Middle Eastern Recipes
314 recipes found
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Chermoula Eggplant With Bulgur and Yogurt
A mixture of herbs and spices used in North African cooking, chermoula is often used to season fish. In this recipe from "Jerusalem," the famed Middle Eastern cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi, it is rubbed over eggplant, which is then roasted and topped with a tabbouleh-like salad.
Grilled Asparagus With Caper Salsa
Caprino fresco is a soft, tangy Italian goat cheese, and here, it lends a deep creaminess to a caper salsa that is draped over grilled asparagus. The recipe, from the chef Yotam Ottolenghi, is quickly prepared. Bread may be needed to sop up the rest of the salsa. (If caprino fresco isn’t available, try another soft goat cheese, like chèvre.)
Rqaq w Adas (Lentils With Pasta)
In Arabic, adas are lentils, and rqaq is a flatbread as thin and nearly as sheer as paper. The two come together in this stew, which was traditionally a way to use dough left over from baking bread, as the Palestinian artist and chef Mirna Bamieh explains. The lentils are simmered with cumin, bringing its stealthy warmth, along with bronzed onions, tamarind and sweet-sour pomegranate molasses. Meanwhile, scraps of dough are rolled out, then up into cylinders and slashed into long, skinny strands that look like tagliatelle. But you don’t have to wait for baking day: Instead, just knead together the quick dough below or swap in dried pasta. The noodles are dropped right in the pot, to cook among the lentils, leaching starch and making the stew even richer.
Ash Reshteh (Persian Greens, Bean and Noodle Soup)
Ash reshteh’s flavor is defined by two uniquely Persian ingredients: reshteh and kashk. The soup, served during the festivities leading up to Nowruz, the Persian New Year, wouldn’t be the same without the soup noodles called reshteh, which are saltier and starchier than Italian noodles — though you could substitute linguine in a pinch. Kashk, a form of drained yogurt or whey, is saltier and more sour than Greek yogurt or sour cream. More like feta than yogurt, liquid kashk gives ash its distinct, satisfying flavor. If you can’t find liquid kashk, buy it powdered and hydrate it with warm water to the consistency of sour cream. Look for both items at a Middle Eastern grocery.
Crunchy Roasted Za’atar Chickpeas
Za’atar, a Middle Eastern spice mix made from dried thyme, sumac, and sesame seeds, gives these roasted chickpeas a fragrant, herbal, tangy bite. Unlike other similar recipes, the chickpeas are roasted without any oil, which is added after they come out of the oven. This allows the peas to crisp up without turning greasy. Do make sure to dry them out for an hour as directed, which adds to their crunchy texture. It’s hard to stop eating these once you start, so if you’re serving these to a group, consider making a double batch.
Baked Rice With Slow-Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic
Baking rice on a bed of tender vegetables has to be one of the most fail-safe ways to prepare it. Here tangy-sweet tomatoes, garlic and shallots are slowly roasted in olive oil with cinnamon and thyme, then baked with basmati rice until everything is fragrant and soft. Adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook, “Ottolenghi Simple,” it makes a spectacular side dish to pan-seared meats or fish, or can be the heart of a vegetarian meal with some crumbled feta and pine nuts sprinkled on top for serving.
Sabzi Polo (Herbed Rice With Tahdig)
Cooked in two stages, this herbed rice, or sabzi polo, is a constant at the Persian New Year table, where everyone fights over the crust of crisp rice called tahdig. You can use a food processor to chop the herbs if you like. It's key to do the herbs in batches (don't overfill the bowl of the processor), to pulse rather than run and to stop and scrape a few times for even chopping. Work until the pieces are nice and small, about an eighth of an inch or the size of a small sunflower seed, but not so far that they begin to break down and form a paste.
Grilled Lebanese Flatbread
This recipe is a flatbread that’s somewhere between a Middle Eastern-style pita and an Indian naan. Like most leavened breads, this one consists primarily of flour, water and yeast. And, like any leavened bread, it requires some rising, though no more than an hour.
