Lebanese tomato stew with butter rice | Yakhnit Banadura
ALebanese tomato stew is absolutely delicious comfort food! Nice and rustic, but still wonderfully fresh and fruity. And served with aromatic butter rice, it becomes a real feast of flavors. The recipe is really very simple and quick to prepare.
What is a Lebanese tomato stew?
As the name suggests, the tomato stew is a stew with fruity tomatoes. To this is added fried minced meat (veggie also works), a little cinnamon and pomegranate syrup.
The stew is called “Yakhnit Banadura” in Arabic and is usually served with delicious butter rice. “Banadura” means tomato in Arabic, “Yakhnit” means “stew“. In terms of taste, the tomato stew is somewhat reminiscent of a delicious Bolognese sauce.
Use only the best tomatoes!
Lebanese tomato stew does not require many ingredients. But you should pay attention to really very good ingredients. I therefore do not go for the cheapest tomatoes on the shelf, but pay attention to a good quality.
High quality canned peeled tomatoes are best, but of course you can also resort to fresh tomatoes from your garden. As a rule, peeled and canned tomatoes have a more intense flavor.
The pomegranate syrup provides the extra portion of fruitiness. Depending on the variety, the syrup also adds a tart sweetness and fuels the flavor of the Lebanese tomato stew. If you don’t have or can’t find pomegranate syrup, you can substitute it with balsamic vinegar.
This is not the same, but comes closest. The pomegranate syrup you can also easily make yourself. Click here for the recipe.
Lebanese tomato stew: prepared quickly and easily
The preparation of the tomato stew is really super simple! Just sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil, add the minced meat and deglaze with the tomatoes and pomegranate syrup.
Season with salt, pepper and cinnamon and simmer briefly. That was it actually already. Shortly before the end, chopped fresh coriander is added.
While the tomato stew is simmering, you can prepare the butter rice. After that, you can serve it directly. Garnish the stew best with a few freshly roasted pine nuts in the pan.
I wish you lots of fun trying and of course a good appetite!
- Halabi, Rafik (Author)
Recipe for Lebanese tomato stew
Ingredients
- Recipe butter rice
- 1 Onion
- 2 Garlic cloves
- 6 Tablespoon Olive oil
- 250 g Ground beef or vegan mince
- 1200 g peeled tomatoes (alternatively fresh tomatoes)
- 1,5 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 2 tablespoon Pomegranate syrup (alternatively balsamic vinegar)
- 15 g Coriander
- Salt, pepper
- 2 Tablespoon Pine nuts
Zubereitung
- Peel and finely dice the onion and garlic.
- Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Sauté the onion and garlic in it for about 3 minutes.
- Add the mince and fry until crumbly.
- Add peeled tomatoes, cinnamon and pomegranate syrup and lightly press tomatoes. Turn stove to medium and let tomatoes stew for about 15 minutes.
- Prepare the butter rice according to the recipe.
- Wash and chop the coriander. The fine stems can be used here as well. Add the cilantro to the tomatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Toast pine nuts in a pan until lightly fragrant and pine nuts are golden brown. Then place pine nuts directly on a plate or in a bowl.
- Season tomato stew with salt and pepper and serve with butter rice and garnish with pine nuts.
Notes
Nährwerte
Fancy more delicious stews from the Levant? Then take a look here:
