A Lebanese Feast of Vegetables, Pulses, Herbs and Spices

by Mona Hamadeh

This cornucopia of delicious vegetable recipes has been assembled by the author of Everyday Lebanese Cooking. It focuses on those recipes that make Lebanese cuisine one of the healthiest in the world because of the huge variety of vegetarian dishes on which it is based.

Vegetable and pulse dishes are what most Lebanese prefer to eat most of the time. This book includes, of course, the famous mezze and speciality sweets and also peasant food from the rural mountains, traditional dishes from the north and south along the Mediterranean coast, and street food including the familiar Falafel wraps. These are affordable recipes that often turn only a few simple ingredients into a delicious meal with a stunning combination of flavours.
The majority of these dishes are suitable for vegans as dairy and eggs are seldom used in cooking.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Middle East

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 6, 2015

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this on my library's online catalogue, it looked quite good from the cover. Inside the recipes felt distinctly more beige, lots of brown food, not many ingredients, some deepfried food that look marginally more interesting but nothing I'd really want to try. I can imagine this would be an interesting book if you wanted to find some traditional Lebanese dishes, but you'd probably want to tweak them slighty.

[Emily Forster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best vegetarian cook books there is. It is one of the few books that I regularly cook from. It has a huge selection of recipes that are easy to cook and don't require any ingredients that are difficult to get hold of. If you love mezze this book is a must. There is also a good selection for vegans. It is mostly very healthy as the focus is on vegetables and pulses but there is a desert section.

[Caroline Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you wanted an easy start to middle eastern cooking, this is a great gateway cookbook. The recipes are simple, but flavorful, and laid out easily to read and follow. While some of the ingredients might be hard to find, they are very much worth it (sumac is amazing!).

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am always trying to vary my diet with new vegetable dishes. So many of those come from the countries of the Middle East. This new cookbook features Lebanese recipes compiled by Mona Hamadeh, who immigrated to the UK from Lebanon as a young woman, and taught cooking classes in her native cuisine as well as working as an Arabic/English interpreter.

I've already tried a number of her salads, which combine vegetables in ways I'd never thought of, and I'm looking forward to trying some of her main dishes that are more suited to cooler weather.

The recipes are easy to follow, and are complemented by enticing photography.

Note that recipes are in metric format, so be ready with a converter for U.S. measurements.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like it!

[Diann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful cookbook with great stories of food and family in Lebanon, with gorgeous pictures.

Recipes are easy to follow. I have made several and they have all been outstanding.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have tried several recipes from this book and all were outstanding. Well written with plenty of how to’s

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bookmarked several recipes to try.