VEGETARIAN ARAB CUISINE (Whitecap, 2024, 154 pages, ISBN 978-1770503694, $34.95 paperbound) is by Ruth Salem Sader, of Syrian and Lebanese extraction and born in Sao Paulo. This 2024 book is the English translation. She had spent a long time collecting and editing Arabic recipes of vegetarian foods--the results are included in this book. It is mainly concerned with aromatizing meat dishes to be vegetarian in style. By careful development Sader has crafted some nifty vegetarian dishes. Many are even vegan; some are gluten-free. And regional variations abound: she explains that tabbouleh can have variations in the ratios of parsley and wheat, depending the area of the Mediterranean, and some have and some don't have cucumbers. Of course she has a great section on spices and another on nuts and their oils. And also she has a great selection of apps in her mezze chapter: seasoned olives, baba ganoush, hummus, leaf rolls, yogurt, falafel, fattoush, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, zatar, pita breads. Dips, also known as pastes, include eggplant baba ganoush, chickpea hummus, and the delightful red pepper paste muhammara. The book has six great preps made with yogurts and eight great salads as well. Her material goes on with olive oil cooked veggies, stuffed vegetables, stews, and a variety of beans and legumes, kibbeh and sfihas. The latter is my fave chapter: she makes both stuffed and spreaded sfihas. Traditionally lamb and other meats are used, but here she uses grains and pulses for the most part (chickpeas, beans, lentils, bulgur wheat, and more). She introduces us to leaf rolls (mehshi malfouf) which are leaves from escarole, chard, or cabbage stuffed like dolmas from grape leaves. The book is completed with a range of dessert and a range of beverage drinks. The close-up photography works really well. The index is precise. It's a wonderful book for Christmas...Ingredients are listed in Imperial measurements only. Quality/Price rating is 92 points by Dean Tudor of Gothic Epicures Writing.
Dean Tudor, Prof Emeritus T'karonto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) School of Journalism
Treasurer of Wine Writers' Circle of Canada http://www.deantudor.comhttp://gothicepicures.blogspot.com
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