One day, on a very cold morning (Saudi standards), I wanted something to warm me up. It's been a while since I've been to my hometown. Therefore, I craved my grandmother's Honeini. The thing is, she makes it with lots of love and lots of butter or ghee.. 

Solution? Veganize it. I asked my other grandmother for a recipe, and she briefly gave me instructions that lack details. The housekeeper was sleeping, my mother is out of town and in a different time zone, so I desperately asked the internet. 

And oh the recipes that came up. It was just sad. Nothing resembled the Honeini I'm familiar with. Most recipes included some unique ingredients. I don't mind, but I wanted my grandmother's traditional honeini. Not something that had cornflakes or chocolate in it.

Thankfully, snapchat came to the rescue!! I seriously love my flowers on snapchat. You guys are the best. A couple of people sent me their recipes or asked their mothers for a recipe and sent it to me! How nice!! So I looked at them and made my own version of it with lots of dried lime powder. Yum.

Traditional Saudi Date Porridge

Ingredient

• 1 cup pitted dates
• lavash/saj bread about two big folded squares (see picture) or you can use any whole grain pita bread
• 1/2-1 tbsp dried lime powder
• dash of cinnamon 
• 2 cups oat milk (rice, almond, or water* will work too)
• 1 tsp coconut butter optional

*We can change the ratio of date:bread, depending on how sweet we want it.

Steps

1. Add the pitted dates to a food processor
2. Heat the oat milk in a small saucepan 
3. Start dipping the bread in the milk and then adding it to the food processor
4. When all the ingredients are in the food processor, add the cinnamon and dried lime powder
5. Process until it reaches the consistency you prefer. I like mine a little grainy, some prefer it smooth
6. Heat a saucepan on low heat, add the coconut butter if using
7. Add the date mixture with the remaining milk as needed.
8. Mix everything together very well and then let it warm up slowly covered.
9. Top it with coconut butter, nuts, cinnamon, granola, or lime juice!