The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook

This is probably one of the very best books I have ever had. I have bought it for myself, for presents, recommended it. Everybody that likes middle eastern food is impressed with it. The recipes are easy to follow and exact in the tasty result. It is also well written and the photos are beautiful too. Everything in this book is made with excellence and thought. Thank you!!

This is a really nice recipe book packed with recipes that use a variety of vegetables, grains, beans, herbs and spices to suit your tastes. I often find that when I make a recipe it needs tweaking at the end, adding salt, extra salad dressing, or more spices, but nearly every one of these recipes are perfect from the first time I make them, no adjusting necessary! I'm not vegan but I noticed that lots of recipes are vegan and substitutions are suggested when the recipe isn't vegan, which is a nice touch.

I have yet to try out all the recipes but having browsed through most of them, I think this will be a great cookbook UPDATE: Having tried 4-5 of the dip recipes - I am pleased to say that this book lives up to expectation - the Tahini, Hummus, Avocado dip all fabulous and easy to follow. A bonus - they are healthy recipes with little need for too much oil advocated by many other cookbooks I have come across.

Salma Hage notes that Middle-Eastern cuisine is inherently mostly vegetarian - as a result the region's food provides a great opportunity for those of us who want to cut down on meat but not compromise on flavour. Many recipes are traditional, some classic dishes incorporating meat have been adapted to be vegetarian, and there are some 'fusion' recipes which make use of such non-authentic ingredients as avocado, quinoa and cranberries. Overall the spirit remains Middle Eastern. Where recipes are vegan or gluten free this is indicated. Where not, for many of these a footnote gives alternatives as to how it can be made vegan or gluten free. The main division is into drinks, breakfast, dips & mezzes, salads, vegetables, legumes & grains, desserts. Ms Hage has written several pages of introduction putting the dishes into cultural context. There is a glossary of ingredients and a few basic recipes for making your own tahini, labneh, Lebanese 7-spice, za'atar and tomato paste. Most recipes are suitable for, and many perhaps even demand, mezze style eating rather than a single dish making a meal, so good for sharing or else to keep some back in the fridge to eat next day. According to the back cover there are over 140 recipes, more than enough to create almost innumerable mezze combinations in a single meal. Despite the fact that Ms Hage is London-based, like her previous book this is written first and foremost for the American market, so language is Americanese (zucchini, eggplant, scallions, cilantro, fava beans), measurements are given in cups (which is of course different to imperial cups, which although not commonly used anymore could cause confusion) though they are also supplied in pounds/ounces and grams in parentheses, and oven temperatures given first in Farenheit and then by Centigrade and Gas Mark. Quantities made or number of people served are given for each recipe along with preparation and cooking times. One improvement on the earlier book is that the instructions are divided into paragraphs to break down into clearer steps rather than the single block of text in that previous work, Recipes are generally one to a page with a full page colour photograph of the finished dish opposite (or occasionally several mezze type dishes are grouped into a single photograph). If you were wondering about the cover photograph, it is the juices left over from a dish of beetroot and labneh - the back cover shows a photograph of the full plate - odd decision I would have thought, personally I would have put the full dish on the front and empty plate on the back.

Although I've not cooked from this book yet, I have read it from cover to cover and the recipes look fantastic - I can't wait to try them out. Don't be put off by the reviewer who said it was written for an American audience, although it is partly true, there is no confusion over metric/American measurements and the ingredients are named in both UK and Yank terms in every recipe, so there is no need to consult a glossary or ingredients list, or to look at a measurements conversion chart. I certainly didn't find the Americanese detracted from my enjoyment of reading the book, and I can't imagine that it would make life difficult when cooking the recipes. That said, I'm a pretty experienced cook and am au fait with both UK and US terminology. I'll update this review when I've cooked a few dishes, but at a first glance, this is going to be one of my new favourites, and I have a LOT of cookbooks, including lots of Middle Eastern styles such as Claudia Roden and Ottolenghi.

This is a must-have cookbook which is a welcomed addition to our collection of vegetarian cookbooks. There is a bewildering range of recipes that are well presented and easy to follow for even the most unadventurous cooks. The thing we liked most is that the ingredients are very easy to source. A fab buy!

I bought this book as a gift and have been informed that the recipes are lovely. Difficult to review as the recipient of said gift (cooking book) is not going to say it’s rubbish.

I love this book. Tried some receipes and it was very tasty. Some needed modification of amount of ingredients. Eggplant with tomatoes and rice - Easy and very tasty, repeating this dish Msa'aa - this is my another favourite. But 200ml vegetable broth instead 100ml. Used Garam Masala + Cinnamon + Fenugreek when I didn't have Lebanese 7-spice, it worked. These were also very nice dishes, Quinoa stuffed peppers Zucchini quinoa with halloumi Halloumi with Sumac and mint Roasted cauliflower with garlic-tahini dip (the amount of dip is too small for the amount of cauliflower) Lebanese vegan mousaka (too tomato taste, I reduced them a bit) Avocado tahini dip - 1 tsp honey is too sweet Vegetarian koftas

Me gusta la gran calidad de las imágenes, las explicaciones y la creatividad para adaptar los platos. Como contra a veces es difícil encontrar todos los ingredientes.

Baba ganoush without smoked eggplants, why?! But... a lot of versatile and easy recipes. So far, do not cooked any...

This is the best Middle Eastern cookbook I have.

I have an embarrassingly large collection of cookbooks and never review them. The fact that I felt it necessary to say how amazing this book is should speak volumes. I'm a vegetarian, so was happy to see a possible new cookbook that I could use without making a lot of substitutions. But vegetarian or not, this is a cookbook for anyone who enjoys middle eastern food. It's not a cookbook with fake meat substitutes, it's a cookbook of authentic recipes that simply use real food... beans, veg, grains, seeds, etc. I have made 7 recipes, all of which turned out amazing. The flavour was spot on, I couldn't stop eating the food, and surprisingly, I think the end result is pretty close to what the author intended. I can't say enough about this book. If you are looking at it, buy it.

Très bon livre, recettes très sympas et pas trop compliquées.