Middle Eastern Recipes
315 recipes found
Carrot Maqluba
Maqluba is a traditional Palestinian dish made of rice, meat and fried vegetables, most often eggplants (in summer) or cauliflower (in winter), although some like to combine both, and add carrots as well. There are probably as many variations of this dish as there are families. A very popular, easy version is the one made with only carrots. Although maqluba is usually perceived as a time-consuming dish — you typically make broth, fry all the vegetables, assemble in layers and so on — this version uses a boneless, tender cut of meat, ready-made broth and a single pot. The whole dish is quick, and easy enough that you can make it on any weeknight in under an hour.
Zhug
Both deeply herby and searingly spicy, this Yemenite condiment is popular all over the Middle East, where it’s dabbed on just about everything: falafels, shawarma, grilled meats and vegetables. You can adjust the heat to suit your tolerance: Use fewer jalapeños for something more moderate, or the full amount if you like your sauces to pack a punch. This recipe leans into the earthy, bright flavor of cilantro, but using half parsley and half cilantro is equally popular if you want to vary it.
Bulanee Kachalou (Turnovers with ground beef and green pepper)
Puree of Chickpea Soup
Most chickpea soups, whether savory minestrones or spicy North African stews, are rustic and hearty. This one is delicate, a puree that will have a particularly velvety texture if you take the time to strain it after you puree it.
Kofta Keema (Meat sauce)
Khoresh-e Bademjoon (Persian Lamb, Eggplant and Tomato Stew)
Bademjoon, sometimes spelled bademjan, is a quintessential summer dish in Iran, and it was a childhood favorite of mine. Fresh lemon juice and ghooreh, or unripe grapes, lighten the stew and lend a particularly tart punch. (Use fresh or frozen ghooreh if you can find either. You could also use pickled ghooreh, but be sure to rinse them well before using to rid them of excess salt.) Those sharp flavors contrast nicely with the soft, comforting texture of the eggplant and tomatoes, which grow silky as they cook down. This dish is particularly delicious with a piece of crunchy tahdig.
Lebanese-Style Bread Salad With Tomatoes and Herbs
Ripe tomatoes, cool cucumbers and toasted pita bread, or Middle-Eastern bread salad. To be completely authentic, this Lebanese dish that is served in various forms across the region should also contain a sprinkling of reddish powdered sumac, which has a sour, lemony flavor and is available from good spice merchants. Fresh purslane, a slightly sour green succulent plant, is also traditional to the dish. You can sometimes get it at farmers markets, or find it growing wild. (It volunteers itself in most vegetable gardens.) But neither is required.
Baked Rice
This recipe, from the chef Yotam Ottolenghi, is richly spiced and flavorful, a dish that would pair with almost any grilled or roasted meat. Try it sometime with a Sunday roast chicken and a pile of greens, a comforting spread as the weekend slides away.
Bean and Green Herb Stew
This is inspired by a famous Persian stew that is traditionally made with chicken and kidney beans. I came across a vegetarian rendition of the stew in Louisa Shafia’s wonderful new book, “The New Persian Kitchen.” Louisa uses tofu in her stew; I’m just focusing on the beans, herbs and spinach.It’s crucial to cook red kidney beans thoroughly, because they contain a naturally occurring toxin called phytohemagglutinin that causes extreme intestinal distress but is reduced to harmless levels when the beans are boiled for a sufficient amount of time (10 minutes is sufficient, according to the Food and Drug Administration, but of course beans require a lot more cooking than that to soften). You should not cook them in a crockpot because the temperature may not be high enough to destroy the toxin, and you should discard the soaking water.
Spicy Ketchup
Black-Eyed Pea Soup or Stew With Pomegranate and Chard
This is another dish inspired by a recipe in Louisa Shafia’s book “The New Persian Kitchen.” You can use more or less water, depending on whether you want the dish to have the consistency of a soup or a thick stew. It’s hearty, and the most beautiful pink hue.
Baked Lebanese Kibbe
The Middle Eastern way with ground lamb, or beef, for that matter, is in combination with cracked bulgur wheat and onion. There are hundreds of ways to turn this delicious mixture into kibbe, little football-shaped savory treats sold and eaten everywhere and made daily in homes throughout the region. (There are other kinds of kibbe, too, like fish, but that’s another story.) For a less labor-intensive version, kibbe can also be baked like a flat cake. It makes an extraordinarily fragrant meatloaf, adorned with long-cooked caramelized onions and pine nuts, to be eaten hot, warm, cold or reheated.
