Middle Eastern Recipes
319 recipes found
Quinoa Tabouleh
Who would not love a nutritious and deliciously refreshing salad like this? This is my take on classic Tabouleh that I serve with grilled meats as a side dish or have it on its own for a light lunch. It is a great bonus that it can be prepared in advance and kept in the fridge for up to 3-4 days. All you need is quinoa, tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, mint, olive oil, and lemon juice.
Sheveed Polo (Dill Rice)
This dish is a simple way to make use of a whole bunch of dill and transform an ordinary pot of plain rice. Naz Deravian, the author of “Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories” (Flatiron Books, 2018), uses a mix of fresh and dried dill here. The dried dill enhances the fragrance and also draws out the humidity from the fresh dill so the rice doesn’t turn mushy when steaming. This recipe uses a traditional Persian technique for cooking rice in which you boil the rice for several minutes over high heat, wrap the lid in a kitchen towel to catch the condensation, then steam the rice over low heat for several minutes more. Don't worry; it won't be overcooked. It will be fluffy perfection. Serve it with chicken or seafood, like this roasted dill salmon.
Spiced Chickpea Salad With Tahini and Pita Chips
This main-course salad has all the fresh flavors of a great falafel sandwich — tahini, mint, paprika, cucumber, cumin, garlic — plus the crunch of pita and the satisfying heft of chickpeas. The vegetarian cookbook writer Hetty McKinnon created this recipe, and the amount of olive oil she calls for might seem excessive. Don’t hold back: After cooking the chickpeas, the oil becomes part of the garlicky, paprika-warmed dressing for the finished dish. You could make her recipe even easier by using salad greens instead of cooked greens as the base.
A ZHOUGY EGG SALAD WITH TOAST
A yummy twist on egg salad with toast
Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpea Buddha Bowl
An easy weeknight meal that is full of flavor.
Strawberry + Pistachio Tahini Yogurt
This easy, make-ahead pistachio tahini yogurt served with strawberries is the perfect on-the-go breakfast.
Banana Date Shake with Tahini
This recipe is adapted from Kathryn Taylor's (author of Cookie + Kate blog) Tahini Date Shake. It's a favorite in our household - super easy, healthy and even my toddler is a fan! (P.S. Don't tell her it's not dessert)
Fried Tomatoes
Vegan and packed full with vitamin C, Galayet Bandora recipe originates from the Jordanian rural “food basket,” where tomatoes are grown near the Dead Sea.
Heirloom Tomato Gallette
The Middle Eastern spices and added Balsamic and aged Mancheli Cheese really take this simple tomato pastry to another level!
Ma’amoul
Ma’amoul are popular Middle Eastern shortbread cookies flavored with mahlab — a powdered spice made of cherry pits — and orange blossom water. They’re usually stuffed with crushed pistachios, crushed walnuts or date paste and stamped with geometric designs. They are often presented as gifts during high holidays, and are best enjoyed with tea or Turkish coffee. This version, which came to The Times by way of Dalia Mortada in a Sunday Review piece she wrote about Syrian food, is adapted from Rana Jebran, a founder of HoneyDoe, a Syrian catering company in Chicago.
Mast-o-Khiar (Persian-Style Cucumber Dip)
This mast-o khiar is a gorgeous Persian dip recipe you can enjoy with potato chips, crackers, or bread. It is also a lovely side dish for any grilled meat.
Cashew & Date Coffee Creamer
This Coffee Creamer recipe taste luxuriously rich and sweet, but is made from ultra healthy ingredients like cashews and Dates! Easy to make! Enjoy.
Zahav's Hummus Tehina
The secret to a great Zahav's hummus is an obscene amount of tehina, half of the recipe by weight, so it's important to use the best quality you can find.
Baked Halva
The last time I was in Istanbul, my friend took us to this amazing restaurant on the Asian side of the city. We ate mezzes and drank raki, and at the end of the meal we split a huge dish of baked halva. This is my very un-authentic yet delicious version of baked halva. It is also simply made vegan by using plant milk instead of the standard variety.
Homemade Hummus
This is an easy recipe for a homemade hummus. Once you make it you’ll want to do it again, and again, and again.
Tara Duggan's Chard Stalk Hummus
An ingredient you've been throwing away is actually the key to this smooth Swiss Chard Hummus recipe. Serve at room temperature with a nice rustic bread.
Chard Stalk Hummus
Looking for a resourceful way to use up the stalks from your swiss or rainbow chard bounty? The use of chard stalks as a hummus is somewhat common in mediterranean cooking. I came across the idea in Root-to-Stalk Cooking by Tara Duggan. Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of Eastern Mediterranean and Clifford Wright's Mediterranean Vegetables also provide variations, among others. I adapted this dip using my favorite hummus recipe, heavy on the tahini and garlic. I was pleasantly awed by the texture - it perfectly captures the creaminess of hummus, and I'm still rapt in the memory of the garlicky lemon flavor. This dip is pink because I used rainbow chard stalks as that's what I had on hand, but for a beige-colored dip, use swiss chard stalks.
Cashew Hummus
This is a raw cashew hummus recipe that everybody will love. It is great served next to a salad and some falafel, it's the perfect spread on a slice of bread.
Renee Erickson's Sautéed Dates
Though these sautéed dates are a sound match for a bubbly drink (Erickson serves them next to a pile of ricotta), Molly Wizenberg also likes to eat the dates over yogurt for breakfast. You could also pit them first and add them to salad or even scrambled or fried eggs, a comforting Middle Eastern breakfast. But my favorite riff is how my friend Nozlee Samadzadeh served them at a dinner party celebrating the recipes celebrated by Wizenberg on Orangette. Nozlee pitted the dates before sautéing them, then spilled them and their oil over a pool of Greek yogurt that had been thinned with more olive oil. It was a thing of beauty, cool yogurt against warm dates and everywhere good oil and salt, that we were able to sweep up all together with slices of baguette. Adapted slightly from A Boat, A Whale, and A Walrus (Sasquatch Books, 2014).
Kimchi Hummus
This is a great to introduce Kimchi to the unadventurous eater.
Carrot Salad with Feta + Nigella Seeds
This gorgeous middle-eastern inspired carrot salad is an impressive way to use up that half-bag of carrots languishing in the vegetable drawer.
![Chargrilled Artichokes Hummus [vegan]](https://images.food52.com/Evwc4qDMYSo6sT3atm7NLOsf6VU=/1200x1200/a375e35a-7b1f-4649-916c-8f5694b9a8ca--Chargrilled_Artichoke_Hummus_v600.jpg)
Chargrilled Artichokes Hummus [vegan]
A delicious twist on hummus with the addition of Kalamata olives. Great with pitta bread, breadstick etc..
Muhammara / Roasted Bell Pepper and Walnut Dip
Roasted bell pepper and walnut dip -specialty from Middle East
The Best and Smoothest Hummus
The secret to the best hummus? Peel the chickpea skins! Yes, you may have heard this before, but have you tried it?