This is a delicious Levantine staple, commonly served with pita bread as an appetizer or meze ('starter'). Here, eggplant is the star, along with other fresh and simple ingredients that should be easy to find. The traditional preparation calls for the eggplant to be baked or broiled over an open flame before peeling, giving the pulp a soft and addictively smoky taste. Enjoy this on its own, or as a creamy, smoky addition to other Middle Eastern or Mediterranean entrees.

1 large eggplant
 ½ cup lemon juice
 2 garlic cloves, minced
 ½ cup tahini
Salt to taste
Parsley, finely chopped for garnish
Olive oil
Cayenne pepper

Roast eggplant in an oven heated to 200°C/390° under the grill until the skin is charred.

Take out of the oven and place in a  plastic bag for 20 minutes, until it’s cool enough to handle.

Peel the eggplant and place the flesh in a bowl. Mash a little with a fork.

Add lemon juice, garlic cloves, salt, and tahini, and mix well while mashing with a fork.

To serve, spread on a plate and garnish with parsley, olive oil, and cayenne pepper. Goes well with pita bread or crackers.

Now you can experience the authentic flavors of Israel and the surrounding region with Batya Segal's personal favorite recipes. A long-time lover of fresh, delicious, and easy-to-execute meals, Batya's recipes will bring the aromas of Israel into your kitchen for the whole family to enjoy. Yours free as a thank you for supoorting our life changing work in Israel.

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This is a delicious Levantine staple, commonly served with pita bread as an appetizer. Here, eggplant is the star, along with other fresh and simple ingredients that are easy to find.

Baba Ghanoush (Mediterranean Eggplant Spread)

Israel has amazing salads because their vegetables are very fresh and delicious. The Israeli salad is one that you will find at almost every restaurant here in Israel. It is simple, yet healthy and tasty. Batya not only has this Israeli salad recipe to share with you but also the perfect salad dressing to enjoy with your favorite salad. This Mediterranean salad dressing recipe is a special one that Batya learned from a friend years ago, and she uses it often. There is also a video for you to see how to make each of these recipes. As you watch this video, we hope to not only share some great recipes with you but also to bring a great big smile to your face. Enjoy these fresh recipes, and don’t forget to have fun!

2 cucumbers, peeled
2 tomatoes
1 large red bell pepper, seeded
1 spring onion, green part only
1/2 yellow onion
Salt to taste
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3-4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Chop the cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and yellow onion into small cubes and place in a bowl. Thinly slice the green onion and add to the bowl.

Season the salad with salt, lemon juice, and olive oil. Mix well, taste, and add more seasoning if needed.


3 tsp. mustard
1 1/2 tsp. honey
3 tsp. mayonnaise
1 tsp. tomato paste
1 cup good quality olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
Salt to taste

Place all the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.

If you like your salad dressing thinner, add a little water and blend again.

Pour dressing into a glass jar or pourable container, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Pour it over the Israeli salad or your favorite salad, and enjoy!

Don’t miss out on this fun video featuring Batya and Barry! Watch the step-by-step process of how to make the Israeli Salad and the Mediterranean Salad Dressing. Enjoy and have fun!

Batya's Kitchen - Chopped Salad

Delicious Mediterranean Chopped Salad and Homemade Dressing Recipe with Batya Segal

Watch the step-by-step process of how to make Israeli salad and Mediterranean salad dressing. Enjoy these fresh recipes, and don’t forget to have fun!

Israeli Salad & Mediterranean Salad Dressing Recipes | Blog | Vision for Israel

Israeli Salad & Mediterranean Salad Dressing Recipes

See how glorious a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children—and so we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

The Jewish month of Av is known as a time of darkness, sorrow, and destruction. However, in the middle of this month on the 15th day of Av (August 2nd this year), the Jewish people celebrate Tu B’Av — a day of love! What a beautiful picture of God’s love meeting us right amid sadness, loss, and heartache. God’s love restores, rebuilds, and strengthens. 

Originating from the 2nd century, Tu B’Av was a day for unmarried women in Israel to dress in white and go out to dance in the vineyards as they waited for the men to choose their wives. And only in 1948, shortly after Israel became a Jewish nation, Tu B’Av became a popular Jewish holiday celebrating love and romance. 

Some special things to do on this Jewish holiday are to go on a date, propose, renew your vows, or celebrate your loved ones with a gift. One fun date idea that you could do with your loved one on this day is to make a romantic dinner! And we have just the recipe for you to use for a nice appetizer to accompany your dish of choice. The Grape Carpaccio is something light and fresh and yet will add a romantic and elegant taste to your date.

Ingredients:  (For 2 servings)
300g large green grapes, washed
8 large asparagus stems
100g quinoa (preferably red, or mixture)
100g Sainte-Maure cheese (or any other goat cheese)
200 ml balsamic vinegar
Oil for frying
Salt and black pepper
Olive oil to drizzle on top

Slice the grapes into thin slices, and arrange them on two plates side by side like a carpaccio.

Cut each asparagus stem about 4 cm from the bottom. Discard the inedible part. Gently peel the asparagus up to the bottom edge of the head.

Boil a pot of water with a little salt, blanch the asparagus for a minute and immediately transfer to ice water to cool.

Cook the quinoa in a pot with 200 ml of water. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and cook for about 15 minutes until the quinoa is ready. Drain the liquid and place quinoa on a tray lined with parchment paper. Dry it in the oven at 85°C with the door slightly open for about two hours.

Heat a pot with frying oil to high heat (between 200°-210°C). Fry the quinoa for a few seconds until it puffs and the bubbles stop. Remove with a strainer and transfer to a tray lined with paper towels. Sprinkle a little salt on top.

In a small pot, bring the balsamic vinegar to a boil, reduce to half the amount, refrigerate, and store in a container.

