Mediterranean Recipes
262 recipes found
Celery and Walnut (or Hazelnut) Tzatziki
Tzatziki, the creamy Greek salad made with cucumber, yogurt and lots of garlic is already one of my favorite dishes, and I think I may like this adaptation made with celery even more. The celery never loses its crunch or distinctive flavor. Walnuts and walnut oil add another dimension, which is nutty and crunchy. You could also try something new and use hazelnuts and hazelnut oil. Serve this as part of a mezze spread, as an appetizer or as a salad.
Lamb Stew With Apricots
Grilled Eggplant, Peppers and Onions
The happy mix of eggplant, peppers and onions is found throughout the Mediterranean. Cooking the vegetables over hot coals adds a welcome smokiness, but even a stovetop grill gives a hint of smoky flavor, so don’t fret if you can’t grill outside. This salad is meant to be served at room temperature. Feel free to make it up to 2 hours ahead.
Orecchiette and Summer Vegetables
Polenta or Grits With Beans and Chard
Anson Mills creamy polenta or grits is very inviting for a savory, brothy bean stew with lots of greens stirred in at the end of cooking. I like to use a reddish bean for this – I have used a number of heirloom varieties from Rancho Gordo, but also regular supermarket pintos and red beans. The recipe makes twice as much bean stew as you will need for 4 portions of polenta or grits. So make the polenta (or grits) again the next day and polish them off!
Braised Lamb With Egg and Lemon
For a springtime stew, this classic Mediterranean lamb braise is perfect. Tart with lots of lemon juice and enriched with egg yolks, it’s especially good with succulent young lamb. For optimal flavor, it's best to make the stew the night before. Most gourmet food shops and Italian delis sell fregola, a large couscous-like pasta from Sardinia.
Tomato, Oregano, and Feta Risotto
Risotto With Artichokes And Fava Beans
Risotto With Shrimp And Arugula
Roasted Cauliflower Gratin With Tomatoes and Goat Cheese
Roasting is one of my favorite ways to prepare cauliflower, and I have always loved preparations that pair the vegetable with coriander seeds. I use coriander seeds and cinnamon to season the tomato sauce that I toss with the roasted cauliflower and sautéed red onions, then add a couple of eggs beaten with goat cheese.
Lamb Kebabs With Couscous
Mediterranean Beet and Yogurt Salad
Different versions of this salad are popular from Turkey to North Africa. Red beets are used throughout the Mediterranean, but you could make this pungent salad with any type. If you mix the yogurt into the beets, your salad will be pink. I prefer to spoon it over the top.
Thick Yogurt With Beets, Garlic and Dill
Ana Sortun of Oleana restaurant, in Cambridge, Mass., created a menu based on the traditional cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, especially Turkey and Greece, with many influences of spice and seasoning from the Arab world. She has created surprising but successful dishes like parsnip hummus; this beet-spiked tzatziki (the Mediterranean's traditional cucumber-yogurt-garlic salad), radish salads and rhubarb compotes.
Crisp Lamb With Yogurt and Scallions
Here, a lamb breast cooked into tender excellence in the oven, under a sheet of aluminum foil, its skin rubbed with garlic, rosemary and mint. The result is cooled, its flavors concentrating overnight. To serve, the home cook cuts the meat from the bone, then sears it. The crisp surface of the meat gives way to soft, luscious lamb within, strong-flavored and salty-sweet. Citrus-flecked yogurt only slightly thinned by olive oil provides cool contrast, its creamy brightness melting against the flesh. Wilted scallions add a vegetal note, slightly acid, percussion in a love song.
Stock With Mediterranean Spices
Moroccan Fava Bean and Vegetable Soup
When I am planning a Passover menu I look to the Sephardic traditions of the Mediterranean. The Sephardim were the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula; they had a rich culture and lived in harmony with Christians and Muslims until the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions at the end of the 15th century, when all non-Christians were expelled from Spain and Portugal. The Sephardim were welcomed in Turkey, and many went to Greece, North Africa and the Middle East as well. Throughout the Mediterranean, springtime is the season for spinach and other greens, artichokes and fava beans, and these vegetables make delicious appearances at Passover meals. This dish is inspired by the fresh fava bean soup that Rivka Levy-Mellul, author of “La Cuisine Juive Marocaine,” remembers as the first course of her childhood Seders in Morocco. The authentic dish is a substantial soup made with quite a lot of meat, but I’ve made a vegetarian version. I expected the fava beans to color this soup a pale green, but the other vegetables — the carrots, leeks, turnips and onion — and especially the turmeric contribute just as much, and the color of the soup is more of a burnt orange.
Lima Bean and Porcini Soup
Cold Tomato-Cilantro Soup
This cold soup made with canned tomatoes suggests (but beats out) gazpacho, and has a huge hit of cilantro. Serve it at a summer dinner parties, or simply paired with a grilled cheese. It’s also incredibly refreshing by itself.
Valencian Chickpea and Chard Soup
This is adapted from a recipe in “A Mediterranean Harvest,” by Jon Cohen and Paola Scaravelli. I find the soup delicious with or without the lemon and egg enrichment, so I’m making that optional.
Majorcan Bread and Vegetable Soup
This thick soup is traditionally made with day-old bread, which soaks up much of the broth. Add a poached egg if you want an even more substantial meal.
Pisto
Creamed Spinach With Nutmeg And Golden Raisins
Plum Sorbet or Granita
Use ripe, juicy red plums for this spicy, wine-infused sorbet or granita.