Tunisian bsissa with yoghurt and dates
A paste of toasted cereals and chickpeas, kneaded with olive oil and honey and served over cool yoghurt with dates and toasted almonds.
Method
- Put the almonds in a small dry frying pan over a medium heat and toast for 3–4 minutes, shaking often: they should smell toasted and be brown in the centre when you break one open. Tip onto the chopping board to cool slightly.
- Put the bsissa and salt in the mixing bowl, add 30 g olive oil (3 tbsp) and rub with your fingertips or the back of a spoon for 30 seconds, until the powder resembles damp sand, with no dry pockets.
- Pour the honey into the almond pan, off the heat, and stir with a spoon for 10 seconds: the residual heat will make it runny. Pour over the sandy bsissa mixture and knead with your fingertips for 1–2 minutes. The paste is ready when a pinch squeezed in your palm holds its shape without crumbling and has a slight oily sheen; if it remains sandy, add the reserved 5 g oil (1 tsp) and knead again. Leave to rest for 2 minutes.
- Meanwhile, roughly chop the cooled almonds with a knife on the board, stone the dates and cut into 1 cm dice.
- Spoon a pot of yoghurt into each serving bowl, leaving it plain to retain its tang alongside the bsissa. Shape half the paste into a quenelle or ball and place on top of each, scatter with dates and almonds, then finish each bowl with a drizzle of uncooked olive oil (2.5 g, half a teaspoon) over the bsissa. Take a little of everything in each spoonful.
On your plate
Recipe
641 kcal · protein 14 g · carbs 76 g · fat 30 g
Quantities per person
- 50 g Bsissa — roasted cereal and chickpea powder
- 20 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 12.5 g Honey
- 0.15 g Fine salt
- 150 g Plain yoghurt, 3% fat (150 g pot)
- 40 g Medjool dates
- 10 g Whole unblanched almonds
Cooking tips
Tunisian variation: stir 2 tbsp bsissa into a glass of lben or sweetened cold milk to make a drink. The paste keeps for 2 days in the fridge, shaped into balls and wrapped in cling film; the powder keeps for months in a dry place. If you cannot find bsissa, make your own by dry-toasting 60 g barley flour (or wheat flour) and 40 g chickpea flour with 1 tsp ground coriander and ½ tsp crushed fennel or anise seeds in a large frying pan over a medium-low heat for 12–15 minutes, stirring constantly, until nut-brown and smelling of toasted biscuits; leave to cool before kneading. If shop-bought powder lacks fragrance, a pinch of crushed fennel or anise in the paste is enough. Approximate nutrition: bsissa is calculated as barley flour (Ciqual).
Tunisian bsissa; the principle of toasted cereals and pulses: https://lesmillesaveursducapbon.com/produit/bsissa-en-poudre-قمح-حمص-شعير/ ; serving with yoghurt inspired by https://maisonsdhotesentunisie.com/notre-bsissa-2/.
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