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The Mediterranean Dish: 120 Bold and Healthy Recipes You'll Make on Repeat: A Mediterranean Cookbook
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The highly anticipated debut cookbook from the creator of The Mediterranean Dish website, with more than 120 recipes for bright and flavorful Mediterranean diet-inspired meals.
"I want to cook everything in this book! It's not just beautiful-the recipes are fresh and exciting."-Gina Homolka, New York Times bestselling author of the Skinnytaste cookbooks
What began as one of the first online Mediterranean food blogs has blossomed into the leading site for modern Mediterranean cooking and lifestyle with millions of readers-and now it is the inspiration for the long-awaited first cookbook from Suzy Karadsheh. In her cookbook, Suzy brings cross-culturally inspired dishes from throughout the Mediterranean into American home kitchens, using easy-to-find ingredients and easy-to-follow, tested-to-perfection recipes to make your meals more vibrant, delicious, and yes-even a little healthier, too!
Born and raised by the sea in Port Said, Egypt, Suzy lived in Michigan and Des Moines with her family before moving to Atlanta, where she now lives. Her modern cooking reflects the rich and complex traditions of the Mediterranean and Middle East, from Greece and southern Spain to Jordan and Tunisia, as well as inspiration from her new Southern roots. Practical and weeknight-easy recipes include: Spanakopita Egg Muffins, Chicken Shawarma Bowls, Garlicky Spinach and Chickpea Soup with Lemon and Pecorino Romano, Roasted Asparagus Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Basil, Middle Eastern Rice Pilaf with Toasted Vermicelli and Pine Nuts, Orange-Cardamom Olive Oil Cake, and of course Homemade Pita Bread to serve with just about everything.
Suzy's winning combination of approachable instructions, reliable recipes, stunning photography, charming authentic stories, and simple assemblies is sure to thrill anyone hungry to eat healthier food that bursts with flavor and spice.
"I want to cook everything in this book! It's not just beautiful-the recipes are fresh and exciting."-Gina Homolka, New York Times bestselling author of the Skinnytaste cookbooks
What began as one of the first online Mediterranean food blogs has blossomed into the leading site for modern Mediterranean cooking and lifestyle with millions of readers-and now it is the inspiration for the long-awaited first cookbook from Suzy Karadsheh. In her cookbook, Suzy brings cross-culturally inspired dishes from throughout the Mediterranean into American home kitchens, using easy-to-find ingredients and easy-to-follow, tested-to-perfection recipes to make your meals more vibrant, delicious, and yes-even a little healthier, too!
Born and raised by the sea in Port Said, Egypt, Suzy lived in Michigan and Des Moines with her family before moving to Atlanta, where she now lives. Her modern cooking reflects the rich and complex traditions of the Mediterranean and Middle East, from Greece and southern Spain to Jordan and Tunisia, as well as inspiration from her new Southern roots. Practical and weeknight-easy recipes include: Spanakopita Egg Muffins, Chicken Shawarma Bowls, Garlicky Spinach and Chickpea Soup with Lemon and Pecorino Romano, Roasted Asparagus Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Basil, Middle Eastern Rice Pilaf with Toasted Vermicelli and Pine Nuts, Orange-Cardamom Olive Oil Cake, and of course Homemade Pita Bread to serve with just about everything.
Suzy's winning combination of approachable instructions, reliable recipes, stunning photography, charming authentic stories, and simple assemblies is sure to thrill anyone hungry to eat healthier food that bursts with flavor and spice.
