Category: Recipe

7+ Apple Recipes That Prove One Fruit Can Do Everything

7 apple recipes collage

The apple does everything. We eat it raw, bake it into pies, and rarely think much further. But spend enough time cooking with apples and you start to see how far this one fruit can stretch. Sweet, savoury, spiced, fermented, or put into a bag and gifted straight from the tree.

Over the years on this blog, the apple has quietly appeared in more recipes than I realised. Sometimes they are sharing the spotlight, but they’re always there front and center; a crumble made from freshly picked mountain apples, a birthday cake born out of lockdown, a syrup made so we wouldn’t throw away the peels. Looking back, the apple has been here all along.

Here are 7+ recipes from the archives that prove one fruit really can do everything.

1. The Zero-Waste One: Apple Peel & Core Syrup

Before you throw those peels and cores away — don’t. Simmered with sugar, cinnamon, and cloves, they turn into a gorgeous golden spiced syrup that tastes like autumn in a bottle. It’s the recipe that started this whole apple obsession, and it remains one of the most satisfying things to make from what most people bin without a second thought. This recipe is still one of the most viewed recipe on this blog from September to December, apple season, and for a good reason.

Get the recipe →

2. The Crowd Pleaser: Autumn Apple Crumble

Made from Lebanese mountain Granny Smith apples picked fresh during camping trips in the hills, this crumble was brought to a friends’ gathering one autumn night — and it was gone before the pie even got a look in. Spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, topped with an oat crumble, and served warm with vanilla ice cream and caramel. Simple, generous, unforgettable.

Get the recipe →

3. The Festive One: Plum & Apple Salted Caramel Pie

Blood-red plums, a lone Granny Smith apple (my sister took the rest), and salted caramel doing all the sweetness work — no extra sugar needed. Decorated with pastry stars and baked at Christmas season, this pie is the kind of thing that makes people go quiet when they eat it, only to interrupt the silence with mmm’s and grunts for how good it is.

Get the recipe →

4. The Gift: Sugar-free Roasted Apple Butter

Ten large red apples, roasted until completely falling apart, then blended with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves into a silky, vegan, completely sugar-free spread. Made as part of an initiative to use and celebrate Lebanese apples at a time when farmers were struggling to sell their harvest. Spread it on toast, stir it into pancakes, or jar it up as a Christmas gift.

Get the recipe →

5. The Unexpected One: Apple, Ginger & Chicory Salad

Nobody expects a salad on an apple recipe list. But this one earns its place. Bitter chicory, crisp sour Granny Smith (I always use local Granny Smith, or the fat donut-shaped green apples with the red smudges we call Mwashah), and a punchy ginger-garlic-lemon dressing pounded together in a mortar until smooth. It’s fresh, bold, a little feisty — and it pairs beautifully alongside roast chicken.

Get the recipe →

6. The Balcony Garden One: Rose Geranium & Apple Syrup

Saved apple cores from the butter recipe, a big bunch of rose geranium leaves grown on the front porch, two cinnamon sticks — into the pot they went. The result is a fragrant, floral syrup that’s as beautiful in a cocktail as it is drizzled over ice cream or gifted in a small bottle. This is what happens when your balcony garden gets out of control in the best way.

Get the recipe →

Hisham Assaad birthday 2021 cookin5m2

7. The Personal One: Apple Molasses Birthday Cake

Sugar-free, vegan, made alone during lockdown in Beirut for my own birthday. The batter is built on molasses, tahini, cinnamon, and grated apple — earthy, warm, and deeply satisfying. The filling is a molasses-labneh cream that somehow makes the whole thing taste both Lebanese and completely its own. Of all the recipes on this blog, this one carries the most weight.

Get the recipe →

Bonus recipe: Halloween Candy Apple without Corn Syrup

A recipe from the earlt days of the blog, 2014, and it is always a hit. I see it popping up in the search results around October. And here it is again. Hard sweet candy complimenting the tart granny smith apples. For an easier way of eating them cut them into moon, as my grandmother used to call them, or wedges and poke them with the sticks and dip them. They will break your teeth less. Still, make a few whole apples for decoration.

