Loubieh bil Zeit (Green Beans with Tomatoes)

This dish is served everywhere throughout the Middle East and North Africa, even though most cookbooks featuring recipes from this region avoid this simple-to-prepare and humble dish…probably because it is not the sexiest dish to look at. It is, however, delicious and most perfect as a tasty side dish.

Slowly cooking vegetables in olive oil and tomatoes is popular throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, a style of cooking often used by Jewish Sephardic cooks from Spain, Italy, Turkey and North Africa.

My Moroccan mother often made a variation of this dish, and her version often had a surprising heat element that

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This dish is served everywhere throughout the Middle East and North Africa, even though most cookbooks featuring recipes from this region avoid this simple-to-prepare and humble dish…probably because it is not the sexiest dish to look at. It is, however, delicious and most perfect as a tasty side dish.

Slowly cooking vegetables in olive oil and tomatoes is popular throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, a style of cooking often used by Jewish Sephardic cooks from Spain, Italy, Turkey and North Africa.

My Moroccan mother often made a variation of this dish, and her version often had a surprising heat element that she snuck into the sauce to keep us alert at the dinner table.

Be sure to drop a bit of lemon juice into the sauce at the end of the cooking and just before serving to preserve the green color of the vegetables.

Preparation Time: allow about an hour to prepare this dish
Difficulty: simple
Yield: makes 4-6 servings