Editorial Reviews
"Suzy Karadsheh packs her debut cookbook with dishes we all want to be eating right now: vibrant, bold, and unfussy recipes you can make any night of the week. Recipes like the Meanest Loaded Hummus Dip, Melty Sweet Potato Rounds with Honeyed Tahini, and Date Night Crab Spaghetti have already got me hooked. If you're a lover of herbs, tangy citrus, and spices, you'll no doubt be a fan of this book."-Andy Baraghani, chef and author of The Cook You Want to Be
"Suzy Karadsheh's style of cooking reminds me much of my own. She grew up in Egypt in her mother's kitchen, and for her, the smells and flavors of Egyptian-Mediterranean cooking are memories steeped in her childhood. I visited Egypt for the first time with my daughter, and Suzy's recipes bring me rightback. I am looking forward to cooking more from this cookbookand reliving those flavors. Her recipes are straightforward and simple but carry all the complexflavors, aromas, and colors of the Mediterranean. Brava, Suzy."-Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, bestselling author, Emmy Award-winning TV personality, and businesswoman
"By sharing everything from time-honored family dishes to brilliant updates on the classics, Suzy Karadsheh shows us how versatile, delicious, and healthy Mediterranean cooking can be. These produce-forward, super-fresh, healthy recipes will become staples in your kitchen!"-Adeena Sussman, author of Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors from My Israeli Kitchen
"‘Eat with the seasons. Use mostly whole foods. And, above all else, share!' enjoins food blogger Karadsheh in her vibrant debut, a generous trove of go-to recipes steeped in the Mediterranean's diverse culinary traditions . . . This is as full of flavor as it is hospitality."-Publishers Weekly
"Suzy Karadsheh's style of cooking reminds me much of my own. She grew up in Egypt in her mother's kitchen, and for her, the smells and flavors of Egyptian-Mediterranean cooking are memories steeped in her childhood. I visited Egypt for the first time with my daughter, and Suzy's recipes bring me rightback. I am looking forward to cooking more from this cookbookand reliving those flavors. Her recipes are straightforward and simple but carry all the complexflavors, aromas, and colors of the Mediterranean. Brava, Suzy."-Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, bestselling author, Emmy Award-winning TV personality, and businesswoman
"By sharing everything from time-honored family dishes to brilliant updates on the classics, Suzy Karadsheh shows us how versatile, delicious, and healthy Mediterranean cooking can be. These produce-forward, super-fresh, healthy recipes will become staples in your kitchen!"-Adeena Sussman, author of Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors from My Israeli Kitchen
"‘Eat with the seasons. Use mostly whole foods. And, above all else, share!' enjoins food blogger Karadsheh in her vibrant debut, a generous trove of go-to recipes steeped in the Mediterranean's diverse culinary traditions . . . This is as full of flavor as it is hospitality."-Publishers Weekly
Readers Top Reviews
Charlotte R. Dixo
In the early days of the pandemic, I ordered Chicken Shawarma for take-out and then decided to find a recipe to cook it myself. The Mediterranean Dish site popped up. From that point on, I was obsessed. I've loved Suzy's website so much and never cooked a bad dish from it. I pre-ordered her cookbook, of course, and it's even better than I thought it would be. So many cooks who have popular sites and the release a cookbook don't come up with any new recipes for the book. But this cookbook has a ton of new ones in it. Plus gorgeous photography. It's a winner!
JenniferCharlotte
I love this cookbook! I follow Susie on social media and have used many of her recipes from online. They have all been amazing. Her lemon chicken soup (avgolemono) is fabulous and tastes like the one that my Greek great grandmother used to make. Susie’s recipe uses rotisserie chicken and saves hours of work. I preordered her book months ago. It was worth the wait. Initially I wondered if it would be worth it because you can get her recipes online for free. It is definitely worth it! The recipes are great with beautiful photos included. What I really love is all of the other information she shares. She’s a fabulous cook and I’m grateful she shares her recipes with the rest of us!
DonnyJenniferChar
I've been following Suzy and the Mediterranean Dish since 2016. I can't speak enough to how Suzy's recipes have changed my life. My wife and I lost a combined 80lbs following the Mediterranean Diet with Suzy's recipes being the bulk of our cooking. I started with her recipe for Baked Lemon Garlic Dover Sole Fillet but my absolute favorites are her grilled skrimp skewers, lemon chicken thighs, and seafood soup. I've shared many of her recipes with family and friends and cooked them for them as well. You will never find another place where the same group of ingredients are used across a plethora of recipes and are combined to make so many different and vivrant flavors. Period. I've bouoght copies not only for myself, but for some of my closest familiy and friends and I look forward to Christmas becuase this will be the gift that I am giving this year. I can't say enough about The Medeterranean Dish. you will not be disappointed!
