Middle Eastern Recipes
315 recipes found
Lentils With Pasta and Caramelized Onions
Bulgur and Lentil Salad
The best lentils for this hearty salad are French green lentils or black beluga lentils. They’re more likely to stay intact while cooking than brown lentils.
Med-Rim Bulgur Salad
Bulgur Salad With Pomegranate Dressing and Toasted Nuts
Todd English's Tuna Tabbouleh
Syrian Walnut Baklava
Marhaf Homsi learned to make this Syrian-style walnut baklava from his family in Hama. The baklava he and his wife, Nawal Wardeh, now bake in Brooklyn and sell at their online store, Syrian Sweet Refuge, is less intensely sweet than the sticky confection familiar to many Americans. Cut into large squares, as is traditional in Hama, where the couple ran a bakery for 30 years, the baklava is lightly soaked in a lemon sugar syrup, rather than honey. Use the best quality walnuts available and chop them by hand; Mr. Homsi finds that walnuts chopped in a food processor get bruised and overly pulverized, creating a powdery texture. Be sure to leave time to defrost frozen phyllo dough, which takes 2 hours to thaw on the counter.
Bulgur and Walnut Kibbeh
These patties make a great destination for fine bulgur. Kibbeh (called kufteh in Persian and köfte in Turkish) are usually made with a mixture of ground meat and bulgur, but there are vegetarian versions as well. This mixture of bulgur and walnuts is pungent with garlic and fragrant with parsley and fresh mint. They make a nice appetizer.
Middle Eastern Chicken And Bulgur
Cucumber and Israeli Couscous Salad
I love this tabbouleh-like mixture because of all the herbs and refreshing flavors, and also because of the nice contrast in textures. Make sure that you cook the couscous until the spheres are tender but not gummy. I have seen package directions that call for too little water; make sure you cook them in twice their volume of water.
Curried Lamb Patties
Yvonne Maffei’s Dates With Cream and Chopped Pistachios
Dates and dairy are ancient staples of the Middle East. This recipe, from Yvonne Maffei, who writes the popular cooking and nutrition blog My Halal Kitchen, combines the two into a luxurious dessert, for Ramadan or other feasts, with very little effort from the cook.
Soused Mackerel With Arabic Spices
Basic Hummus Dip
Since soaking and cooking takes a lot of time, you might want to double this recipe and freeze in small batches with some of the cooking liquid.
Parsley Hummus
I’m convinced that parsley, used so abundantly in the cuisines of Greece, Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa, is one reason those diets are so healthy. In addition to being an excellent source of vitamins A, C and K and a good source of iron and folate, it is rich in volatile oils (which give it its astringent flavor) and flavonoids. The volatile oils contain components that have been shown to inhibit the activity of harmful elements in the body, and studies have attributed antioxidant properties to the flavonoids, particularly luteolin. It’s important to pick the parsley leaves off the stems, because unlike the stems of cilantro, parsley stems are tough and should be discarded. The leaves reduce quite a bit in volume when you chop them, especially if you chop them fine. Two cups of parsley leaves will yield a little over 1/2 cup of finely chopped parsley. This hummus has a pale green hue and herbal overtones.
Spiced, Gingered Hummus
Matzoh Confection
Zucchini Pilaf With Almonds
Herb Omelet Pita Sandwich
There are other options besides fried falafel or spit roasted lamb to fill a pita. A less well-known filling is an herb omelet, called ejjeh in Lebanese cuisine. This version -- made with lots of chopped parsley, dill, mint and cilantro -- mimics the Persian herb omelet called kuku sabzi. It makes a perfect vegetarian sandwich filling, topped with a salad of chickpeas, chopped cucumber and tomato and a refreshing tahini-yogurt sauce.
Scallion Turnovers
Almond Cookies (Massafan)
Roasted Cauliflower With Tahini-Parsley Sauce
This Middle Eastern sauce goes wonderfully with foods other than roasted cauliflower. It’s traditionally served with falafel and keftes, fish, salads, deep-fried vegetables — or just with pita bread.
Butternut Squash Kibbeh With Spiced Feta
Israeli Couscous Salad, Tabbouleh-Style
Wheat-Berry Tabbouleh
Eaten whole, wheat berries have a strong nutty flavor, making them an earthy alternative to rice, couscous and quinoa. They can be soaked overnight so they’ll cook faster and have a lighter, softer texture, but it’s not necessary. A great way to prepare them is in tabbouleh, as a substitute for bulgur wheat. Suddenly, what is often only a small part of a Middle-Eastern mezze platter is elevated to a main dish.