Sleepers/Keepers: Recipes That Deserve Some Love

…beginning with a dip from Sababa and a chicken curry dish from Shabbat.

In every cookbook I write, there are specific recipes I am convinced will leap out of the gate and transfix home cooks around the world, becoming instant classics that become instant staples in the weekly repertoires of thousands of cooks. 

For example there’s the Golden Onion & Chickpea dip from Sababa, a recipe hill I am perched high atop, waiting for all you cooks to notice. Sweet, thyme-infused onions and tender chickpeas are blitzed into a creamy dip and topped with fava beans. It’s a dish inspired by a dip I found on a prosaic supermarket shelf when I first moved to Tel Aviv, and I made quick work of recreating it. So why didn’t it “succeed?” Four years later I am willing to admit it was the favas on top: hyper-seasonal, hard-to-find, and labor-intensive to prepare, with their blanching, shocking, and double-peeling.