By Ibrahim Alalou

A pot of hot steamy soup(kishk).

Nowadays everyone is talking about healthy eating, non-processed natural and authentic food that is nutritious with as few ingredients as possible. Since I lived in the two worlds I looked into our authentic food for answers so the rest of the world knows about it. It is called kishk( In Arabic كشك) with a similar version called tarhana in Turkish and chortan in Armenian.

Here I will provide you with the one I made and cooked that you can make with only 3 ingredients: It cannot be simpler than that.

So let us dig in.

Kishk in my recipe is made with skinned (pearled) wheat (قمح مقشور) that is grinded, plain yogurt (any kind of yogurt but in my case I used ewe (sheep) milk yogurt and salt.

Skinned grinded wheat and ewe milk yogurt.

For 1 kg wheat I add 1.5 kg of yogurt and 2 tablespoons of coarse salt. Mix them together, cover them and let them rest overnight.

Next morning make them into small cakes and spread them on trays covered with cotton cloths

Second day remove the fabric and turn them to give them time to dry out.

A visiting dove could not resist the smell so she stopped and took her share.

After drying for several days I grind them to fine powder and here you go:

An instant soup.

My powdered homemade kishk

Now the yummy stuff.

Whenever you feel the need for a warm creamy soup that you can have for breakfast, lunch or dinner just grab 1 cup of this powder add 6 cups of cold water and after dissolving it bring it slowly to a boil with light stirring and simmer for 10 minutes and you have a wonderful soup. It is creamy by itself but you can add butter or ghee to taste. Some people may add sauté onions or garlics on top or incorporate cooked black eyed beans but even when it is plain it is still delicious and savory.

You may add some dry mints and ghee.

A sprinkle of dry mints goes well with it.

This instant soup powder keeps well if it is dry enough even without refrigeration.

So if you are fellow expats who are yearling for kishk but cannot find it nearby or if you tried it at some Levantine people`s house and loved it or just a health conscious person who is looking to try a healthy, natural meal try it and tell me how it goes. Bon appetite.

Bon Appetit.