Roast Shoulder of Lamb With Couscous-and-Date Stuffing
Baghali Ghatogh (Fava Bean Stew)
A popular and beloved stew from northern Iran, baghali ghatogh is an ambassador of early spring produce. Earthy, bright-green fava beans, fragrant dill and an assertive amount of garlic are combined with eggs for a comforting meal. Although shelling and peeling fresh favas is a rite of passage (see Tip), it’s a time-consuming task, given the amount needed here (but if you have the time, go for it!). Frozen fava beans are a worthy substitute, but if they aren't available, you can use canned butter beans or frozen lima beans. Just enough eggs are used to give the stew some heft, but they shouldn’t overwhelm the vibrant flavors of this verdant stew. The eggs can be incorporated two ways: cracked in and poached, or stirred in to break apart. Baghali ghatogh is typically served over rice with a side of smoked fish and pickled garlic, or with bread.
Couscous With Tomatoes, Kale and Chickpeas
The topping for this couscous isn’t too much more complicated than making a tomato sauce with blanched kale and chickpeas added. Reconstitute the couscous, then start the topping. By the time the topping is done the couscous will be ready to steam in the microwave.
Hummus from ‘Jerusalem’
There’s a lot of unattended prep time in this recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi for hummus, which was featured in The Times in 2013. The unusual yet helpful addition of baking soda speeds the process. Cooking the chickpeas with baking soda softens them, allowing for less time on the stove as well as a smoother, creamier finished product. (If you find that your hummus is too stiff, loosen it with a little water.) A plate of this hummus served with fresh pita, chopped olives and pine nuts makes for a perfect lunch.
Abgoosht (Persian Lamb and Chickpea Stew)
Iran’s most beloved and ubiquitous peasant dish, abgoosht (or “meat water”) is made with inexpensive, bony cuts of meat, which take a back seat to the broth and the sheer ceremony involved in serving it all. Once the stew is cooked, it is divided into two parts: The meat, potatoes and beans are pulled from the stock and mashed into a meat paste, goosht kubideh. Simple to prepare, the dish turns into an occasion for a gathering, as the broth and meat paste are served with piles of warm flatbread, pickles and fresh herbs, palate cleansers that offset the richness of the dish.
Ashure Cereal
According to legend, when his Ark made landfall, Noah’s family threw whatever was left in the larder into a pot and transformed it into ashure, a celebratory pudding of grains, nuts, seeds and dried fruits. The cereal is eaten throughout the Middle East, but especially in Turkey, where the dish somehow transcends typical religious tensions and holds significance for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. But according to Sarit Packer, co-chef of London’s Honey & Co. restaurant, “It’s actually quite disgusting.” Ashure is essentially a porridge, so when it cools down, it gets stiff and gloopy, like cold oatmeal. Guided by her memory of the sugary, crisp grain cereals she tasted when she first visited the United States as a child, Ms. Packer tweaked the recipe. She made a honey syrup spiked with all of the classic ashure flavorings, including cinnamon, cardamom and a spice called mahaleb (available at your local Middle Eastern grocery store or online). She drizzled the syrup over a mixture of puffed wheat, nuts and seeds, and baked the whole thing into a gloriously crisp mass. Her version looks like cross between granola and Cracker Jack, with dark, shiny brown clusters of puffed wheat, almonds, pecans and seeds. It’s somehow simultaneously light and rich, sweet and savory, crisp and full of air. Serve it as Ms. Packer does, over yogurt with fresh berries or pomegranate seeds, eat it as her parents do, drowned in a bowl of milk, or just sneak some out of the bag anytime you want a crunchy snack.
Spiced Turkey Skewers With Cumin-Lime Yogurt
This recipe is a twist on the kebabs, kofte and grilled meats that are staples of Middle Eastern cuisines. Sumac powder, which is made from dried, ground sumac berries, is sprinkled on the kebabs to add a tart, lemony brightness to them, but if you don’t have sumac, you can leave it out. Eat the skewers with a knife and fork, or, better yet, make little pita sandwiches with all of the fixings — the crunch of the cucumbers, cooling yogurt and the refreshing bite of mint are essential to balancing the dish. If you have trouble finding Persian cucumbers, use English cucumbers instead.
