Pitim

Some may call this Israeli couscous, but when I went to Israel this summer, I was told that it is actually called pitim (and they would know best!). It is a small grain that tastes just like pasta, and I love using it to make salads, like the one I made for dinner tonight!

To start, you can buy pitim at most supermarkets. I got mine from Whole Foods, because they sell it in bulk, so not only is it less expensive, but I can buy them and bring them home directly in my mason jar, to save packaging and plastic bags.

To make the pitim salad, I went through my fridge and picked out ingredients that I wanted to mix in. Just because of its name, I am always tempted to use mediterranean-inspired ingredients.

I used onion, tomatoes, pine nuts, lime juice, feta cheese (not pictured), and a drop of EVOO. I think some parsley would have been really nice too for flavor and color, but I didn't have any in my kitchen.

The pitim is super easy to cook - I'm not sure if this was exactly correct (although it did work for me), but I used a 2:1 ratio of water:grain. So for my side portion, I boiled 1/2 cup of water, then added 1/4 cup of pitim, and it was done in under 10 minutes (as soon as the water was all absorbed). Another great thing about bulk grains is that they expand when they cook, so even though 1/4 cup doesn't sound like much, it goes a long way.

Regarding other ingredients - olive oil, feta, and pine nuts are all foods that can be high in fat, but fear not! Using only a small amount of olive oil (like a teaspoon) actually has lots of health benefits, and will keep the salad from being dry. As for the pine nuts, I again only used about a tablespoon of them, and I felt that they still had a strong presence in the salad. For feta, I use Trader Joe's light feta, which has only 40 calories per serving.