Ma'amouls
One of the unimaginable stories of heroism from October 7, the day of the horrific attack on Israel by Hamas, is Rachel Adri's story....
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Food and the act of eating in the Mediterranean and the Middle East is a social affair and experience that is meant to be shared. Cooking is an everyday ritual, an expression of generosity, love, and friendship. A casual gathering with family and friends will always include sharing good food and good stories around
one table.
The (constantly evolving) collection of recipes on this page is classic Middle Eastern and Israeli dishes. The short story at the beginning of each recipe will provide you with some cultural context, and the detailed instructions and tips, that we gathered over years of home cooking, will make your own experience easier, enjoyable, and sustainable.
Challah
Comes Friday and grocery stores and bakeries' shelves in Israel are stocked up with challah bread. These days Challah comes in many...
Beet Tahini Dip
This beet tahini brings to the table bright pink color and the earthy, sweet taste of beet, complemented by the bittersweet flavor of...
Chocolate Babka Cake
My maternal grandparents arrived in Israel from Polland on the same boat in 1933, members of a Zionist youth movement that believed in...
Chocolate Matzah Layer Cake
Chocolate Matzah cake was the highlight of Passover for me as a kid. Many years and plenty of flourless cakes later, our Passover feast...
Matzah Brei
Matzah brei, a simple-to-make dish consisting of broken matzahs fried with whisked eggs, is the ultimate breakfast throughout the week of...
Halvah Hamantaschen
Hamantahcen is a triangle, shell-like cookie, traditionally eaten in Purim. It's named after the evil Haman, who incited the Persian...
Halvah Cookies
Mix something sweet with tahini (honey, sugar or date syrup), and you'll get halvah flavor. Nuts, seeds and spices are often flavor...
Chocolate Cake
The nostalgic birthday cake of generations of Israeli kids is a very humble, one-layer chocolate cake topped with chocolate glaze and...
Beet Latkes
We fill the Chanukah table with oil-fried food to celebrate the miracle of the tiny can of pure oil, found in the temple in Jerusalem...
Cheese Board
The internet is flooded lately with beautiful, super creative, and overloaded cheese and charcuterie boards. It may be overwhelming for...
Banana Pancake
Think outside-the-boxed pancake mixes, just keep in mind some basics, and get the perfect pancake for your tastes. If you like fluffy...
Shakshuka
Shakshuka is a one-pan meal consisting of eggs cooked in tomato sauce. It originated in north African countries, where it was a hearty,...
Tahini Slaw
A refreshing version of the classic American coleslaws, made with creamy tahini and mustard, instead of the classic mayonnaise dressing....
Green Pea Tahini Dip
Peas are one of the oldest legumes to be cultivated, early archeological finds in western Asia (current Greece, Syria, Turkey, Israel,...
Spelt Tahini Crackers
The night the Jews fled Egypt and had no time to let their dough rise, the first documented version of a cracker was created. This giant,...
Jerusalem Bagel
Enter through the gates of the old town of Jerusalem and the aroma of freshly baked bread and toasted sesame seeds hits you immediately....
Caramelized Carrots
We oven-roast almost every vegetable on earth in our kitchen, and carrots are a favorite because roasting actually enhances their...
Orange Marmalade
Making jams and marmalade is a great way to preserve the flavors of seasonal fruit and enjoy them during the long cold winters, but in...
Date & Tahini Rolled Cookies
These cookies are inspired by Ma'amoul - a Middle Eastern cookie stuffed with date paste or chopped walnuts or pistachios and dusted with...
Freekeh with Oven Roasted Vegetables
Summers in the Middle East are long, hot, and dry, but it's the springtime heat waves and sandy winds that create a major threat to crops...
Baba Ghanoush
The eggplant is a king in Levant cuisine, we fry it, roast it, bake with it, cook it, stuff it, and pickle it, but we especially like to...
Breakfast Bowl
Before the full-with-flavors yogurts overtook the shelves in grocery stores - these that already include fruit jam on the bottom of the...
Lentil Stew
The biblical story of Esav, who sells his birthright to his younger brother Jacob for a bowl of lentil stew, inspired generations of home...
Tahini Hot Chocolate
We cook with tahini, bake with tahini, incorporate it into sweet and savory dishes, and we also drink tahini! we blend tahini into our...
Sweet Tahini Spread
I started to sell homemade sweet tahini spreads in farmers' markets in the fall of 2017 when most Americans associated tahini with...
Summer Fruit Cake
My family always loves to end a meal with something sweet, and in the summer, our go-to is usually a fruit cake. Fruit cake is an...
Knafeh
Knafeh is one of the desserts that people in Israel are willing to stand in long lines or drive far to bakeries in Arabic villages. I’ve...
Chicken Shawarma
Shawarma is one of the most popular street foods in Israel and in Levantine Arab countries. The word shawarma means turning- a reference...
Tahini Cookies
Lately, the internet is exploded with sweet baked goods recipes made with tahini. Finally, the rumor that tahini does exist outside of...
Orange Cake
Once upon a time, Jaffa oranges were an icon that was widely associated with Israel. This citrus, named after the historic port city, was...
Mejadra
This stew of lentils and rice is the ultimate Middle Eastern comfort food. The beauty of this dish is in its simple ingredients, which...
Shuk Salad
Growing up in the small town of Rehovot, I often joined my mom on her trip to the local shuk (open-air market). She would speed walk...
Eli's Tahini Sauce
Everything tastes better with tahini, almost every Israeli claim that. Israeli kids have their first tahini taste in their baby food...
Halvah
Halvah is the famed crumbly dense Arab confection made with tahini and sugar (the word halvah means “sweet”). The process of making...
Cheese Burekas
Israeli are mad about Burekas - a puff pastry filled with savory stuffing. Stroll down the open-air markets in Tel Aviv or Ramla, and...
Pita Bread
Pita, or flatbread, is the most common type of bread in the Middle East. I remember baking pita at a very young age on the Israeli...
Classic Hummus
I must confess that I’d never made hummus from scratch until we moved to the US in 2009. Back home in Israel we used to buy hummus at one...
Tahini Loaf
A tahini loaf has come to be the Passover bread in many Israeli households - as one of this holiday’s rituals is to refrain from eating...
Sweet Potatoes Hummus
Sweet potatoes add a sweet note to our classic chickpeas-based dip and wash it in a light orange hue. Top it with olive oil and dukkah...
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