Tisea

Oh how I LOVE this dish. Tisea is a Middle Eastern breakfast dish that gives you a warm and satisfied feeling after eating. Breakfast can be tricky for Vegans. Without all those egg and bacon dishes, what is a person to do for weekend comfort food? Well, here is your answer folks. Tisea. It may seem odd to eat garbanzo beans in the morning, but I can assure you, after you eating this dish, you will be tanked up until early afternoon feeling oh so good!

I have to thank my in-laws for introducing my palate to these new foods. I had never had such things growing up. The most exotic thing we had was Mexican food, typically from home.  I'll never forget when my in-laws first came to stay with us. I was not one to try new things, but there was no way that I could hurt their feelings and decline. Before you know it, I was gobbling up this and that and going back for more.

My father-in-law is the Tisea maker of the house. He used to make a lovely version with yogurt and hot butter that we enjoyed for many years. I lamented to my sweet father-in-law on his recent visit how much I would miss enjoying his Tisea when he said,"Oh there is another version!"  I was so excited! The next morning we all enjoyed a beautiful spread of food together and indeed we were truly comforted.

Tisea

1 bag garbanzo beans
2 tsp baking soda
1 bag of pita bread
1 bunch parsley
1-2 cloves of fresh garlic
1/3 olive oil
1-2 T ground cumin

Place beans in a bowl. Add baking soda and water to beans. Stir. Let sit overnight. Next morning, pour beans AND the baking soda water into a pot. Boil until tender (this doesn't take too long). Maybe 20-30 minutes.  Remove from heat but don't drain. You need the cooking water. Toast the pita bread until a bit toasted. Tear into large pieces and put in a large casserole dish. With a slotted spoon, scoop out about half of the beans ( or more if you have a big dish) and place over the pita bread in the casserole dish.  Add one cup to one and a half cups of  beans to blender, add 1/3 cup oil, garlic, salt and 1-2 cups cooking water to blend into a watery mixture. Add the water slowly because you can always add more. If you get too much water, just add some more beans, garlic, salt etc. It shouldn't be thick like hummus but watery. Pour this over the beans and pita. It should have a milky look to it. Then add about 1 cup of parsley leaves (or more) and generously sprinkle with ground cumin. The pita gets nice and soft and the bean are tender and warm. Scoop a generous serving into a bowl. YUM!

Serve with kalamata olives, toasted pita triangles and hummus.

*Note: In the photos, we served it with a homemade olive oil hummus and a homemade romesco sauce. I will be including recipes for both at a future date. And although romesco sauce isn't Middle Eastern, it went beautifully with what we ate.

Do you see how it looks milky? But the beans are still showing through. You don't want to drown the entire thing. I like a little more parsley than shown.

In this picture we have the olive oil hummus, the olives and romesco sauce. My husband is adding the final drizzle of olive oil to the romesco.

The feast assembled. We are only missing the toasted pita to scoop up all that good stuff.