Lebanese eggplant and cheese wrap is an assortment of fresh veggies and H along with za'atar fried eggplant wrapped in an Arabic bread. These wraps are mostly enjoyed and served for the breakfast in the middle east.
Lebanese and Syrians love sandwiches and wraps in their breakfast, Lebanese wraps are a popular choice and a perfect way to eat fresh veggies, Arabic cheese and various spreads like hummus. Typically assortment of ingredients are served on the table and everyone assembles their own wrap as per their own choice.
As I wrote in my previous blog post that breakfast in Middle east is mostly a relaxed meal most of the days. Whatever I experienced in even in the cafes and eateries in the streets people take out time and start their day with a good breakfast savored on a relaxed pace.
For making Lebanese wraps you can have assortments placed on the table and everyone can assemble their own wrap. For making this Batenjan Wrap, I fried the eggplant in extra virgin olive oil along with zaatar spice. eggplant is known as “Batenjan’ in Arabic, so that's why it is called Batenjan wrap.
I also pan fried the halloumi cheese which I quite enjoyed during this trip to Dubai along with other Arabic cheese like Ackawi which is mildly salty and made with cows milk and Shanklish which is mostly used in Lebanese cuisine. I liked that a lot but still not able to find it here in India so I used Haloumi which is available in a super market near me.
Haloumi is great cheese for grilling too, but I pan fried it so that everything I need for this Lebanese eggplant and cheese wrap was pretty much done in one pan. For making the wrap I served an assortment of fillings like fresh cucumber, tomatoes, rocket/arugula leaves, hummus, labneh, pan-fried halloumi cheese and zaatar fried eggplant, olives and marinated feta cheese along with fresh Arabic bread that I picked up from the store.
The meaty texture of eggplant combined with slightly salty halloumi cheese and creamy hummus with fresh veggies make this a quite flavor packed Batenjan wrap. If you thought that Middle Eastern cuisine is all about meats and such, you will be surprised to know that they have a great variety of vegetarian options too. So, if you are vegetarian and want to experiment with Middle eastern cuisine why not start with this Lebanese eggplant and cheese wrap for the breakfast.
The Arbaic breakfast are usually enjoyed with Sweet Mint tea and turkish coffee, but since I served it for the weekend brunch A glass of white wine went well with that too.
Ingredients
- 4 Arabic Bread
- 200 g halloumi cheese cut into chunks
- 200 g eggplant cut into chunks
- 100 g baby tomatoes
- 200 g cucumber
- 2 Tbsp Olive oil
- sea salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon Red chilli powder
- 10-12 Olives
- 10-12 Feta cheese cubes optional
- 1-2 tablespoon Zaatar Spice recipe link in recipe notes
- ½ cup Hummus recipe link in recipe notes
Instructions
- Heat up one tablespoon Olive oil in a pan. Pan fry the halloumi cheese chunks till they are golden brown from all sides.
- Now add rest of the olive oil and pan fry the eggplant chunks with Zaatar, sea salt and add red chilli powder to your taste.
- Stir fry till egg plants are soft and skin is cooked. (Takes 6-7 minutes)
- Place all these things like hummus, fried eggplants, fried cheese, olives and feta cheese, assortment of salad along with arabic bread on the table.
- Everyone can make their own sandwich.
- SEE RECIPE NOTE*
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