JermaineDonnyJenn
I stumbled upon Suzy’s YouTube page about a year ago and how she has changed my life! I’m a single guy who doesn’t eat out a lot, so as you can imagine I cook all the time. Her recipes are not only delicious but are healthy at the same time. Two years ago I went completely Keto. Although the diet did what it was suppose to do, I eventually lacked in key vitamins, nutrients and started to develop a slight fatty liver. Needless to say I stopped the diet immediately (not bashing keto because it does work! It’s just not for everyone) Family and friends were telling me about the Mediterranean diet and it miraculous benefits. This drove me to search The Mediterranean Diet on YouTube and sure enough Suzy’s channel was the first I saw. Let’s just say it didn’t take long for me to subscribe to her channel. Ever since I’ve adopted the Mediterranean diet my health has improved greatly and I can once again enjoy legumes, pasta, grains etc. Not to mention this diet also satisfies my lime and lemon addiction 😅
Joellyn KopeckyJe
For well over 60 years, since I was a child of four, cooking has been therapy for me. After years on keto, I switched to Mediterranean on my doctor’s orders. It wasn’t difficult, as I love the lighter recipes and the plethora of fruits and vegetables that are used. And when I got each new cookbook, I would flip through and mark three or four recipes I really wanted to try. When I sat down with Suzy’s new cookbook today, I gave up marking recipes after the first 10 pages. Why? Because I was marking every single recipe! Suzy understands how to combine American “kitchen think” with the glories of the Middle East. The recipes are easy to follow, the pictures are enticing, and her descriptions clearly welcome you into her own kitchen with family stories and favorite methods. Within two hours this became my absolute all-time favorite Mediterranean cookbook, and I’m sure it will be loved, scribbled in, dogeared, and well worn within the first year. Suzy, what a gift. Thank you for sharing your heart and your kitchen with us!
Short Excerpt Teaser
Introduction
"If you truly wish to find someone you have known and who travels, there are two points on the globe you have but to sit and wait, sooner or later your man will come there: the docks of London and Port Said." -Rudyard Kipling
Port Said: My Mediterranean Roots
My love for the big, bright flavors and intrinsically healthy ingredients of the Mediterranean was born long before I ever heard of this thing called "the Mediterranean Diet."
It began in my birthplace, the cosmopolitan city of Port Said, Egypt, a nineteen-mile stretch of Mediterranean coastline at the north entrance to the Suez Canal. Since its construction more than 150 years ago, the waterway connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea-and offering a more direct route between the North Atlantic and northern Indian Oceans-has opened a world of trade, bringing in boatloads of goods and tourists from all over the world and influencing all aspects of the city's culture, from food to architecture and fashion. When I was growing up, the Suez Canal was only a fifteenminute leisurely walk from my family's flat, and we would often stroll along its boardwalk enjoying Italian gelato and roasted nuts while watching large white passenger ships, flying flags from Europe and elsewhere, go by. Our favorite pastime was cruising the canal with our church friends in small motorboats we'd rented for the day.
Like most Egyptians, we walked practically everywhere: to work, to the beach, or to a restaurant to meet up with friends. Public transportation was so crowded, and while we did have a car, we still preferred to walk whenever we could.
One of my earliest memories was tagging along with my dad, Baba, and walking to the open-air marketplace we called the souq. I must have only been five or six. Baba was in charge of picking up ingredients that my mother turned into simple but bountiful azoomas (feasts) for our family and frequent guests. These souq outings were not about quickly gathering groceries; for Baba, it was about connecting with people, and I loved being out with him for hours in the community. Baba was a well-loved pastor and a very busy man, who had friends from all walks of life and in all corners of Port Said, across Egypt, and in fact, around the world. He was friends with dignitaries and government officials, he conducted business with all sorts of people, and he was also a friend to many locals no matter their occupation. He never met a stranger and he took pride in knowing everyone by name. And many of the merchants at the souq knew his name.
On souq days, I remember vividly how his hand held tightly on to my tiny one as we navigated the busy, narrow streets lined with carts and merchants. All around us, the warm, salty air teemed with scents of fresh herbs, especially mint and dill, or the sweet fruit from the stands where fresh mangoes, bananas, and strawberries were being pressed into juice; just-caught fish were displayed in bins of ice or were broiling in the forn, our local clay oven, at the neighboring souq el samak (fish market).
Whenever a vendor called out to Baba, he always stopped, even if we had already bought what they were selling. I remember thinking, "But Baba, we just bought oranges," as he bought yet one more kilo of them from another vendor. And he would always be sure to buy those last few bunches of parsley from the older widowed women who sat on the ground, barefoot, wearing black garb from head to toe. He was keen on noticing those quieter, frail ones who were not waving large signs to advertise their goods, and whose voices were often drowned out by the shouts of other merchants-some with megaphones- competing for shoppers' attention. "Since we bought the last of her herbs, she can go home and rest. It's our job to care for the widows in our community," he explained.
