Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East and North Africa Kindle Edition

My go-to recipe book. Pretty much everything I've tried has worked out and been absolutely delicious! Most of the ingredients are cheap and easy to acquire, too, and the dishes are easy to make. At least 50% of my dinners now come from this cookbook. Strongly recommended for all vegetarians and vegans (many of the vegetarian recipes can be easily converted to vegan), or anyone looking for some delicious, easy-to-make Middle Eastern and North African recipes. I particularly recommend the Chickpea and Macaroni casserole and the Lentil Soup with Spinach, but pretty much anything you pick will be a winner.

My doctor encouraged me to go vegetarian, but I love Arabic food full of meat recipes. Habeeb Salloum combined the history of the foods with recipes that open the range of Arabic vegetarian dishes from North Africa to the Arabian peninsula. The recipes remain very close to the traditional, as least for the dishes I know. I may be able to find enough different foods to be able to attempt to be more of a vegetarian because of this book. I was saddened to learn that the author passed away. He has left a fine legacy with this book.

I bought this book based on all the reviews - but in reading the recipes over, I am a little disappointed. I was hoping to have a book with more (to me) new combinations of spices and ingredients. A lot of what I see in here are salt, pepper, and standard ingredients (peppers, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, canned beans). Which, I suppose, would be very helpful for people who are in a part of the country where you can't find things like rosewater or harissa easily.

Finally a vegetarian book of gold! I went to the Middle-East a couple years ago and the food was absolutely delicious, fresh and mostly vegetarian. This book is spot on with the recipes! I have tried a lot of them and all with success. I have so many bookmarks that it will take me a long time to get through all of them, which I plan to. My family and guests love what I am making.

I am of middle eastern decent and love this book.It is not fancy, not a lot of pictures. It is filled with wonderful and mostly simple to prepare vegetarian recipes that you don’t find in other cookbooks.I also enjoy the comments that are included with many of the recipes. A gem of a classic cookbook!

This is an excellent cookbook. It is full of recipes that are both delicious, economical, relatively simple to make. The ingredients for most of these recipes can be found at any supermarket (I’d only have to order 2 or 3 ingredients online to make every recipe in this book).Before each recipe there is also a lovely bit of prose describing the history of the recipe or its ingredient

Wonderful cookbook. The author is an ambassador of good food and good will from Canadian and Middle Eastern traditions, not only of great food but the joys and lives of the people in a part of the world that gets a lots of bad press. It is a shining light. And the really terrific dishes are nutritious, affordable, and absolutely delicious.

I'm sure most people reading about "vegetarian middle-eastern" cookbooks are good cooks when they have the time and inclination. But I, for one, have grown bored with my own repertoire. Most cookbooks are more fun to read than to actually cook from. Or they have ingredients that, even living in New York City, seem annoyingly inaccessible.This book has lots of very easy recipes that are healthy vegetarian (hardly any animal fat with the exception of yoghurt in cold dishes). I can imagine actually(!) making just about everything, there's even a section on arab desserts -- the easy kind made of farina. This is probably the best cookbook I've ever bought. I think it's useful whatever your level of cooking expertise, but you need to be a fan of the meditterranean diet. We're talking beans, legumes, olive oil, yoghurt, eggplant, a few other vegetables. Recipe details:-- it's true most are simple, but unless you were raised in a middle-eastern family I don't know how you would've thought of these combinations -- even if you're say very familiar with Greek or Italian food, I think this is pretty new stuff.Some "recipes" include: yoghurt ginger appetizer (includes almonds, onions, ginger, tomato);many types of lentil soups from various middle eastern countries (the egyptian one includes butter and cumin, the one from bahrain adds tomato, vermicelli, and ground coriander);fried pepper salad; orange and olive salad; beet salad; stuffed eggplant; and vegetable casserole.Nothing sounds 'exciting' but it is all very accessible and well seasoned. It's like you could turn to this book and make every meal from it -- that is if you like meditterranean food.

Absolutely brilliant! Packed with short, simple, amazing recipes, with a great mix of familiar/exotic ideas to jazz-up even the most jaded palate. Each recipe has a brief introduction, often fascinating in its own right. Basically, this could be described as Ottolenghi for people who are terrified of Ottolenghi ;-))There are no pictures, which is fine, as that leaves all the more space for recipes.As with all cookbooks originating in the US, measurements are in cups etc...a minor inconvenience. Just work out how many of your handfuls equal one cup!Struggling to think of a better vegetarian cookbook TBH... Would make a superb alternative to all those boring "cookbooks" aimed at students and beginners etc... You could live very well and cheaply on this book alone, with minimal skills and washing-up. Six stars.And if you're so inclined, it's very instructive to contrast and compare this "Middle Eastern peasant food" with our "Western mass-produced artificial food"...

this is one of my favourite cookbooks. The only reason I give 4 stars is that I would love some pictures. Whilst I love north african food, I am not too familiar with what things should look like. The recipes are simple and very tasty and many of them I have tried and made time again.

Excellent book and excellent service also. Many thanks.. A.L. Hill

Excellent. Pictures would have been nice, but all of the recipes are doable and delicious!

Bought this as a present for a friend and have enjoyed the benefits of it since!

Loses one star for no pictures

Looks like a lovely, clear book. I bought it for someone else so I can't personally review it.

Nothing special I don't like it