Warak Dawali (Stuffed Grape Leaves)
Stuffed grape leaves are so prevalent across the Arab world and the Mediterranean that it can seem like there are as many variations as there are families. This recipe is for traditional Levantine versions existing in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, which generally have a warmly spiced beef and rice filling, are rich from being cooked with either meat at the bottom of the pot or chicken broth, and involve stuffed grape leaves that are rolled fairly thin and long. It’s a hallmark of any celebratory or holiday table, and perfect served with a side of plain yogurt. Though they are time-consuming, warak dawali are a very fun project to embark on with family or friends, and leftovers store wonderfully, up to 3 days in the fridge or a couple of months in the freezer.
Meatballs in Sour Cherry Sauce (Kabab Karaz)
The writer Anissa Helou put this bright and tart Syrian dish on the cover of her cookbook "Feast: Food of the Islamic World," which gathers recipes from across the Muslim diaspora. "If there is a dish that symbolizes the cooking of Aleppo, this has to be it," she writes inside; the recipe is adapted from Maria Gaspard-Samra, a chef who taught cooking classes in Aleppo. These small lamb meatballs are browned — take care not to overcook them — and then simmered in a pool of pitted sour cherries, raw cane sugar and pomegranate molasses. Then they are piled on a bed of pita bread triangles drizzled with butter and dusted with chopped parsley and toasted pine nuts. If you can’t find fresh or frozen sour cherries, use dried, which you can rehydrate by soaking overnight in water.
Jerusalem Grill
This recipe for griddled chicken thighs with chicken livers and hearts comes from Mike Solomonov and Steven Cook, the Philadelphia restaurateurs whose cookbook, “Israeli Soul,” is an invaluable guide to making Israel’s most beloved street foods and restaurant dishes at home. But you don't need to make it with the livers and hearts. “I like a little funk in there,” Solomonov told me, “but I get it if you don’t like that, if it freaks you out.” So omit the offal if you want. “The dish is as much about the spicing, anyway,” Solomonov said. Serve the meat mounded onto a drift of hummus, as you might spoon a thick ragù on top of polenta, or alone beside a salad. Solomonov likes it as a sandwich. “Eat mixed grill in a pita,” he said. “Eat it with some onion and tehina and a pickle, and it’s so satisfying. It’s a taste of Jerusalem at the end of the night.”
Easy Baklava
Einat Admony, the chef at Balaboosta, Taïm and Bar Bolonat, came up with a simplified version of baklava that was featured in “Food52 Genius Desserts: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Bake.” Instead of stacking individual layers of phyllo dough, Ms. Admony calls for rolling up the nut filling in the phyllo and slicing it into discs as you would cinnamon rolls, then baking and drizzling the slices with syrup. Like traditional baklava, they are shatteringly crisp, gooey and sweet in all the right places, but much less work. Her original recipe calls for raw peanuts, but roasted work just fine.
Middle Eastern Meat Loaf
Spicy Chickpeas With Ginger
This recipe, adapted from Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone," takes dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, and pairs them with a sauce built on the robust, aromatic flavors of grated ginger, ground coriander, cumin and cardamom. It's an easy, Middle Eastern-tinged weeknight meal. As the chickpeas cook, prepare the sauce, and top with diced tomato, onion, jalapeño for added bite.
Khoresh-e Fesenjoon (Persian Chicken Stew With Pomegranate and Walnuts)
Fesenjoon hails from the verdant northern Iranian hills and coast, where pomegranate and walnut trees grow. Taking its flavor cues from the land, this stew braises bone-in chicken thighs in a blend of toasted walnuts, pomegranate juice and pomegranate molasses. As the sauce cooks, it thickens and deepens to a shade of dark brown similar to that of mole poblano. You’ll need to thin it out with water to prevent it from becoming overly sticky and syrupy. The sweet and sour flavors of the pomegranate, along with the silky texture the walnuts bring to the stew, make it one of the most elegant dishes in Persian cuisine.
Dukkah
Baghali Polo
Home to one of the world’s largest Armenian populations outside Armenia, Burbank, Calif., is also home to Adana, where the chef Edward Khechemyan serves food that reflects his Armenian-American upbringing and his Iranian father, and is tinged with Russian influence. This Iranian dish, adapted from Mr. Khechemyan, is a combination of basmati rice, garlic powder, fava or lima beans and fresh dill. It's easy to make and pairs well with kebabs.