Shish Barak – A Comforting Twist on a Classic

Shish Barak has always been one of my favourite Middle Eastern comfort meals. Traditionally, it’s made with homemade dumplings stuffed with spiced meat, then simmered in a garlicky yogurt sauce; warm, creamy, and full of nostalgic flavours.

But let’s be real, making dumplings from scratch takes time, and sometimes you just want that delicious taste without all the effort. That’s why my version is a little different; I swap the homemade dough for pasta and use plant-based mince instead of meat. It’s a simplified take on the classic, but still packed with all the comforting flavours I grew up loving.

If you’re looking for a cosy, flavourful meal that comes together more easily, this twist on Shish Barak might just become your new favourite too!

Ingredients:

For the Yogurt

1 tub of Greek Yogurt
1 tbs Corn-starch
Salt
3 Garlic cloves
1 red onion
Water

For the pasta stuffing

Conchiglie rigate pasta
Plant-Based Mince Beef (or mince beef)
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 Onion
Fresh coriander

Instructions:

Step1: Make the Sauce:

In a pot, mix the yogurt, corn-starch, salt, garlic, and water. Heat it over medium heat, stirring constantly. Keep stirring for about 10-15 minutes until the sauce thickens. (Tip: Be careful to stir consistently so it doesn’t break) If you want it thicker, mix a bit more corn-starch into a small bowl of yogurt, then stir it back into the pot.

Step 2: Cook the Pasta:

While the sauce is thickening, sauté the Quorn with some olive oil and onion in a pan with seasoning.

Step 3: Assemble and Bake:

Once the sauce is thickened to your liking (I like mine thick enough to coat a spoon), place the cooked stuffed pasta in a baking dish. Top it with the sautéed Quorn and onions. Pour the yogurt sauce over the pasta and bake in the oven for about 5-10 minutes.

Step 4: Finishing Touch:

While the pasta is baking, sauté some crushed garlic and fresh coriander leaves in olive oil. Once the pasta is done, top it with this garlic-coriander oil and serve hot.

💬 Give it a try, and don’t forget to share your experience in the comments—I’d love to hear what you think!

Comments

Welcome to My Journey: Finding Strength Through Sharing

Hey there, and welcome to My World My Life , my little corner of the internet. After what felt like an endless process, I’ve finally moved all my old blog posts from their outdated home to this fresh new space. It wasn’t easy, balancing this with treatment, work, and family life, but with a little help from my family, I made sure every post made it over intact. No missing entries, no broken links (because let’s be honest, that totally would have happened). Now that everything is in place, I couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead. This blog isn’t just about sharing my journey; it’s about creating a space where we can connect, support one another, and navigate life’s unexpected twists together. One of those twists came in the form of breast cancer. One moment, I was going about my usual routine, and the next, I was sitting in a doctor’s office, hearing words that didn’t feel real. In an instant, my world flipped upside down. My days became a whirlwind of appointments, treatments, and ...

Redefining Life After Cancer: My Journey to a New Normal

In 2023, my world - and my family’s - was completely turned upside down with my breast cancer diagnosis. It was the year my biggest dream came true when we bought our house. And it was the year my worst nightmare became reality when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Two life-altering events, colliding at the same time. But it wasn’t just life that changed... I will never return to the person I was before cancer. Sometime I grieve that version of me, the one who lived without this constant awareness of mortality. I thought I understood that life was finite, but there’s a difference between knowing it in theory and feeling it in your bones every day. The fear of recurrence or the cancer spreading isn’t just an abstract worry; it’s a shadow that lingers, a rational dread because cancer doesn’t play by the rules. It can return or spread at any time. And that reality is something I have to learn to live with. The idea of a “happily ever after” shattered in an instant. Moving into our new ...

And So It Begins...

Sitting in that cold, sterile room when the doctor said the words "you have cancer," I felt like the floor had dropped beneath me. In that instant, fear gripped me tightly, and all I could think about was fighting this thing growing inside me. My mind switched to survival mode, and I felt like a deer caught in headlights. That feeling of shock and terror lingered for what seemed like an eternity. The process to get to a treatment plan felt painfully slow, pushing my anxiety to new heights. Prepare yourselves, those waiting periods are the worst. First, there was the wait for the initial consultation, followed by what seemed like endless weeks waiting for tests and their results. Knowing there was cancer inside me and not being able to do anything immediately was excruciating. Two months post-diagnosis, my treatment path was laid out; I was scheduled for a therapeutic mammoplasty; a combination of a lumpectomy and breast reduction surgery, to remove the cancer from my left bre...

MyWorldMyLife

Search This Blog