Duck Egg Narjissiya

Made with fava beans, asparagus, fresh broad beans and halloumi cheese, this Duck Egg Najissiya is my delicious adaptation of an ancient Arabic recipe. It's great for brunch or even dinner.

To quote TasteCooking, whence came my introduction to this recipe, “Narjissiyeh literally means “like narcissus” and refers to a class of dishes made with sunny-side up eggs and fava (broad) beans described in the tenth-century cookbook Kitab al-Tabikh. It is believed the name was given to the dish because of its vibrant green, white, and yellow colors, just like the narcissus (daffodil) flower.” 

Kitab al-Tabikh or Kitab al-Ṭabīḫ (Arabic: كتاب الطبيخ, The Book of Dishes) is the name given to three medieval Arabic language cookbooks. The oldest one, written in the 10th century, is credited to Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq, an Iraqi author from Baghdad. According to Wikipedia, “This is the earliest known Arabic cookbook. It contains over 600 recipes, divided into 132 chapters.” There are several translations available.

In case you were wondering, like I was, the very earliest written recipes we are aware of can be found in the Yale Babylonian Collection. Previously thought to contain pharmaceutical formulas, they were decoded by French Assyriologist and gourmet chef Jean Bottero. The three Akkadian tablets, dating to about 1700 BC, revealed, Bottero wrote in a description of his find, “a cuisine of striking richness, refinement, sophistication and artistry, which is surprising from such an early period. Previously we would not have dared to think a cuisine 4,000 years old was so advanced.” Source: The LA Times archive, 1985.

Now that we’ve had our little history lesson, let me tell you that we loved this dish! Some versions have ground meat but I chose to go vegetarian and upped the number of vegetables. If you've never eaten halloumi, it's salty and so good, especially when fried till golden! 

Duck Egg Narjissiya 

I happened to have duck eggs on hand but you can, of course, make this with regular hen’s eggs. Use whatever combination of green spring vegetables you love. Fava beans are traditional but asparagus, green beans, garden peas, young broad beans or even baby spinach will work. This recipe is adapted from one in New York Times Cooking.  It serves two generously for brunch or dinner!

Ingredients

1 cup or 150g fresh or frozen fava beans (I used frozen)

~1 tablespoon olive oil

5 1/3 oz or 150g halloumi

3 oz or 85g fresh asparagus, trimmed

4-5 young broad beans (~ 25g)

3 cloves garlic

2 duck eggs 

Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Toasted bread, for serving

Method

Drop your fava beans in boiling water and then simmer them for 3-4 minutes. Refresh them in cold water. Pinch the skins off and discard, revealing the lovely green color inside.

Trim the young broad beans and cut them into diagonal pieces. 

Cut the asparagus into diagonal pieces and finely slice the garlic then chop it a little. 

In nonstick frying pan, heat a good drizzle of olive oil over medium flame. Add the slices of halloumi in a single layer. Do not move them around or flip them over until the side down has browned, about 2 minutes. 

Turn them over and cook for another minute until the other side is browned. Transfer to a small plate and set aside.

To the same pan, drizzle in the rest of the olive oil, again over a medium flame. Add the asparagus and young broad beans. Cook, tossing around, just until bright green and glossy, about 2 minutes. 

Sprinkle with fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. 

Add fava beans and garlic and continue to cook for another minute or so stirring often. 

Crack the eggs one at a time into a small bowl, then add them to the green vegetables in the pan.

With the tip of the spoon, spread the whites around slightly to ensure they cook evenly. 

Return the browned halloumi slices to the pan, dispersing it evenly over the whites and greens.

Cook until the egg yolks are at your desired level of doneness. We like ours really runny! 

Remove from the heat and serve hot with toast for dipping.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the 14th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2026, brought to you by the letter N. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the N recipes below:

• Beef Stew with Noodles from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Chicken Caprese Noodle Salad from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Duck Egg Narjissiya from Food Lust People Love 
• Grilled Nashville Hot Chicken Tenders from Blogghetti
• Millet Noodle Chowmein from Sizzling Tastebuds
• Naturally Fermented Appam Using Homemade Toddy from Sneha’s Recipe
• Navratan Korma from Mayuri’s Jikoni 
• Nectarine Caprese Salad from Jolene’s Recipe Journal 
• Nutella Oatmeal Cookies from A Messy Kitchen 
• Nutella Rolls from Magical Ingredients 
• Smoky Southwestern Seasoning (No-Salt)  from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice

