The Middle Eastern cuisine is the cradle of European cuisine. It was the people in this region, stretching from Mesopotamia over Palestine to Egypt, who 9,000 years ago founded agriculture with the cultivation of wheat and barley, as well as the domestication of pigs and cattle. For many thousands of years, it was in Mesopotamia that the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures prevailed, while the Egyptians cultivated the Nile Valley. After these cultures vanished, the Phoenicians and Jews came, creating an efficient agriculture with irrigation. Later, the Greeks came, followed by the Romans, leading to the foundation of Christianity in Palestine. Even later came Islam, which, with Constantinople (Istanbul) as its center, created the Ottoman Empire with the roots of today’s Turkish cuisine. The Middle Eastern cuisines thus encompass many countries, each with their own characteristics, but there are also many common features and similarities, such as between the Greek, Turkish, Syrian-Palestinian, Jewish, and Egyptian cuisines.
The more than 100-year-old conflict between Jewish Israelis and Muslim Palestinians is unfortunately all too well known. A small bright spot in the history of Middle Eastern cuisine is the cookbook “Jerusalem,” written by star chefs and partners Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. Both were born in Jerusalem in the same year and grew up there; Tamimi on the Arab east side and Ottolenghi in the Jewish west. The two have collaborated to create a cookbook with a collection of 120 recipes from Jerusalem’s various Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities.
Here is my interpretation of some of my favorite recipes from this and other Middle Eastern cookbooks.
Middle Eastern Dishes
- Kofta b’siniya
- Beef meatballs with fava beans and lemon
- Basmati rice and orzo
- Lamb shawarma
- Falafel
Salads and Sides - Tabbouleh (variant: Fattoush salad)
- Balilah – chickpeas with herbs and cumin
- Hummus
- Baba ganoush
- Yogurt with cucumber
- Labne
- Pureed beets with yogurt and za’atar
- Dukka
- Quick pickled lemons
- Fermented, salted lemons
- Light Tahina
- Tahina sauce
Chili Pastes - Harissa chili paste
- Zhoug chili paste
- Pilpelchuma – mild chili paste
Spice Mixes - Za’atar
- Baharat
Middle Eastern Spice Blends
Herbs and spices are two sides of the same coin. Herbs have been used in Denmark for a long time, if one limits to herbs that can grow in the Danish climate. Spices are often more exotic, as they come from warmer countries. They often contribute to a complex bitterness in preparations. Carl Th. Pedersen posthumously published a book in 2021 titled “Spices from A-Z,” covering 69 spices from around the world; history, botany and growth locations, used plant parts, chemical constituents, and possible medicinal use (see my review in Dansk Kemi 103(1) 2022 p. 28-29).
Since we can taste up to 24 different bitter substances on the tongue and recognize hundreds of different aromatic compounds, it is rare that we only use a single spice at a time. Different cuisines therefore often have standardized spice blends that suit the food culture of the respective place, such as bouquet garni, fines herbes, and herbes de Provence from France; or curry and garam masala from India.
The Middle East also has its own standard blends, such as baharat, dukkah, harissa, ras el hanout, and za’atar.