To assemble the dish, place 4 pieces of asparagus on top of the grape slices on each plate. Sprinkle shreds of cheese over it and the crispy quinoa. Decorate with drizzles of the reduced balsamic and olive oil.

We hope you and your loved one enjoy this simple, yet elegant dish, as you take time this Tu B’Av to let each other know just how much you love one another! And most importantly, take time to reflect on God’s great love for each of you, especially if you are in the midst of suffering or reflecting on the sorrow that has occurred during this month of Av. 

The Jewish holiday of Tu B’Av is a day of celebrating love. A great way to celebrate is a special date night of cooking a flavor-filled recipe together.

Tu B’Av – Love in the Midst of Sorrow | Blog | Vision for Israel

Tu B’Av – Love in the Midst of Sorrow

If you’ve been following us for a while, you have probably seen how we love food and cooking. And if any of you have traveled around the world, you know that trying different foods is one of the best ways to learn about different cultures. So we want to invite you into our Israeli kitchen, so you can experience the tastes of Israel and at the same time learn about Israeli culture. Put your apron on and let’s hop into the kitchen!

In honor of Shavuot, we want to share with you a recipe for a classic Israeli cheesecake. But let’s first start with a short history of Shavuot. This holiday is also known as the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. It is a Jewish celebration exactly 50 days after Passover and commemorates when God gave Moses the 10 commandments. During this holiday, God commanded the Jewish people to celebrate with the first fruits of the wheat harvest. 

“On the day of firstfruits, when you present to the Lord an offering of new grain during the Festival of Weeks, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.”

In the modern culture of Israel today, there are several traditions during this holiday. Many celebrate the first night of Shavuot with two meals because in Leviticus it says to give two loaves of bread as a first fruit offering to the Lord. Therefore, the first meal they have is all dairy and after waiting, then they will have a second meal with meat. It is also tradition to go to the synagogue and stay up through the night reading the book of Ruth.

As you walk the streets throughout Israel leading up to Shavuot, you will see that the main traditional food for this holiday is dairy recipes.  Many believe this is because the nation of Israel is known as the land of milk and honey. So to help you celebrate Shavuot in the best way, we want to give you one of our favorite dairy recipes. In our opinion there is no Shavuot holiday meal without the star of the show —  cheesecake. 

There are a variety of cheesecakes in Israel. Some have a crust made of crushed cookies and some are topped with cream, fruit, or with additional cookie crumbs. Some are encased in dough. Some are baked and some are not. And there are many different varieties of cheeses used inside the cake, as well.  

The classic Israeli cheesecake is airy and light with no crust. This is very different from the famous New York cheesecake. However, it is also very tasty. This crustless cheesecake is very famous in Israel and it takes some skill to produce a tall one without cracks. Every family has its own go-to recipe, and we found this one that we really like.

As we will be sharing many more recipes with you, we thought there was no better recipe to start with, than with dessert. We hope that you’ll enjoy making this recipe! Send us your comments and tell us how your cheesecake turned out.

7 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp instant vanilla pudding powder
20 gr vanilla sugar (or 1 1/3 Tbsp sugar + 2 tsp. vanilla extract)
5 Tbsp cornstarch
750 gr Skyr cheese 
200 ml (or 204 gr) sour cream
Pinch of salt

Butter for pan

1.  Grease the bottom and sides of a spring-form pan (22 cm in diameter) with butter. Trace a circle of the pan on baking paper, making it slightly larger. Cut it out and place it on the bottom of the pan. Press the parchment circle to the inside of the pan and slightly up the sides all around until it is completely covered. (It’s important that the whole bottom is covered with baking paper in order to extract the cake in its entirety.) Generously grease the top of the parchment well with butter.

4.  In a large bowl, mix the egg yolks, the cheese, and the sour cream into a smooth mixture.

5.  Sift the pudding powder, vanilla sugar, and cornstarch into the cheese mixture. Mix well with a whisk, until the batter is smooth.

6.  In a separate large bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt. When the foam begins to form, add the sugar in 3-4 batches while whipping. Continue until a very stable, white, and shiny foam is obtained.

7.  Pour a third of the egg white mixture into the cheese mixture and fold from bottom to top in a wrapping motion. Add another third and continue until combined. Add the rest of the foam and fold in a wrapping motion.

8.  Pour the mixture into the pan and gently knock it on the counter to level the batter. Cover the bottom of the pan with a double layer of aluminum foil.

9.  Place a large baking pan on the lowest rack in the oven and fill it halfway with boiling water. Place the cheesecake pan inside it. Bake for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 150°C/300°F and continue baking for another 45-60 minutes. The cake is ready when it’s golden on top. It’s important not to open the oven throughout the baking time to avoid cracks.

10.  Turn the oven off, and leave the cake in the oven for at least 30 minutes to let it rest and stabilize completely.

11.  Take the cake out to cool completely for at least two hours at room temperature.

Remove the cake from the pan:
12.  After cooling the cake on the counter for 2 hours, place the face of a plate or platter on the pan. Then lift and turn it over. Take another plate (the plate you want to place your cake) and place it on top of the cake. Lift and turn it over again, so that the face of the cake is on top.

13.  Place the cake in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. It’s recommended to prepare the cake a day in advance. The cake is best served very cold. You can top it with berries or whipped cream. Slice and enjoy!

We hope you enjoy this delicious cake.

Blessings from Jerusalem!

VFI invites you into our Israeli kitchen to help you experience more of the Israeli culture. This Shavuot let’s start with our Classic Israeli Cheesecake recipe!

A Delicious Taste of Shavuot | Blog | Vision for Israel

Recipes

Baba Ghanoush (Mediterranean Eggplant Spread)

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

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