Here are my posts for the 2026 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew

B: Baby Cos Peach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing 

C. Traditional Cullen Skink 

D. Coconut Cream Date Caramel 

E. Edamame Summer Salad 

F. Lamb Feta Mint Patties 

G. Ricotta Gnocchi à la Poêle 

H. Hazelnut Vodka 

I. Italian Sausage Stuffed Mini Peppers - this post!

J. Jägersuppe - Hunter's Soup 

K. Easy Chicken Kapama 

L. Easy Lamb Shoulder Roast 

M. Miso Chocolate Cookies 

N. Duck Egg Narjissiya - this post!

To check out the Alphabet Challenges for 2024 and 2025, click here.

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Chocolate Coconut Flour Cookies

These delicious chocolate coconut flour cookies are naturally gluten free but they are also made with Swerve, making them diabetic friendly, low carb and relatively low calorie as well. You won't miss any of those things! 

One of my dearest and oldest friends is on weight loss journey for her health. She is doing amazingly well and we are all so proud of her for the lifestyle changes she’s made and her perseverance in pursuit of better health. A while back, she and her husband were going to be in town for doctors’ visits so I invited them to stop by after for tea before they had to drive the couple of hours back home. 

I made some savory snacks and baked these cookies as our sweet treat. She liked them so much that I happily wrapped up the leftovers for her to take home. I call that a win! 

Chocolate Coconut Flour Cookies

This recipe is adapted from one on today’s Sunday FunDay host’s blog, Cook with Renu. Her original recipe uses honey instead of my Swerve. If you are looking for lovely healthy recipes, many with alternative gluten free flours and little refined sugar, go have a browse! 

Ingredients for 12-15 cookies

⅓ cup or 28g coconut flour

¼ cup or 30g unsweetened cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

⅛ teaspoon or a generous pinch fine sea salt

2 eggs

¼ cup or 50g brown Swerve

1 tablespoon water

⅓ cup or 75g coconut oil - melted and at room temperature – or vegetable oil

½ cup or 90g 63% cacao extra dark chocolate chips

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and line a baking pan with baking parchment or a silicone liner. I actually used two pans because all my cookies didn’t quite fit on mine, which only holds 12. That said, my cookie scoop was small. You could probably make 12!

In a large mixing bowl sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

In another bowl whisk the eggs, along with the Swerve, water and melted oil.

Toss the chocolate chips into the dry ingredients and stir to coat. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine until well incorporated.

Leave the mixture to rest for five minutes so the coconut flour can absorb the liquid.

Use a cookie scoop or a spoon and put dollops of the dough on your prepared baking pan/s. 

Bake in your preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until the cookies are firm on the top yet give a little if you poke them gently. They will firm up more as they cool. Like with all dark chocolate cookies, you can’t use color to see if they are cooked! 

Cool the cookies on a wire rack. Once cooled, store them in an airtight container, if they don’t get eaten right away! 

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes made with coconut flour. Many thanks to our host, Renu of Cooking with Renu. Check out the links below.

• Chocolate Coconut Flour Cookies - Diabetic Friendly from Food Lust People Love
• Coconut Crusted Chicken from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Coconut Shortbread Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Gluten Free Chocolate Banana Coconut Flour Cake  from Cook with Renu
• Gluten Free Coffee Cake from A Messy Kitchen
• Keto Flaxseed & Coconut Flour Flatbread Sneha's Recipe

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join. 

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Maritime Hodge Podge - Creamy Summer Vegetables

Maritime Hodge Podge is a wonderfully rich dish from Eastern Canada, made with a variety of fresh summer vegetables, butter, and, of course, cream. And every family seems to have their own combination!

It was fun to delve into recipes for a dish I had never heard of prior to starting my search for Canadian recipes for this week’s Sunday FunDay post celebrating Canada Day. Hodge Podge caught my eye because: Fun name. But it took me down a rabbit hole with many tunnels, right, left and deeper. 

Side dish or main course? Add bacon or should it be strictly vegetarian? Sweet peas or sugar snap peas? Green beans, wax beans, cauliflower??? Little liquid (some called theirs a stew!) or enough to make it actual soup? So many questions came up and I found just about as many answers while researching this lovely dish that originated in an area of Eastern Canada called the Maritime, which is a collective term for the three small, neighboring provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.

