Four Mediterranean Cookbooks to Add to Your Collection

To celebrate International Mediterranean Diet Month, we perused our extensive cookbook collection (which spans our entire once!) and selected four of our favorite Mediterrranean cookbooks. From old favorites to new culinary discoveries, these cookbooks offer unique and mouth-watering lenses into Mediterranean cuisine. Get a sense for all that these cookbooks offer, and then choose which to add to your collection.

The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen

I love the Mediterranean Diet for many reasons: Wonderful ingredients, heart-healthy and brain-healthy recipes, and delicious tastes. What more would one want Paula Wolfert

This gem takes us back to the days when cooking was the activity (not the chore) and everything was a bit slower   cooking, enjoying meals together, and life itself. If you relish in the slow life, you will love The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen by Paula Wolfert, a leader in the world of gastronomy (visit her website here). Some highlights of this cookbook include slow-simmered stews, slow-roasted salmon, and other authentic cooking methods blended with traditional ingredients. Wolferts favorite recipe from the book The herb jam with crushed steamed garlic, lots of herbs, spices, oil-cured black olives, and lemon try making this jam recipe here. Find The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen on Amazon.

The New Mediterranean Cookbook

For me, the Mediterranean diet represents not just a delicious route to optimum health but one thats easy and accessible for Americans, with an emphasis on fresh vegetables, grains and legumes, all quickly pulled together in meals to delight cooks and their families. Nancy Harmon Jenkins

Nancy Harmon Jenkins is a longtime acionado of Mediterranean cuisine and her catalogue of cookbooks speaks volumes about her deep passion and knowledge for this celebrated way of eating and living. We chose The New Mediterranean Cookbook because it revisits many of the flavors and recipes from its earlier version, while highlighting the health benefits and nutritional elements of the Med diet. Oldways has traveled and collaborated with Nancy for years, and we love following along her culinary adventures and discoveries. From traditional Mediterranean staple recipes to her seasonal specialties like North African Pumpkin Soup and Lebanese Garlic Roasted Chicken this book is a definite must-have for any chef’s collection. Visit her website to peruse her wonderful recipe collection, and and The New Mediterranean Cookbook on Amazon.

Mediterranean Cookery

The food, like everything about Mediterranean life, is rooted in the soil and the sea. It is the combination of frugality and fruitfulness with an abundance of grain, vegetables, pulses, fruit and nuts which gives it a unique rustic and healthy quality.Claudia Roden

Some things get better with age like one wine, cheese, and Claudia Roden’s 1987 cookbook, Mediterranean Cookery. This treasured resource is the ultimate blend of history, culture, geography, and of course cuisine. In fact, our copy has been used so much some of the pages are stuck together. What is it exactly about the Mediteranean diet According to Claudia, It is the rich flavors and aromas, the colors, the sensual quality of the cuisines and the extraordinary variety of dishes that enthralled me when I travelled around the Mediterranean more than thirty years ago. While our favorite recipe in this book is the salmorejo, here is Claudia’s recipe for Tunisian Roasted Salad. Find her Mediterranean Cookery book on Amazon.

Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts

The Mediterranean way of eating proposes THE most exciting, colorful and absolutely delicious dishes, which as a bonus, also happen to be THE healthiest!Aglaia Kremezi

While meat is relegated as a garnish in a traditional Mediterranean diet, there is always the option to go meat-free and Aglaia Kremezi makes that as irresistable as ever in her cookbook, Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts. This book bursts with creative tips and recipes to help home chefs learn to go from the farmers market to the kitchen, and wind up with a healthy and delicious feast. Amid her 150 plant-based, seasonal recipes, the Greece-based cookbook author, chef, and journalist shares specialties like Toasted Red Lentil and Bulgur Patties, her meatless Moussaka, and Roasted Cauliflower with Zahter Relish. Try your hand at making her Crustless or Naked Squash Pie recipe. Find Aglaias Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts on Amazon.