Middle Eastern Vegetarian (Vegan) Main Courses - Persian (Iranian), Lebanese, & Egyptian Dinner Ideas!

Many people know how to make Vegan Lebanese food in Vancouver BC. Most of us can list at least one of our favorite Lebanese food restaurants (JamJar anyone?!!).

I was curious though, if Lebanese food is so conducive to the vegan diet, there must be other Middle Eastern Vegetarian (vegan) main courses that would work as well!

I live near an Iranian Grocery store run by some extremely friendly Iranian men. They were the inspiration behind this week’s meal prep decision! Turns out there are many dishes that are vegan-friendly/adaptable! I chose 2 mains to rotate throughout the week that are Persian. The rest are Lebanese and Egyptian.

To get you up to speed, my husband and I always eat some kind of oatmeal for breakfast and salad for lunch. That said, here are some Middle Eastern vegetarian/vegan main course recipes I recommend for a week’s worth of vegan healthy dinners!

Here is the list of Middle Eastern Vegetarian/Vegan Main Courses:

1. Vegan Ghormeh Sabzi (Persian)

2. Vegan Fesenjen (Persian)

3. Foul-Mudammas (Egyptian)

4. Roast Cauliflower with Tahini Sauce(Lebanese)

5. Zataar Bread (Lebanese)

Persian (Iranian) Vegan Ghormeh Sabzi

Oh. My. Gosh. This is a crazy delicious and healthy Persian recipe!

I used a recipe from Roxanas Kitchen.

The main differences between how I made my Ghormeh Sabzi and the recipe are:

1. I ended up using a bit more broth than the recipe called for.

2. I used fresh lime.

3. I actually bought a frozen package of Ghormeh Sabzi vegetables at my local Persian food store. However, buying the right herbs is not hard at all.

4. To add more cruciferous, high fiber vegetables, I used kale instead of spinach.

5. I left out the mushrooms this round!

Vegan Ghormeh Sabzi Ingredients

• 10 ounces sliced cremini mushrooms

• Grapeseed oil

• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

• 1 yellow onion, minced

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• One 15-ounce can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained

• 2 cups vegetable stock

• 8 ounces spinach, chopped

• 1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

• 1 cup cilantro, chopped

• 1 bunch scallions, chopped

• 2 tablespoons dried fenugreek

• 2 dried  limes, soaked in hot water to cover for 15 minutes

• Juice of half a lemon

Healthy Persian Vegan Fesenjen Recipe

This was quite a delicious Middle Eastern Vegetarian (vegan) main course! It involves pomegranate molasses, walnuts, and lentils. This healthy Persian recipe is extremely filling, you have been warned!

This recipe was created by the Minimalist Baker. I highly recommend checking it out.

I love having this as another option for this Persian feast as it is quite opposite of the vegan ghormeh. It is a sweet, a tiny bit of crunch, and acidic flavorful treat in comparison to the savory smooth ghormeh.

Vegan fesenjan Ingredients

• 1 cup raw walnuts

• 2-4 Tbsp pomegranate molasses (or pomegranate juice // see instructions to make your own)

• 1/4 cup water (or sub 1/2 the amount in olive or avocado oil)

• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped

• 1/4 tsp each sea salt and black pepper (plus more to taste)

• 2 ½ cups vegetable broth (or store-bought)

• 1 cup rinsed uncooked brown or green lentils*

• 1-2 Tbsp maple syrup (or sub coconut sugar // plus more to taste)

• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric (plus more to taste)

• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (plus more to taste)

Roast Lebanese Cauliflower & Tahini Sauce

Healthy Lebanese food has never been so easy! This is an oven roast cauliflower with tahini sauce! For our Middle Eastern vegetarian main courses, we used this as a mid-week Lebanese treat to switch things up. It was so simple to make!

1. Simply cut your cauliflower into medium-small florets. 

2. Bake at 450 for about 30-40 mins, flipping halfway through! 

3. Top with Tahini Sauce!

Roast Vegan Lebanese Cauliflower and Tahini Sauce ingredients

• 3 tbsp. tahini 

•  2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

•  1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

•  1 small garlic clove, micro plane, or pressed

•  1/4 tsp kosher salt

•  Fresh cracked black pepper to taste!

• Add water for texture! Add about 1 tbsp. at a time until you find the right consistency. Think of runny hummus.

• Top with parsley, nutritional yeast, and chives! 

Simple Vegan Egyptian Foul-Mudammas

This is a super easy vegan Arabic dish you can whip up in about 10 minutes if you need a change from your ready-made stew. Our Middle Eastern Vegetarian/ Vegan main course week would not be complete without foul!

Canned fava beans should be at any local grocery store. If not, they will be at a small local Persian, Greek, or Arabic grocery store. I recommend using 2 cans.

Quick How-To:

1. First, you’ll put olive oil in the pot and get it fragrant with some onion and garlic.

2. Then you’ll add your 2 cans of beans

3. Add about a cup or a little more water. You want most of the beans submerged but not all of them.

4. Bring it to a simmer for a couple of minutes.

5. Add a bit more olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon, and even white vinegar to give it some tang.

6. As it cooks/simmers mash the beans until all the water has mostly evaporated.

7. Top with olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon, raw red onion slices, and tomato.

Egyptian Vegan Foul-Mudammas ingredients

• 2 cans of fava beans

• Olive Oil

• 2-3 cloves of minced garlic

• Red onion

• Fresh tomato

• White Vinegar

• Lemons

Vegan Cheesy Lebanese Garlic Zataar Flat Bread

If you are anything like us, pizza is usually ordered to the house once or twice a week. We have a serious addiction!

Here is my version of a healthier Lebanese food to eat instead of pizza.

1. I bought fresh pizza dough from Safeway and let it sit in a bowl for a few hours.

2. I then stretched it out as best I could and topped it with the following.

3. 3 garlic cloves I let it sit in cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil. I added some salt to this mixture and let it sit out for a bit.

4. I then stirred up the mixture and used a brush to heavily coat the oil, garlic, salt mixture all over the dough.

5. I had some wonderful pre-mixed Lebanese Zataar, and I evenly/lightly sprinkled this all over the flatbread.

6. For fun, I added vegan cheese all across the flatbread.

7. My dough said to take about 20 minutes cooking at about 450 F. With my pizza stone, it was ready in about 15 minutes.

This doughy, salty, garlicy bread is quite an incredible treat and a heck of a lot cheaper than ordering in a vegan pizza. Even with the olive oil, it felt far less greasy than any pizza we could have ordered.

I highly recommend playing around with flatbreads if you are someone that also is heavily addicted to delicious pizza. It’s hard to stay on budget when we’re ordering pizza all this time! This ready-made dough only cost $3.00 and I had all the other ingredients.

Vegan Cheesy Garlic Lebanese Zataar Bread Ingredeints

• Vegan Cheese

• Store-bought vegan pizza dough

• Garlic cloves to taste

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Salt

• Zataar spices