Middle Eastern Recipes
307 recipes found
Sambosa Ghousti (Turnovers with ground beef and chickpeas)
Chakkah Yeh Seedor (Yogurt with garlic sauce)
Spinach and Yogurt Dip
A food processor transforms a great Middle Eastern spinach dish into a spread. In the traditional dish the spinach is topped with the garlicky yogurt. Here everything is blended together.
Mark Bittman’s Grilled Eggplant Salad With Yogurt
This dish is a creamy and mild eggplant salad made with a quick dressing of yogurt and seasonings. You can grill the eggplant half an hour before you serve the salad, or a half a day (or longer) ahead; it doesn't matter much at all.
Eprax (Kurdish Stuffed Vegetables and Lamb)
This recipe for eprax, a multilayered casserole of Kurdish-style stuffed vegetables and lamb chops, comes from Parwin Tayyar in Nashville. To make the dish, sometimes called dolmas, Ms. Tayyar prepares a gently spiced lamb and rice filling, and uses it to stuff a mixture of vegetables, such as squash, tomatoes, potatoes and cabbage. Carefully layered in a pot with a little liquid, the vegetables simmer and steam together on the stove until they're tender. Then the whole dish is tipped out into a messy, delicious pile to be eaten with flatbread, pickles, hummus or a cucumber sauce. It may seem like a complex process, but once all the vegetables are prepped and the filling is ready, things go quickly. The dish is flexible, and what Ms. Tayyar provides is a blueprint: You can stuff any vegetables you have on hand, as long as you remember to stuff them loosely.
Middle Eastern Baked Apples
Persian Haroseth (Hallaq)
Tahini Shortbread Cookies
Flavored with sesame seeds and tahini paste, these sophisticated shortbread cookies, adapted from "Soframiz" by Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick, have a pleasing crumbly texture and an intense, almost nutty flavor. Serve them as part of a cookie plate for dessert, or with coffee or tea as a midafternoon snack.
Halvah Souffle
Lamb Chops With Dates, Feta and Tahini
These tender little lamb rib chops have a deep, complex flavor thanks to a marinade imbued with cumin and Aleppo pepper. After a brief soak, they get quickly seared, then served with a garlicky tahini-yogurt sauce and a tangy herb salad filled with feta cheese and sweet dates. It’s a festive, colorful, company-worthy main course that comes together fast.
Date cookies (Menena)
Hand-Rolled Couscous
This couscous recipe comes from Leetal and Ron Arazi, owners of New York Shuk, a food company specializing in Sephardic and Middle Eastern Jewish cuisines. All it takes is some semolina, a little water, a strainer and a steamer. Once you have practiced it a few times to pick up the knack, it is easy, even magical. Not to mention a showstopping addition to the table. “Making couscous is not hard,” said Mr. Arazi, 32. “But it is labor intensive. For Leetal and me, couscous is craftsmanship. We are losing the battle of making it to industrial processed couscous.” He learned to make couscous from his mother, who was born in Mogador, now Essaouira, a town in Morocco once known for its expert couscous makers. “I, the only son in my family, love to preach about it,” he said. “My sisters never made couscous in their life.”
Persian Jeweled Rice
This dish is called jeweled rice because it is golden and glistening, laced with butter and spices and piled with gem-colored fruits. Some of the ingredients called for may require some effort to find, but you can make substitutions. If you cannot get dried barberries (imported from Iran), you will need dried cherries or goji berries or dried cranberries. You will also need some extra-fancy Basmati rice. One goal in making this dish is to achieve the crisp buttery layer on the bottom of the pot. The technique is not difficult, but it takes a little practice. After the rice is rinsed well, it is parboiled for about 5 minutes and drained. The half-cooked rice is layered into a well-buttered pot along with the chopped dried fruits. Over a moderate flame, it is allowed to brown gently before being splashed with a small amount of saffron-infused water. Then the lid goes on the pot and the heat is turned very low so the rice steams gently. With a little luck and experience, the crisp tah dig, or crust, is formed.
Lima Bean Spread With Feta and Za’atar
Frontiere's Grouper With Za'atar and Tomato
Small Fried Meat Patties (Ijeh)
Aushak (Scallion dumplings)
Iranian Herb and Walnut Frittata
This is just one of many versions of a classic Iranian frittata filled with fresh herbs and walnuts. Some versions include dried rose petals, which perfume the frittata. I’ve substituted a drop of rose water, because that is what I had in my pantry.
Turkish-Style Braised Eggplant
Grilled Eggplant With Red Pepper Sauce
Pomegranate-Glazed Lamb Meatballs
Back in 2012, for her Good Appetite column, Melissa Clark took inspiration from the kinds of seasonal cocktails usually found at exclusive bars and restaurants and experimented with them at home. She created a selection of drinks, and let them inspire a group of snacks. Among them was this dish, lamb meatballs with a pomegranate glaze, which paired elegantly with the grenadine of an El Presidente cocktail. But they’re just as nice without the cocktail. Have them alone, as a light snack or part of an evening of tapas, or pair them with some couscous and goat cheese for a larger meal.
Pumpkin and Saffron Jasmine Rice Pilaf
Spaghetti Squash With Eggplant and Sesame Seeds
Maureen Abood’s Eggplant With Lamb, Tomato and Pine Nuts
With its layers of golden eggplant, cinnamon-scented lamb, and sweet tomato sauce topped with melted cheese, this traditional Lebanese dish is made for celebratory meals and gatherings. Even better, it’s just as good served warm or room temperature as it is hot from the oven. It also reheats well, meaning that you can bake it the day before, and reheat it before serving if you like. Pull it out of the refrigerator, let it come to room temperature for an hour, then reheat it covered for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees.