Middle Eastern cuisine is culturally rich, historically deep and flavoursome. But is it always healthy?
According to Accredited Practising Dietitian, Huda AlSultan, Arabic food is regarded as one of the healthiest cuisines in the world as the cuisine incorporates lots of plant-based proteins, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, spices, seeds, grains and herbs.
But, the dietitian, dedicated home cook from Saudi Arabia and former contestant says, there’s still room for improvement.
explains that many of the traditional Middle Eastern recipes cooked today were created in a time when people were a lot more physically active.
When we think of the past, many people [in the Middle East] were farmers who worked physically harder...This is why they needed to eat high-energy, dense foods to match the physical intensity of the work they did.
“When we think of the past, many people [in the Middle East] were farmers who worked physically hard,” AlSultan tells SBS.
“My dad used to tell me that my great grandfather used to be a farmer. He used to climb the palm tree and pick all the dates and then do other jobs on the farm. Back then, people used to work from early morning before sunrise and go back home just before sunset.
“This is why they needed to eat high-energy, dense foods to match the physical intensity of the work they did.”
She says some of these high-energy ingredients or cooking methods, although traditional, may not be necessary to the dishes they help to create if the dishes are regularly consumed today.
In AlSultan’s experience, there are three major elements that can be adjusted to make Middle Eastern cultural cuisine even healthier.
1. Ghee
Ghee – also known as clarified butter or samneh baladiyeh – is often one of the first ingredients used in many Arabic dishes to cook onions, garlic, rice or meat.
“There are many ways to use ghee. My dad’s way is to dip bread in it and have it with dates,” she says. “It tastes sweet and soft and feels like you’re eating an energy ball. “Ghee is also drizzled on top of dishes like foul madammas: a stew of fava beans.”
If eaten in moderation, , as it’s a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, which decrease LDL cholesterol. However, warns AlSultan, consuming too much ghee on a regular basis (like any healthy fat eaten in excess) could lead to the thickening of arteries and accumulation of fat in the body.
“Ghee is energy-rich. If we aren’t as physically active as the generations who came before us, we may not need to consume it as much in our dishes as they did – especially if we are only doing 30 minutes of exercise a day.
“Personally, I prefer to drizzle extra virgin olive oil on traditional dishes instead of ghee. If you make the switch from ghee to olive oil, the dish will taste a lot lighter, which is more enjoyable than feeling that you’ve just eaten something very heavy.”
2. Baked, not fried
What would fattoush, a Middle Eastern fried bread salad, be without its deep-fried bread? AlSultan answers: “tastier”, if the bread used is oven-baked instead of fried in vegetable or canola oil.
“As a family, we eat lots of fattoush,” she says. “We used to fry the bread but one day we tried to bake it.
“I cut the bread and drizzled it with olive oil. Once baked, the bread maintained colour and shine from the drizzle of olive oil added. But it tasted lighter. Now, we bake the bread instead of frying it all the time.
“I promise you, the flavour is so good and crispy. Baked bread also lasts just as long as deep-fried bread.”
Kibbeh is another traditional deep-fried dish that can also be baked in the oven.
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Baklawa with dates and nuts
3. Sweet finish
Many Middle Eastern deserts, like baklava, are famed for their distinctly sweet flavours, made possible by the inclusion of sugar syrup (ater). The syrup - which combines sugar and water and is flavoured with orange blossom or rose water or lemon juice - is traditionally drizzled over baked or deep-fried desserts or served on the side.
“If you don’t like the sickly sweet flavour of some deserts, you can decrease the amount of sugar syrup used or swap it for honey or pure maple syrup.”
AlSultan cites baklawa – a rich pastry sweet made of very thin layers of filo, which often uses sugar syrup – as an example of a traditional Middle Eastern dessert that can be modified.
She says she makes baklawa, swapping sugar syrup for date syrup, diluted with a little bit of water and orange juice. “It was still sticky like the original baklava and delicious.”
Her version also contains more fibre than traditional recipes because of the inclusion of dates and extra nuts and is made with heart-healthy extra virgin olive oil.
Decreasing the amount of sugar used to make it didn’t change the history or story behind the dish, she added.
“The people who created these meals did so with whatever resources they had available to them at the time. Nowadays, we are in a better situation.
“Even though we are not as physically active [as former generations] and we may not need to use high-energy ingredients in traditional dishes, all the time. There are currently a lot more food options and healthy ingredient swaps available to suit our modern lifestyles.”