Fresh Herb and Egg Casserole
Roast Chicken With Lemon and Za’atar
This plump and juicy roast chicken benefits from tenderizing in a yogurt-lemon-garlic marinade for as long as 24 hours, but if you don’t have a lot of time, slathering it with the mixture before sliding it into the oven will still add flavor, and give the spices something to stick to. Za’atar, a Middle Eastern herb-and-spice blend, can still be hard to find in the supermarket, so make your own by combining sumac, sesame seeds, thyme, coriander, oregano and cumin. You can buy sumac, a garnet-colored lemony spice, in Middle Eastern markets or online, but the rest of the ingredients are most likely already on your spice rack, and leaving out one or two of them is perfectly O.K. If you have a premade za’atar blend on hand, you’ll need about 1/2 cup to coat the chicken.
Spiced Lamb and Rice with Walnuts, Mint and Pomegranate
A baked lamb and rice dish I tasted in Istanbul, etli pilav, inspired this one-pot meal, topped with walnuts and fresh mint and pomegranate seeds. Similar pilaf-style rice dishes are made all across the Middle East and into Asia. Kabuli pulao in Afghanistan is acclaimed; the Persian baghali polov ba gusht is justly famous, as is the Lebanese Hashwet al-ruz; and there are myriad fabled biryanis made with lamb (or goat) in India and Pakistan. Pomegranate molasses is available in Middle Eastern groceries or online. It provides a sweet-sour, fruity undertone, but you may omit it and still get good results. Try a squeeze of lime instead.
Basic Tahini Sauce
Use this sauce, which is adapted from the Philadelphia chef Michael Solomonov, as a garnish for roast chicken and lamb. Dress thinly sliced raw kale and toasted pumpkinseeds with tahini sauce for a simple salad. Drizzle it over sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. Or serve with grilled eggplant, zucchini and peppers or roasted carrots and cauliflower.
Fresh Herb Kuku
Kuku is a traditional Persian egg dish similar to a frittata. This version by the Iranian food writer Najmieh Batmanglij was served at the White House at Michelle Obama's Nowruz celebration on April 6. In it, a variety of fresh green herbs are mixed with fragrant spices, chopped walnuts and just enough eggs to bind everything together. Dried barberries, caramelized with grape molasses or sugar, make a pretty and sweet-tart garnish. If you can’t get barberries, substitute dried cranberries. Kuku can be served warm or at room temperature, and can be made a day in advance. Leftovers make excellent sandwiches when stuffed into lavash or pita with yogurt.
Fattoush With Dukkah
Fattoush, the Middle Eastern salad made with stale pita and vegetables, is usually seasoned with za’tar, which can itself be considered a version of a dukkah.
Celebration Cake
This cake, which was developed by the British-Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi, may not look perfect. You may end up with cracked layers, roughly cut edges and a white-chocolate ganache spread willy-nilly. “I think it’s best if it is superrustic,” Ottolenghi said. But it will be elegant anyway, the astonishingly good result of care and time spent in the kitchen for loved ones, and the flavors are terrific.
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem Lamb Shawarma
The British-by-way-of-Jerusalem chef Yotam Ottolenghi cooked this recipe as part of what he called “a Middle Eastern take on a proper English garden party.” He raises high the street-meat ideal of shawarma, resulting in a deeply flavored cut of lamb. The lamb would ideally meet the spice mix the day before it is cooked, so it takes some time, but not much work. The first 11 ingredients, known as Lebanese spice mix, make a versatile mixture that can be used to marinate fish, meat or vegetables.
Baby Spinach Salad With Dates and Almonds
Sumac, a tart, deep-red spice, is a key ingredient for this recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi, which was featured in a Times article about his cookbook with Sami Tamimi, “Jerusalem.” Procuring the spice may be the most challenging thing about this refreshing, well-balanced salad. The pita and almonds are cooked for a few minutes on the stovetop, but that is the only heat required. As for the sumac, it can be found at Middle Eastern groceries, in a well-stocked spice aisle or, as always, online.
Cucumber-and-Mâche Salad
This delicate salad, from the chef Yotam Ottolenghi, is redolent with spring flavors. Do not dress it until just before it reaches the table, and if mâche is not available, try purslane.
Frontiere's Harissa
Roasted Eggplant With Spiced Chickpeas
Eggplant is a staple in the Arab world, the source of the dish called moussaq’a, a classic (and vegan to boot, if you leave off the yogurt). The key to cooking eggplant is to do it with high heat that concentrates the flavor and the flesh.