One Thing I Ate: Definitely not traditional arayes

Beef stuffed pita pockets.

Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, I make something else for the first time! Read past posts here, and please follow my Instagram, @fivethingsiate.

I am sort of excited about this new structure where I share one thing I made with you a week because it’s already making me try new things. I’m pretty bad at feeding myself. It’s like having the worst Tamogotchi, one’s own body, that I never signed up for, but sharing with you makes it more fun. I hope you try this week’s recipe, and if you do, reply to this email with how it went!

Beef and Cilantro Arayes (Lebanese/Middle Eastern stuffed pita pockets)

Makes: Approx 4-5, or 16-20 quarters. They’re pretty filling so I eat 2-3 quarters for a meal.

Roughly adapted from: Recipe Tin Eats

Please don’t come for me for: The lack of cultural food knowledge. I know this is not traditional, and I’m very open to your recipes!

Okay, so now that I gave you that disclaimer, onto the fun stuff: I’m totally obsessed with this recipe. While burgers are nice, I like ground beef even better when it’s combined with warming spices and fresh herbs and baked right into a crispy, warm, fresh pita. What’s not to like? It’s also extremely easy to make. Easier than making a cheeseburger, which I almost always manage to fuck up.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef, 80-20 or fattier blend

• 1/2 sweet onion, diced

• 1 bunch cilantro, diced (use parsley instead or a mix of half and half for a more traditional taste. I’m just Chinese and I freaking love cilantro. For the record I almost put diced scallions in this so you know I really held off on bastardizing it further.) 

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder 

• 1 tsp cumin

• 1 tsp allspice

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp pepper

• 4-5 fresh pitas, you can get the thin kind but I like the fluffy kind. White flour only pls. (I ended up using an extra half, so 4.5, but if you stuff the beef to the brim, 4 works, and if you’re using smaller pitas, use 5!)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400F. I use a convection toaster oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

• Mince onion and cilantro. You can use a food processor. You want it finely minced.

• Add beef and all spices.

• Cut pitas in half and stuff with beef to corners.

• Cut once more into quarters.

• Brush with olive oil on both sides. (This makes it amazingly crispy, like a fried pita, but you could prob skip if you’re skimping.)

• Bake 20 mins, flipping once

• Enjoy immediately, while crispy and warm.

• Optionally serve with tahini sauce: approx 1 tbs tahini, squeeze of lemon, 2 smashed garlic cloves, add water to thin!

XOXO,

Soph

P.S. If you make this recipe, pls pls let me know how it turned out! And forward this newsletter it to a friend :)