Jordanian chef Yasmine Nasser stood before her camera, an empty pot overturned in front of her. Ready to reveal its contents to her thousands of Instagram followers, the pot instead held nothing—a powerful symbol of the stark reality in the Gaza Strip.
Based on a report by Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Nasser addressed her followers in the video: “I can’t imagine or accept that in Gaza, people are dying of hunger every day and we are just watching, unable to do anything… But we can do something.”
From that moment, Chef Yasmine began leveraging her culinary expertise to offer Gazans something far more critical than gourmet recipes. With a severe lack of basic staples, no bread, and no yeast, she sought out simple solutions to provide a glimmer of hope for the residents.
Her guides—ranging from water purification methods to two-ingredient bread recipes and natural meat substitutes—have become vital messages of support, reaching the hearts of people in the region via the internet.
Culinary Aid in a Time of Crisis
“My engagement with this type of social content started after the events of October 7th,” Nasser told Reuters. “As the situation in Gaza worsened, I tried to provide simple recipes that could help our people there.”
She noted that at the beginning of the war, she shared instructions on how to purify water, make bread with just two ingredients and no yeast, and even create natural yeast starters after commercial yeast was cut off from the region.
This aid is desperately needed. Earlier this month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitor, stated that nearly 514,000 people—almost a quarter of Gaza’s population—are suffering from starvation, a number expected to rise to 641,000 by the end of September. Israel has rejected these findings, calling them inaccurate and biased.
From Business to Humanitarian Cooking
Nasser, who studied business management and marketing before entering the culinary world and training at a French university, says her ideas come from experience and knowledge of diets, not just research.
“The hardest part was figuring out how to create recipes with extremely limited ingredients that still resembled the foods people know and love,” she added.
The response has been overwhelming. “Thank God, our people in Gaza expressed their happiness and contacted me through social media,” Nasser said. “They even send me lists of ingredients they have, and I, in turn, help them figure out possible recipes. There has also been widespread engagement and sharing of the recipes from outside Gaza.”
Popular Survival Recipes
One of the most-viewed videos on her channel features a recipe for “Wheat Chicken”—a plant-based chicken alternative made from simple ingredients like flour, water, salt, and a few spices.
Nasser hasn’t forgotten Gaza’s children, providing recipes to lift their spirits, such as homemade biscuits made from rice flour, a little oil, water, and salt.
Even for elderly residents missing their coffee, she created a caffeine-free “chickpea coffee” made from roasted chickpeas that, with the addition of cardamom, mimics the flavor of traditional Arabic coffee.
Translated from Al-Sharq Al-Awsat