Cooking with the Prophets: Ezekiel’s Lamb Stew & Bread

by Admin · August 16, 2022

The prophet Ezekiel lived from around 622 to 570 BC. He is regarded as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Indeed, Christian art often featured him; he is even depicted in Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel (see illustration above).

He prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and eventually witnessed his prophecies fulfilled, with the destructive siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Like his fellow Jews, he was taken into exile in Babylon, where he would die.

Ezekiel used culinary metaphors to illustrate his prophecies. One was bread, the other was lamb. Indeed, Ezekiel gave handy cooking instructions by way of allegory:

Tell this rebellious people a parable and say to them: “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘Put on the cooking pot; put it on and pour water into it. Put into it the pieces of meat, all the choice pieces — the leg and the shoulder. Fill it with the best of these bones; take the pick of the flock. Pile wood beneath it for the bones; bring it to a boil and cook the bones in it.’ […] So heap on the wood and kindle the fire. Cook the meat well, mixing in the spices; and let the bones be charred.

Read Ezekiel 24:3-12 for the full text, including the metaphor bits omitted above.

The recipe for the lamb stew uses ingredients which a Jerusalemite in the times of Ezekiel could have used. They might have skipped the carrots, because root vegetables were not cultivated but grew wild at the time. And in biblical times, carrots were white or purple, rather than orange (roots of that colour appeared in Europe only in the 15th century). But in absence of white carrots, we’ll use the modern orange ones. Or use parsnips instead.

In our times, we might use a stove to cook this simple recipe, but for a more authentic cooking experience, why not prepare this recipe in a potjie, and then bake the bread on the coals?

The bread recipe also draws from Ezekiel’s allegories, which is the closest we have in the Bible to a recipe (Ezekiel 4:9). Since spelt is not readily available, we omit it. Replace the flours you can’t find with equivalent amounts of similar flours or with durum wheat flour.

Lamb Stew Ingredients:

1kg lamb meat and bones
2 onions, chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic (pressed)
a little olive oil
4 carrots (or parsnips), sliced or cubed
1 leek, sliced
1 celery root, roughly chopped
250g brown lentils (soaked, parboiled or from a tin)
1 tsp cumin
1 sprig sage (or 1 tsp dried sage)
1 sprig thyme (or 1 tsp dried thyme)
salt and pepper to taste
about 8 cups water, or as desired

Preparation:

Brown onions in olive oil, then add garlic.
Add meat and vegetables, and cover with water.
Add herbs, salt and spices.
Bring to a boil, then let simmer until the meat is tender.
Serve with bread.

Ezekiel’s Bread Ingredients:

1 cup durum wheat flour
½ cup barley flour
¼ cup millet flour
¼ cup chickpea flour
½ cup lentil (mathia) flour (finely ground)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pressed apple or grape juice (with skin, for leavening. If you’re not strict on keeping things biblical, feel free to use yeast instead)
¼ cup olive oil
lukewarm water

Preparation:

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Add olive oil and the leavening, and mix, adding water as needed to form the dough.
Knead and let rise in a warm place for 2 hours.
Knead again, and form the dough into flat round loaves, about the size of a pita bread.
Bake on coals, turning once, for about ten minutes until golden brown.

This recipe was published in the July issue of The Southern Cross magazine