Falafel in health-food stores. While often used to make veggie burgers, it has become more widely used as a source of protein. In the United States, falafel's versatility has allowed for the reformulating of recipes for meatloaf, sloppy joes and spaghetti and meatballs into vegetarian dishes. Falafel is made from fava beans or chickpeas. The use of chickpeas is predominant in most Middle Eastern countries, such as Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. This version is the most popular in the West. In Egypt, fava beans, chickpeas, or often a combination of the two may be used. When chickpeas are used,
Israeli cuisine Shakshuka, a North-African (Tunisian) dish of eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce, is a national favorite, especially in the winter. It is traditionally served up in a cast iron pan with bread to mop up the sauce. Some variations of the dish are cooked with liberal use of ingredients such as eggplant, chili peppers, hot paprika, spinach, feta cheese or safed cheese. Omelette is seasoned with onions, herbs such as dill seeds (Shamir), spinach, parsley, mint, coriander and mallow with spices such as turmeric, cumin, sumac, cinnamon and cloves and with cheese such as Safed cheese and Feta cheese