This Catering Company Supports Refugee Chefs By Serving Up Meals From Their Home Countries

09:43

July 02, 2019

Rachana Rimel, left, and Dhuha Jasim package Adas, a lentil dish from Eritrea, in New York. Employees at Eat Offbeat are either refugees or asylum-seekers who fled their home countries. They're cooking foods from those places, including Iraq and Nepal. (Seth Wenig/AP)

New York-based catering company Eat Offbeat (@EatOffbeat) hires refugee chefs to prep and deliver meals from their home county. Here & Now's Lisa Mullins speaks with co-founder Manal Kani and Iranian chef Nasrin Rejali about supporting refugee chefs in New York.

Manal's Hummus Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup dried chickpeas
5 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup tahini
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
Ground cumin for serving
Extra-virgin olive oil, for serving

Instructions

Place the chickpeas into a medium bowl and cover with water. Soak the chickpeas overnight and drain them in the morning.
Place the chickpeas in a large pot and cover them with fresh water. Set the pot over medium-high heat and simmer until the chickpeas are soft, but not yet mushy, at least 30 minutes, then drain them.
Reserve a few cooked chickpeas for garnish, if desired. Place the remaining chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, tahini, salt, yogurt, and cumin in a food processor. Pulse until blended and creamy. If needed, add more salt to taste.
Serve with a dusting of cumin over the top and a drizzle of olive oil.

This segment aired on July 2, 2019.