Suhoor Wars

In every Muslim culture there are food sused for suhoor, (early breakfast before fasting) whose nutritious value and satiability people swear by. Our editors too have their own opinions about it. They also jumped on the bandwagon and decided to compare the two food options. One of the options is common breakfast staple among North American while other option is unheard of as a breakfast.

Suhoor the main meal of Ramadan, not only it is a sunnah, but also has many benefits other than filling you up for the day. A nutritious meal at the start of the day can save you a lot of dismay including being “Hangry”. One of our editors swore by the filling and satiating ability of bagels while others think there are other more filling and convenient options available.

As the part of North America we live in, we have long winter nights to long summer days. As we know Ramadan changes around ten days per year, thus Ramadan falls in every month of the year in around thirty-six years. This makes opening of the fast in summer at 10:30 pm while eating early suhoor at 4 am. This leaves us to very long fast, for which we need to be well fed for the whole day. Since days are long, we must have nutritious food in suhoor and Iftar to continue the work of the day as well as into the night. Food also shouldn’t affect us negatively that we feel drowsy for nightly prayers.

Bagel was an excellent contender with respect to other breakfast options like paratha, waffles, pancakes, bread and croissants. For its excellent ability to fill our stomach and to not feel hungry or weak for a long time. Our editors swear by, that suhoor with bagels stays until noon, but others disagree. Staying for a long time in stomach the winner is “Haleem” a South-Asian dish. Whose non-spicy Middle Eastern counterpart is “Mujadara” African counterpart is “Harira” and “Harees” a dish staple to Arab countries of the Persian Gulf. This dish filled with slow releasing mixture of complex carbohydrates, meat and spices, which stays in the body and provide energy throughout the day. This dish can be filling as is, but, if you like to add some bread or eggs or bagel or milk to the mix, you can easily do it. It is more filling and keeps you filled and you going for a while and not grip you by Hunger until iftar.

This is a Haleem recipe shared to me by my friend Nayyer. Try this recipe next Ramadan or if you’re doing nafl fasts and keep us in your duas

Haleem Recipe

Meat 1.5 kg boneless

Yogurt 2 cups

Qorma masala

Extra spices: Salt, to taste, red chilli pepper, 1-2 tsp, turmeric 1tsp, garlic ginger paste 4tbsp

Barley whole ½ cup

Whole wheat ½ cup

Lentils: Maash 2 tbsp, Moong 2 tbsp, Masoor 2 tbsp

Rice 2tbsp

Oats 2 tbsp

Method:

· Wash all the lentils and soak it overnight

· Cook it with 3 times more water than lentils

· When cook thoroughly blend it with hand blender

· Cook meat with qorma masala recipe adding some of your spices , until tender enough to fall of a bone

· Blend meat with hand blender

· Mix meat and lentils together blend it again

· Cook it for 2 ½ hours

· If Haleem is not thick enough add some rolled oats and cook it further until desired consistency has reached

· Serve it with chopped cilantro, chopped green chilllis, , chaat masala and julienne ginger.