Recipe Roundup

94 Middle Eastern Recipes We Love

Tabbouleh, lamb flatbreads, pomegranate-glazed chicken, fattoush salad, and so much more.

July 12, 2018

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Kat Boytsova
1/94
Persian Chicken With Turmeric and Lime
A crisp cucumber-herb salad and a squeeze of tart lime juice gives a light yet vibrant finish to this creamy, quick-cooking chicken dish.
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Photo by Alex Lau
2/94
Crunchy Baked Saffron Rice With Barberries (Tachin)
If you don’t rinse the rice, it will be gummy. If you don’t parboil the rice, it’ll be dry and tough when it comes out of the oven. If you don’t use yogurt, eggs, and oil, it will never get golden and crisp. Now you know!
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Photo by Alex Lau
3/94
Spicy Lamb Pizza With Parsley–Red Onion Salad
Our homage to lahmacun, the Middle Eastern flatbread.
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Photo by Chelsie Craig, Styling by Molly Baz
4/94
Fried Meatballs with Tahini Sauce
Be sure to roll the meatballs firmly into the millet so that the tiny grains don't fall off during frying.
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Photo by Alex Lau
5/94
Charred Sweet Potatoes With Toum
This recipe is nice twice. The roasting and honey-glazing method is a great way to make sweet potatoes, and you also get an eggless garlic sauce that you’ll use again and again.
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Photo by Alex Lau
6/94
Pomegranate-Glazed Chicken with Buttery Pine Nuts
The yogurt, honey, and pomegranate molasses in this recipe will give the chicken lots of color. Go with it. The very dark charred parts are extra tasty.
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Photo by Stephen Kent Johnson, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich
7/94
Spicy Lamb Meatballs with Raisin Pesto
These meatballs are gilded with lots of strong spices, set in a cooling swoosh of yogurt and finished with the sweet brightness of a mint pesto. Sound fancy? Not really. We use ground lamb, which is naturally fatty and can be baked without sacrificing juiciness or a charred crust.
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Photo by Elena Heatherwick
8/94
Gia's Mushrooms and Egg
This dish is so simple. Just find excellent mushrooms, really good eggs, some aromatics, and a tiny bit of spice, and you have a beauty of a dish.
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Photo by Alex Lau
9/94
Spinach-Yogurt Dip With Sizzled Mint
Our version of this dip uses spinach, but it can be made with cooked beets or roasted eggplant, too.
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Photo by Bobbi Lin
10/94
Saffron–Rose Water Brittle with Pistachios and Almonds
This brittle recipe is a riff on an Iranian candy known as sohan. Its snappy texture and fragrant flavor pair well with bitter tea.
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Photo by Matt Russell
11/94
Eggplant and Mushroom Tahcheen
This saffron-infused, vegetarian version of the traditional savory Iranian rice cake is made with earthy portobello mushrooms and meaty eggplants.
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Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks
12/94
Pecan-Orange Baklava Pie
Bourbon-honey syrup and fragrant orange zest add rich flavor to this twist on baklava.
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Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Anna Surbatovich, Food Styling by Olivia Mack Anderson
13/94
Halal Cart-Style White Sauce
This creamy, tangy sauce with a garlicky, black pepper punch is ubiquitous on platters of grilled meats sold by halal street carts in major cities across the U.S. We can't stop drizzling it on everything from pita sandwiches to roasted vegetables to crisp salads.
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Photo by Alex Lau
14/94
Man'oushe with Za'atar Oil, Tomatoes, and Cucumber
You can serve these flatbreads as is or wrapped around a filling.
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