My dad had a knack for picking the most perfect produce. He would hold up a tomato, feeling its skin, and giving it the gentlest squeeze, he would bring it a little closer to my face. "Smell it; it smells ripe, right?" Or he would pick up a watermelon and say, "This one is not too large, but it's heavy for its size. You know what this means?" I did-it was a juicier watermelon. Then he'd bring it up closer to his ear and give it a tap as I stood there thinking, "What is he listening for? Is the watermelon speaking to him in some sort of code?" To this day, I cannot buy a watermelon without giving it a quick thunk. Does it really make a difference? I just do it. My favorite stop on those leisurely souq excursions was Mr. Bishay's falafe...
"If you truly wish to find someone you have known and who travels, there are two points on the globe you have but to sit and wait, sooner or later your man will come there: the docks of London and Port Said." -Rudyard Kipling
Port Said: My Mediterranean Roots
My love for the big, bright flavors and intrinsically healthy ingredients of the Mediterranean was born long before I ever heard of this thing called "the Mediterranean Diet."
It began in my birthplace, the cosmopolitan city of Port Said, Egypt, a nineteen-mile stretch of Mediterranean coastline at the north entrance to the Suez Canal. Since its construction more than 150 years ago, the waterway connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea-and offering a more direct route between the North Atlantic and northern Indian Oceans-has opened a world of trade, bringing in boatloads of goods and tourists from all over the world and influencing all aspects of the city's culture, from food to architecture and fashion. When I was growing up, the Suez Canal was only a fifteenminute leisurely walk from my family's flat, and we would often stroll along its boardwalk enjoying Italian gelato and roasted nuts while watching large white passenger ships, flying flags from Europe and elsewhere, go by. Our favorite pastime was cruising the canal with our church friends in small motorboats we'd rented for the day.
Like most Egyptians, we walked practically everywhere: to work, to the beach, or to a restaurant to meet up with friends. Public transportation was so crowded, and while we did have a car, we still preferred to walk whenever we could.
One of my earliest memories was tagging along with my dad, Baba, and walking to the open-air marketplace we called the souq. I must have only been five or six. Baba was in charge of picking up ingredients that my mother turned into simple but bountiful azoomas (feasts) for our family and frequent guests. These souq outings were not about quickly gathering groceries; for Baba, it was about connecting with people, and I loved being out with him for hours in the community. Baba was a well-loved pastor and a very busy man, who had friends from all walks of life and in all corners of Port Said, across Egypt, and in fact, around the world. He was friends with dignitaries and government officials, he conducted business with all sorts of people, and he was also a friend to many locals no matter their occupation. He never met a stranger and he took pride in knowing everyone by name. And many of the merchants at the souq knew his name.
On souq days, I remember vividly how his hand held tightly on to my tiny one as we navigated the busy, narrow streets lined with carts and merchants. All around us, the warm, salty air teemed with scents of fresh herbs, especially mint and dill, or the sweet fruit from the stands where fresh mangoes, bananas, and strawberries were being pressed into juice; just-caught fish were displayed in bins of ice or were broiling in the forn, our local clay oven, at the neighboring souq el samak (fish market).
Whenever a vendor called out to Baba, he always stopped, even if we had already bought what they were selling. I remember thinking, "But Baba, we just bought oranges," as he bought yet one more kilo of them from another vendor. And he would always be sure to buy those last few bunches of parsley from the older widowed women who sat on the ground, barefoot, wearing black garb from head to toe. He was keen on noticing those quieter, frail ones who were not waving large signs to advertise their goods, and whose voices were often drowned out by the shouts of other merchants-some with megaphones- competing for shoppers' attention. "Since we bought the last of her herbs, she can go home and rest. It's our job to care for the widows in our community," he explained.
My dad had a knack for picking the most perfect produce. He would hold up a tomato, feeling its skin, and giving it the gentlest squeeze, he would bring it a little closer to my face. "Smell it; it smells ripe, right?" Or he would pick up a watermelon and say, "This one is not too large, but it's heavy for its size. You know what this means?" I did-it was a juicier watermelon. Then he'd bring it up closer to his ear and give it a tap as I stood there thinking, "What is he listening for? Is the watermelon speaking to him in some sort of code?" To this day, I cannot buy a watermelon without giving it a quick thunk. Does it really make a difference? I just do it. My favorite stop on those leisurely souq excursions was Mr. Bishay's falafe...
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