Get the recipe →

Seven recipes, one fruit, years of cooking. Pick the one that speaks to you — or start at the top and work your way down. And if you make any of them, I’d genuinely love to know. Leave a comment, tag me, or just tell me which one you tried. The apple deserves the recognition.

My 2026 Birthday

January is a month. Or a year in 31 days.

It drags. And it feels like it will never end. But we know it does.
Not that it makes any difference. It is a day followed by another day, with just a different label.

This month comes after Christmas and New Year’s festivities, a time where we put aside the non-urgent worries and eat and drink and exchange gifts and all. The time that comes after definitely pales in comparison. And this is how January feels like; pale, cold, long, boring sometimes, and often dark. And that is not about the global political decisions of a few rich inept individuals which they bestow upon us during the first few days of EACH of the past few years.

My birthday is in the middle of January. I don’t really enjoy having a big celebration for my birthday. I used to invite a few friends (the number fluctuated over the years) for brunch or dinner where I would cook and share a meal. I haven’t done that for many years now, maybe at least 7 years. I have been getting a surprise gathering in the past couple of years. 

birthday cake 2018

I got used to making my own cake and sharing a recipe sometimes on my blog.
I also haven’t been doing that. 

This year I made a cake. And I made a video and I am writing a post about it.
I read somewhere that the magic we used to feel when we were little at celebrations was created by the adults who were around us. And now we are the adults and it is our responsibility to create that magic, even if it is just for us. But how can we create magic when we are surrounded by death and despair everywhere we look? 

DELUSION. That is it. 
It is a privilege to be delusional in this economy and I know I don’t have that luxury. 

But I have to take short breaks of delusion and detachment and pretend everything is fine for a minute. That’s the only way to keep going. 

Each year I feel less and less excited about celebrating my birthday. I don’t know if it’s because of the world we live in, or the geographical location we live in, or because it’s in the middle of the longest month in the year. 
Or could it be because I am getting older? 

Not that it makes any difference. It is a day followed by another day, with just a different label.

I made a video documenting the day. I show the cake recipe I made which I will share in the post afterwards, and how the day went overall.

Rishta bi Adas (LENTIL STEW WITH HOME-MADE NOODLES)

I created this tradition of making Mjaddara during the first week of the year. After days of overeating and drinking during the holidays, and after spending too much, a dish with little ingredients, low effort, and high nutrition. It happened one year that I posted the dish on my instagram story and many messaged me telling me they either made it as well or were planning to make it. Thus declaring the first week of the year to be Mjaddra week. In 2023, I posted the recipe on my blog to make it official. 

People in Lebanon, most probably also in other parts of Bilad Al Sham, have a tradition of making a dish that is white in color for the new year. Something with yogurt mostly. Something to signify and manifest a bright year ahead. Italians make something with lentils, for lentils look like coins and that signifies lots of money.

rishta bi adas: Food photographers: Liz and Max Haarala Hamilton Food stylist: Valerie Berry Prop stylist: Aya Nishimura

Food photographers: Liz and Max Haarala Hamilton – Food stylist: Valerie Berry – Prop stylist: Aya Nishimura

This year, on the first week of the new year, I was recovering from the super flu. A virus that will wreck your body. Itchy throat, fatigue, drowsiness, cough, and fever. I was barely able to cook anything. I missed cooking something white. I didn’t make Mjaddara. But this past week, someone gave me an idea to make Rishta bi Adas, a dish I have in my book Bayrut The Cookbook. I haven’t made it in a while, probably since the past winter. This has been the coldest this season and I decided to make Rishta without the need to go out and buy anything. I didn’t have flour. I didn’t have wide pasta. Thankfully I had small red lentils and onions and lemons and soup noodles. The dish was made. The dish tasted good. Of course I prefer it with homemade noodles and crispy fried dough on top to give it an extra crunch. But I do not regret it. 

Continue reading “Rishta bi Adas (LENTIL STEW WITH HOME-MADE NOODLES)” →

Banana Bread 2.0

Pumped, loaded, and delicious!
Topped it with shaved coconut, walnuts, and chocolate chips.

