One of our favorite things to eat is a full Syrian futoor. It’s called “breakfast,” but it can be eaten any time of the day as a quick and light-but-filling meal. A spread of eggs, vegetables, labne, cheese, and…ahem…bread.

Makdous is a small eggplant stuffed with walnuts and Aleppo red pepper, then stored in olive oil till the eggplant cures and softens. It’s beyond delicious with a perfect combination of flavors – hearty and savory from the eggplant, tart and spicy from the red pepper, a little crunchy and earthy from the walnut, and smooth and fruity from the olive oil. Makdous really says “Syria” to me. There are other foods I love that remind me of the country I love, but the flavors of makdous remind me of happy times eating futoor at Amto Warda’s medda in Damascus. Now, Fatimah keeps us well stocked with her handmade makdous (and I really need to ambush her one day to learn how to make this myself!).

Futoor really seemed lost for our low-carb life because of makdous. Since we went low carb, we missed having all these flavors together. I mean, you can eat eggs with a spoon and dip cucumber slices into the labne, but bread seemed necessary to soak up the flavored oil and deliver the eggplant and filling to your mouth. Until we came up with….the makdous omelet.

I don’t know why this took me so long or why it seems like such a revelation. It’s just makdous cut up into an omelet. But whoa, was my mouth happy the day my brain made this connection! There’s no recipe here, just passing on a few thoughts. With regard to the eggs, I suggest you make a the omelet in a small pan with two eggs per one makdous so you can get a good proportion.

Overall though, this has been a great lesson for me that low-carb does not mean I can’t have the same kinds of foods that I enjoyed before. I’m enjoying bringing the same flavors to a meal without carbs. Here’s to more successful re-dos of our favorites!