It's cooked in early summer when the vegetables are new and young with, apparently, whatever you have available to you locally. Lore says families don't actually follow specific recipes because the produce they might have varies. That said, I found a plethora of recipes shared online because Canadians are generous that way!

Sharp-eyed readers may notice that I wasn’t cooking this in my usual kitchen because we were on a week’s holiday on the west coast of Brittany at an Airbnb. The markets were fabulous and we were spoiled for choice in the fresh produce selection. I was delighted to find the yellow wax beans – haricots jaunes! They were in the ingredient list of quite a few of the recipes I found online for hodge podge and I hadn’t seen them at home. Score! I did bring the baby new potatoes with me so they are Jersey Royals. 

Maritime Hodge Podge – Creamy Summer Vegetables

As mentioned above, recipes had various combinations of vegetables so use what’s fresh, young and tender where you live. This is a dish where the vegetables should be the stars. Most recipes tended to have more potatoes and carrots than the other veg but I’m also leaving those amounts up to you. I’ll put my weights below, just as a guide. In the traditional spirit, I used what I had! 

Ingredients (Vegetable amounts are super flexible, see above!)

3 ½ oz or 100g smoked thick cut bacon, cut into pieces 

1 medium onion (6oz or 170g)

2 teaspoons fine sea salt

Baby new potatoes (6oz or 170g)

Cauliflower florets (4oz or 113g)

Young carrots (6oz or 170g)

Fresh wax beans (3oz or 100g)

Fresh peas or use either snow peas or young broad beans (6oz or 170g)

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2 tablespoons flour

½ cup or 120ml whipping or thick cream

Fine sea salt and fresh ground pepper – to taste

Method

Scrub your vegetables or peel as needed. Peel and chop the onion.

Cut the young carrots in halves or thirds. Trim the wax beans and, if using snow peas or broad beans, remove the string and cut into smaller pieces, diagonally. 

For the young broad beans, I use my sharp potato peeler to trim off the sides.

Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat until golden brown, about 10 minutes. 

Remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the bacon fat behind. If you end up with a lot of fat, you can take a tablespoon or so out and discard. Drain the bacon on a paper towel-lined plate. 

Reheat the skillet on medium heat and stir in the chopped onion. Cook until the onion has softened. Set aside.

In a large pot, bring 3 or 4 cups of water to a boil with the 2 teaspoons of salt.  Add in the potatoes and carrots. 

Boil for 3-4 minutes, then add in the cauliflower.

Boil for 3 minutes, then add in the peas, snow peas or broad beans. 

Continue boiling until the potatoes are cooked through. 

Meanwhile, mix the butter and flour together thoroughly to form a paste French chefs call beurre manié. I put the butter in the bowl first, then add the flour, using a spoon to press it into a paste. A beurre manié is ideal for thickening a sauce when you don’t want to risk lumps by adding in flour alone. 

Drain off all but 1 cup or 240ml of the water, leaving the vegetables behind in the pot. I find the easiest way to judge this is to drain all the water, catching the amount I need in a measuring cup. 

Add half of your water back into the pot in the middle of the vegetables. Add the beurre manié to the pot and stir gently to mix it with the water. 

Once the butter is melted, give the whole thing another gentle stir. 

Add in the cooked onions and pour in the cream and stir gently.

Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes. If it looks a little dry, add more of your reserved vegetable boiling water. That’s why we saved a whole cup!

Add in most of the bacon, setting a small handful aside for garnish. 

Add some salt, if you’d like, and a few generous grinds of black pepper. Stir gently.

I served this as a side dish so, as you can see, it came to the table in a serving bowl with the reserved bacon on top. 

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes ahead of Canada Day, which falls on July 1st, the anniversary of the Constitution Act of 1867, which created the self-governing nation originally called the Dominion of Canada. Kudos to our northern neighbors and I hope you enjoy some of their regional recipes! Many thanks to our co-hosts, Mayuri of Mayuri's Jikoni and Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures. Check out the links below. 

• Canadian Butter Tarts by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Cherry Chip Cake by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Maple Banana Muffins by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Maritime Hodge Podge - Creamy Summer Vegetables by Food Lust People Love
• Nanaimo City's Namesake Bars by A Messy Kitchen
• Pouding Chômeur by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Pumpkin Pie with Homemade Pie Crust by Sneha's Recipe
• Quick and Easy Poutine by A Day in the Life on the Farm

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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