

Pine nuts can be a challenge to find. They are also fairly expensive. If you can buy them from a bulk bin, you can buy only what you need. You only use 2 Tbl per serving so it doesn’t drive up the cost. However, feel free to substitute sunflower seeds for the pine nuts. Pine nuts are distinct in flavor and I don’t know anything that tastes similar. From aesthetic and texture point, sunflower seeds will do the trick (I use them sometimes).

If you aren’t a fan of nutmeg, I encourage you to use it in this recipe. It’s not enough to dominate and adds great flavor. Chances are you won’t even be able to pick it out in the dish.

Cinnamon is a fairly dominant flavor in the meat mixture. It will mellow out some with the hummus. If you freak out with savory food being full of cinnamon, we need to work on that. However, going full force, most likely won’t help my credibility for the conversion. You can reduce the amount by half, but no more. Every time you make the dish, try increasing the amount a little.

You can substitute cilantro for parsley.

You can substitute dried mint for fresh.

Use whatever vinegar you have on hand. Currently, I’m using red wine vinegar, but I have used quite the assortment of vinegars in this recipe.