I made the Banana bread recipe many years ago, in 2018 to be precise, for a local baking brand using their products. We shot it then in the trendy style of the mid 2010; square videos, top view, less than a minute, and a quick edit.

I made the recipe many times after it and each time I change something in it. Sometimes I add more chocolate, more and different nuts, and sometimes I get naughty and add brandy or bourbon in the mix. Hence the Banana Bread 2.0.

Continue reading “Banana Bread 2.0” →

Mjaddra Hamra – LENTIL PILAF WITH CARAMELISED ONIONS 

One of the dishes that always causes a dispute is mjaddara. There are so many variations to the recipe, but the uniting elements are lentils, onions, and bulgur or rice. The debates range from which lentils are used and are they creamed, to whether you use bulgur or rice or spices and is it mjaddara or mdardara? The list goes on… To me, mjaddara is when the proportions of lentils to bulgur/rice is higher. Mdardara uses almost equal proportions and is flavoured with cumin and fried onions on top. Mjaddara safra uses split yellow lentils; mjaddara hamra uses whole ones and gets its flavour from deeply caramelising the onions. Msaffaye means ‘strained’ and is made by pureeing cooked brown lentils, then cooking the rice or bulgur with them until thickened. A recipe in Kitab al-Tabikh, a cookbook compiled in 1226 by al-Baghdadi in Iraq, stated that this beloved vegetarian dish was served with minced (ground) meat in rich people’s celebrations, while the meatless one was the food of the poor. 

Read more: Mjaddra Hamra – LENTIL PILAF WITH CARAMELISED ONIONS 

Mjaddara hamra is what my family used to make. It is common in South Lebanon and Palestine. My grandma called it the ‘nails of the knees’ because of the high iron content. Pair it with some fresh bread, a zesty salad, green olives and lots of fresh veggies. 

Last year, at the beginning of 2021, I had made Mjaddara and shared it on Instagram and, to my surprise, so many of my friends also made it the same week.
This year I decided to make it official and annonce the tradition of Mjaddara Week as the first week of every year.

The reason behind everyone making Mjaddara on the first week of the year is because we just want something quick and easy that has nothing to do with the holidays food that we’ve been having for the past two week, and Mjaddara comes to the rescue with its nutritional value and affordability and for the fact that we’d serve lots of seasonal veggies and pickles with it.

Italians have lentils on the new year and consider it a symbol of good fortune for the upcoming year for they resemble little coins and we have Mjaddara.

Therefore, by the power vested in me, I declare the first week of every year to be The National, or rather International, Mjaddara Week.

This recipe is from my book Bayrut The Cookbook, published on October 2021.

Mjaddara Hamra

Serves 2 persons

Ingredients

  • 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) whole red lentils, rinsed
  • 2.25 litres (9 cups) water
  • 600 g (1 lb 5 oz) onions, finely chopped
  • 120 ml (½ cup) olive oil
  • 150 g (scant 1 cup) coarse bulgur wheat
  • 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
  • soft Arabic bread or markouk/saj bread, for scooping
  • Zesty Cabbage Salad
  • fresh veggies and herbs
  • pickled chillies & green olives

Procedure

  • Add the lentils to a large saucepan, cover with 2 litres (8 cups) of the water and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
  • Place the onions in a cold sauté pan with the olive oil, set over a medium–high heat and fry until they start to caramelise. Stir often to make sure they are browning evenly, and keep them on the heat until they turn from caramelised to very dark brown – almost but not quite charring. The burnt onions are what gives this dish its special flavour. Once the onions reach this stage, add the extra cup of water and bring to the boil.
  • Pour the onion mixture into the cooked lentils, then stir in the bulgur.
  • Season to taste with the salt. Bring to the boil and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring often, until the bulgur has soaked up the extra liquid.
  • Ladle onto plates and let cool slightly before serving with your chosen accompaniments. I love to scoop this dish up with soft Arabic bread.

Note on the photo:
I have spent all my morning looking for the photos of Mjaddara I have from 2018 to no avail. I have a chunk of my 2018 photos and recipe, which i have uploaded to the blog then, missing from my storage. I had to resort to the header uploaded back in September 2018 as my recipe photo which is of the lentil porridge mjaddara that is puréed and strained 🥲