How to Make Jewish-Iraqi Sabich

My Jewish best friend is really involved in our campus' Jewish community. As a result, I attend a lot of their events and have been able to expand my cultural horizons. As a mediocre Christian, going to the Hillel and participating in their activities is enlightening and culturally enriching and offers me a perspective on world events that I haven't considered. 

That being said, I love going to their Shabbat dinners, which is a dinner that marks the beginning of the day of rest on Saturday. For the most recent one, we wanted to learn how to make the Jewish-Iraqi Sabich with Israeli salad. Sabich is a pita with hummus, fried eggplant, and hard-boiled eggs. It's definitely an odd combination, but will have you going back for seconds. We used Chef Moti David's unique Sabich recipe for inspiration and added Israeli salad and pickles to kick it up a notch.

Sabich

• Prep Time:20 mins
• Cook Time:0
• Total Time:20 mins
• Servings:2
• Easy

Ingredients

• 2 Pieces pita bread
• 2 Hard-boiled eggs peeled and sliced
• 1 Large eggplant sliced 1/4" thick
• 1 Tomato finely diced
• 1/2 English cucumber finely diced
• Hummus
• 1/2 White onion finely diced
• 1/2 Parsley leaf chopped
• 1/2 Pickle diced pickles from a jar are fine too
• Lemon juice
• Vegetable oil for frying

• Step 1

  Begin by making the Israeli salad. In a large bowl mix the diced cucumber, tomato, onion, parsley, and lemon juice, and add salt and pepper as needed.

  

• Step 2

  Using the vegetable oil, fry the eggplant slices in batches until they're brown and then place on a paper towel to cool. While the eggplant is frying, toast or grill the pita.

  

• Step 3

  Once all the ingredients are ready, set out the hard-boiled egg slices, hummus, pickles and Israeli salad for people to build their own sandwiches!

  

The typical way to make Sabich is by spreading hummus onto the pita, then laying on a fried eggplant slice, adding the hard-boiled eggs slices and pickles, and finally spooning the Israeli salad on top. You can add salt and pepper as needed. Then enjoy!

Or as they say in Hebrew, B'tayavon!