Hashweh (Spiced Rice and Meat With Yogurt)

Cheaters version for a quick weeknight dinner- prepare a pot of rice using chicken stock (Don’t tell Sitti I use a rice cooker). Sauté ground meat and onion with your spices on hand- salt, pepper and cinnamon is enough to give authentic flavor. Top with toasted nuts. Pantry to table in 22 minutes.

Chickpeas are often substituted for meat in Lebanese Lenten recipes. It would be worth experimenting (in advance) with this. Or just leave out the meat and adjust seasonings - the warm spices should work well with rice cooked in vegetable broth.

I would suggest a mix of diced mushrooms. They add texture and a wonderful flavor especially if they are sauted to golden brown. You may need a bit more than the recipe calls for as they have much more water than minced beef.

Hashweh is a childhood favorite. Two suggestions. 1)If you worry about stuffing a turkey ( I don't- I just watch the temps), partially cook the rice and put in a covered casserole with the spiced lamb, a bit of water, and a turkey wing or neck on top and bake. 2) As an alternative to yogurt, my mom used to sometimes serve with a finely chopped salad (lettuce, cuke, tomato, scallion) dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and a hint of garlic. Put on top of your warm hashweh serving. Delish!

Syrian Lebanese use it with meat to stuff vegetables like summer squash, grape leaves, and cabbage. There are Ottoman versions that are meatless and add pomegranate seeds.

Lentils work, but you might want to try recipes for mujadara, another Palestinian/Arabic dish that features them with rice. They are not that different, depending on region and approach.

Fantastic recipe! Modified as follows after reading comments that the Hashweh was bland. Meat: All spices as listed, but do not halve. Add: 1 t. each ground coriander and ground cumin; 1/2 t. lime powder; dash turmeric; dash MSG; and Allepo pepper to taste. Dice/mince 1 small red onion and brown. Add 2 cloves minced garlic and cook with onion until fragrant. Brown meat with spices, onion, and garlic Rice: all spices as listed but do not halve. Add 1 bay leaf; 1 black cardamom pod; & dash MSG

Yes! Thiss what we grew up eating with turkey - it's delicious!

Any suggestions for making a meatless version of this for Thanksgiving so vegetarian friends can enjoy?

I use sunflower seeds when I can't get good pine nuts. :-)

I kind of abused this recipe... but people loved it. Rice has way too many carbs for me, so I used about half the amount of coarse Turkish bulgur wheat. I also added a few currants and golden raisins. Then I used it to stuff roasted Honeynut squash (a very sweet winter squash, rather like a mini Butternut). Each diner got half a roasted squash stuffed with hashweh. Our dinner guests have turned up their noses at winter squash before, but they all cleaned their plates and raved about the dish.

The Greeks have a similar stuffing minus the aromatic spices but with the addition of mint leaves. Additional nuts are added including chestnuts. It was always my favorite turkey stuffing!

This hashweh (or slight variations on it) is what I love to stuff into a chicken (I don't care for turkey) for my TG bird. Of course you don't cook it fully, since it'll be cooked more inside the bird while it roasts. I don't use quite so much cinnamon and allspice, add more pepper (black and/or Aleppo) and include parsley. I always make too much to go into the bird, and so love to have the leftovers later as a side, with yogurt, and with a bright, lemony acidic salad of some sort.

Any vegetarian ideas? Could I omit meat, or use lentils, or mushrooms, or even scrambled Impossible burger, if that's not entirely beyond the pale?

You can substitute with chickpeas or brown/green lentils. Look up the dish mujadara.