Why Cucumbers Are A Great Ramadan Snack

Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, nightly prayer, and celebration is expected to wrap up this weekend for America's 3.3 million Muslims. "You can see the diversity of the American Muslim community through the foods we cherish and eat during Ramadan," says Abeer Najjar, a South Side cook behind the web series Abeer's Day Off, produced in collaboration with Revive.

A self-taught cook, Najjar says her mother's humble recipes rooted in Palestine showed her how to share love through food. "My mom would teach herself how to make tacos, or burgers," says Najjar, who named her informal seasonal dinner series Huda's Supper Club after her mother. "There is something so badass about her expanding her kitchen skills just to make us happy."

The food blogger showcases recipes like the shawarma taco ("the slow-cooked meat, tahini sauce, and sumac onions of a shawarma has a love affair with the toasty tortilla, rich crema, and fresh salsa of a taco") and shares mouthwatering slow-motion videos of barbecues from her travels.
 

Najjar sat down to discuss Ramadan foods, her childhood memories, and why the month-long journey has become less about food and more about personal and spiritual growth.

To read more, head over to Chicago magazine.