Pasta with Yogurt Sauce (Ma’akaroneh Bel laban)

Today I come back with a recipe from the Arabic cuisine, pasta with yogurt , or ma’akroneh be laban. It’s very hearty dish, bursting of flavors and health benefits!

It’s been a while since I posted a recipe from the Arabic cuisine, from my culture. Living in Dubai makes you want to try all cuisines from the worlds. and I’m working to try different cuisines. It’s a city that is rich of entertainment places that you have the opportunity to get a glimpse of the world cultures. But , still, I kind of want to stick to my roots. After covid-19 I didn’t get a chance to visit my home country and that’s made me sad.

What about you? Are you Far from home?

So cooking more traditional food, give us a sense of home. The smell, the taste everything evokes all the emotions and makes us feel closer to home.

Which cuisine do you usually cook ?

Lately, I don’t show up a lot here, on the blog -I’m working on offline job opportunities- Even it’s the thing I love the most , that I created and YOU my readers helped it to keep going. With Instagram, Tiktok and other applications and different tools around, people are not interested as before into knowing other people stories of developing recipes. However, I still believe we do need to do that, we are story tellers, we keep life more enjoyable and less straightforward.

Pasta with Yogurt

This dish is one of my mom’s favorites. She would cook it, if she make spaghettis with red sauce for us, or whenever we would have leftover yogurt. She said that my grandma loves it. I really didn’t understand before why she loves it. I felt like yogurt does not fit with Pasta. However, It’s been on my mind after I saw it on Instagram feed of a talented cook I follow, she is Lebanese, I didn’t know they cook it too. So here, I’m making it today, to feel I’m at sitting at my parents dining table, eating this pasta surrounded by all the warmth and laughter of home.

Here is an interesting article (In Arabic, maybe you can use translate plugin) on the origin of pasta. We in the middle east use lots of dough  (mixed with beans or rice) .. that Is believed to be turned into Italian pasta that we know in the current time.

This dish is from the levant region with very few difference of cooking it between levant countries. Simply, we cook ground meat, and yogurt with sautéed garlic in ghee with cilantro (fresh or dried) then pour it over boiled pasta. Some add red chilies as in Turkish recipe, or simple pine nuts and dried mint.

Yogurt: 

Is very healthy food from the diary group, and one of my favorite food items . I love it cold or hot (cooked). I posted many recipes using yogurt. Whether it’s a smoothie, like this kiwi smoothie  or this hot soup with lentils . Click here for more recipes with yogurt

Let me remind you of some of the health benefits:

• It has good amounts of protein, calcium, zinc and vitamin B12 , and vitamin b2
• It has probiotics that aids your digestion and can be used in prevention and treatment for many gastrointestinal diseases. 
• Yogurt can reduce blood pressure too.

If you made this pasta, I would love to hear your feedback and see your creations! Tag me on Instagram @Nutrizonia or use the #Nutrizonia

Pin it for later here

Yield: 2

Pasta with Yogurt Sauce (Ma'akaroneh Bel laban)

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Print

Ingredients

• 120 g Spaghettis or your favorite pasta shape
• 100 g ground meat, Lamb or beef or both
• 1 small minced onion, you can use any type but not red
• 1 cup yogurt
• 3 cloves of garlic garlic
• 1/2 Tb of ghee, recommended or vegetable oil
• Dried cilantro or ground dried mint
• 1/2 tsp Salt, ground black pepper
• Optional spices:
• 1/4 tsp of each ground red chilies, ground white peppers, cumin, garlic powder
• Optional add on-s:
• 1/2 Tb of pine nuts
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. In a medium pot, In a boiling water, boil the pasta according to the brand instructions you are using.
2. In a medium pan, on a medium heat, add ghee , after 2-3 minutes, add minced onions, and keep it until it becomes translucent in color, then ground meat and spices and you can now pine nuts if you desired.
3. When the meat is no longer ink, cook for for extra 3 minute son low heat, then turn the heat off. Transfer the meat to a bowl
4. Strain the pasta (reserve a quarter of pasta water for later use).
5. Wash the pasta with cold water, and set aside.
6. In a small pot, on a medium heat add yogurt, and the desired spices.
7. Stir the yogurt gently, until it comes to a soft boil and thickens, then turn off the heat.
8. Now add pasta water spoon by spoon, and stir gently, this water has starch and it thickens the sauce naturally and make it adhere to pasta perfectly.
9. In the same pan you cook the meat in, add 1/2 Tb of ghee, sauté the garlic, and add fresh or dried cilantro, and dried mint, until you the garlic is golden in color, and pour over yogurt.
10. Now add meat to the yogurt, then with a ladle pour the yogurt sauce on your pasta in you plate. Grate parmesan cheese on your pasta if desired.
11. Enjoy and keep any leftovers of the yogurt mix in the fridge for 2-3 days only. (Not suitable for freezing)

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

2

Serving Size:

1 grams
Amount Per Serving: Unsaturated Fat: 0g