Vegan Recipes from the Middle East

I hesitate to give this a full review, as I didn't get a chance to cook through many of the recipes. But here are my thoughts, for what it's worth.It's great to see another offering in the vegan (strictly vegetarian) cookbook space. Of the many cuisines of the world, very few have been written about through the lens of vegan cooking. Many thanks to the author for sharing this cuisine with the world. This book is beautifully designed, with a simple layout and many full-color photos & beautiful illustrations. When I'm exploring a new or unfamiliar cuisine, this is exactly the type of cookbook I look to for inspiration.I know it may seem like semantics, but when I think of the Middle East I think of the Levant, Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula, and even parts of Mediterranean North Africa. Each of these regions really deserve their own treatment. And indeed, as authors like Barbara Abdeni Massad have shown with books like  Man'oushe: Inside the Lebanese Street Corner Bakery  and her upcoming book Mouneh: Preserving Foods for the Lebanese Pantry, entire books can be filled with one country's pickles! Perhaps that's the trouble with any book representing such a wide and diverse swath of the globe. It's hard to do justice to the cuisine when you have only a scant 200 pages.This book, however, focuses heavily on cuisines of Persia and the South Caucuses. I understand the author is from Iran, and now makes her home in Germany. So it's only natural that this region is highlighted most prominently. And perhaps that will be a pleasant surprise to some readers! But to me it was unexpected for a book entitled Vegan Recipes from the Middle East.The book is divided into chapters based on country (Iran, Armenia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey), with just a few recipes for each. I really wish the publisher had included a "Look inside" feature on Amazon, as the table of contents and index would elucidate a great deal of what this book has to offer.For anyone looking for a more comprehensive approach to traditional vegetarian cuisine of Middle East (perhaps with a narrower focus on Levantine cuisine), I would highly recommend Salma Hage's  The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook . There are many vegan recipes to be found within that book. I dare say the majority of the recipes are vegan, actually. And many of the remaining recipes could be adapted without much trouble.

My friend who runs a small independent bookstore recommended this title to me. I haven't regretted buying it, although some of the recipes have been tweaked in order to make them taste like I would expect them to or have tasted them in the past. For example, the baklava recipe is relatively easy to make but I substituted the filo for the suggested flaky pastry. I also disagreed with the approach to only put the almond inside. I happily stuffed the inside with the ground up pistachios as well instead of dusting them on the outside, as this is more in keeping with my experience. Friends that tried it loved it. Another example would be the tomato okra stew. It's beautiful and simple but benefits from the addition of some bouillon in my opinion just to give it a little more depth. Overall, lots of great recipes so that everyone will find something they really like. :)

Lots of inspiration and beautifully illustrated. Plenty of recipes to enjoy in this heatwave, with others that will be tasty comfort food for the colder months. The recipes are organised by countries, so you get a gastronomic cultural tour as you browse through and there's a section at the beginning on the various ingredients used. With supermarkets in the UK stocking many ingredients for middle eastern food, it's easy rustle up the scrummy meals from this book. On the menu tonight: baked aubergines with sumac and parsley, served with lentil tabouleh :-)

superb food and who says vegan food is dull...??? a good guide into a world which never was limited to meat and two veg, which can teach and inspire so much.

Great book - have tried seven recipes so far and they have all been hits!

A beautiful book with some really interesting and different recipes from the Middle East.

A gift which was well received and appears very attractive. Well displayed, interesting recipes, and straightforward to follow.