This recipe was easy to make and I'm happy with how it turned out. I made it twice, with regular couscous one time and pearl couscous another, and both turned out good. The pearl couscous just needs a bit longer to cook. There is a short section at the beginning that covers the basics of a Mediterranean diet and what your pantry basics will be, as well as appendices that provide nutritional information for each recipe (# servings is the only thing included with the recipe itself) and some conversion tables (weight, volume, temperature, etc.). The Mediterranean diet, which is all about the traditional eating habits of folks living in countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, is nothing new. Even with buzzier diets coming onto the scene, it's still deemed one of the best eating plans out there, year after year. If you're curious about how you can model your lifestyle after some of the longest-living people in the world, a Mediterranean diet cookbook is a one-stop-shop for recipe ideas and tips to get started. Although the book cites Oldways, it is not compliant with their version of the Mediterranean Diet and kind of blows off some main tenets, like whole grains. For example, in the grain info section it says that hulled barley is the most whole form available, but it takes longer to cook. Then they only have recipes/instructions for pearled barley which is not a whole grain. Mediterranean Mainstays:Detailed information on wholesome ingredients found in every supermarket is included throughout the book, from olive oil to whole grains, spice blends, plus a variety of seafood. Guides to meal planning, entertaining, and pantry building are also included

ICYMI, the main focus of the Mediterranean diet is to fill your plate at every meal with good-for-you fresh foods including beans, fish, legumes, nuts, poultry, seeds, vegetables, and whole grains while ditching unhealthy options like products with added sugar, processed meats, and refined grains. Other staples it emphasizes include healthy fats, such as extra-virgin olive oil and walnuts, says New York City-based nutritionist Samantha Cassetty, RD. My family loved this, but I thought it was just okay. I used a hand blender instead of actually putting it into the blender (I was trying to skip some clean-up) but it would have been a better consistency had I followed the recipe. I think that my eggplants were too large, because the soup was really eggplanty, overly so, it seemed to me. The Mediterranean diet is a popular diet that’s proven to be particularly helpful when it comes to heart health. It's recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and World Health Organization, according to the Mayo Clinic, as a means to “promote health and prevent chronic disease.” Wow. This dish was absolutely incredible! It tasted just like rice pilaf you would get at a restaurant, and it even tasted good reheated the next day. I happened to have both golden raisins and almonds, so I decided to make this variation, and I really liked that little crunch and sweetness you got with it. It was so easy to make too, which I loved. I'll definitely be making this again! I've made this twice because it's really, really good! It works with fresh or frozen spinach, but I prefer fresh.I'm not exactly sure what I did wrong, but for some reason these fritters turned out way too watery. They didn't hold together at all and the consistency was very strange. They tasted delicious though! If I were to guess, I'd say that it was either because I didn't put the zucchini in the oven to dry out (although I squeezed out all excess water super thoroughly) or because I overmixed the batter and squeezed more juices out of it (I'm pretty sure this is the main reason). But, like I said, they still tasted good, especially with the Yogurt-Herb Sauce. Nutrition First: Not only does every recipe have nutritional guidelines, but we also set specific nutritional goals (e.g. every fish recipe is less than 750 calories, with fewer than 8.5g of saturated fat) There are two wonderful ways to try Mediterranean foods. One is to find local Mediterranean restaurants in your area–the more authentic, the better. It’s a great way to try new flavors and cuisine without making a huge commitment. If you know you like the taste of Mediterranean foods, the next step is finding a good cookbook to make Mediterranean dishes at home. Remember, the Mediterranean is home to a range of different cuisines, including (but not necessarily limited to) France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Libia, Algeria, and Bosnia. But they care enough about authenticity to leave salmon entirely out of the book because it's not a Mediterranean fish. OK....

Lacey Muinos is a food and wellness writer. She’s followed a plant-based diet for more than five years and loves Mediterranean staples, including hummus, pita bread, olive oil, and legumes.This dish was unbelievably delicious for what it was. The ingredients are so simple but it becomes this absolutely scrumptious meal that I'll definitely be making again. This dish is essentially a vegetable stew, and it turned out quite good. I didn't add enough salt at the end, and I didn't add the extra basil at the end either, both of which I think it could have used.

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To top it all off, this diet offers some major health perks. “I use it quite often with my older patients since it can help lower the risk of cognitive decline and depression, common in the elderly. Besides, this diet may also help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease,” says Eva De Angelis, RD. PS This lifestyle let's you have red wine and dark chocolate. Honestly, that's the only reason I'm trying it! The famed Mediterranean diet is more than just a regional cuisine, it’s food at its best: the variety of bright flavors and tastes, the health benefits, and the simple, uncomplicated dishes. America’s Test Kitchen makes it easy to eat healthy, with over 500 kitchen-tested recipes from across the Mediterranean.

Our winner, " The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook," includes 500 recipes, meal planning suggestions, and much more. The " 5-Ingredient Mediterranean Cookbook," however, is both budget-friendly and great for beginners. What to Look for in a Mediterranean Cookbook Number of Recipes

These were incredibly easy to make and really good with the cucumber yogurt sauce. (And for some reason they smelled like In-N-Out while they were cooking, which I liked). I'll definitely be making these again! America's Test Kitchen, based in a brand new state-of-the-art 60,000 sq. ft. facility with over 15,000 sq. ft. of test kitchens and studio space, in Boston's Seaport District, is dedicated to finding the very best recipes for home cooks. Over 50 full-time (admittedly obsessive) test cooks spend their days testing recipes 30, 40, up to 100 times, tweaking every variable until they understand how and why recipes work. They also test cookware and supermarket ingredients so viewers can bypass marketing hype and buy the best quality products. As the home of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines, and publisher of more than one dozen cookbooks each year, America's Test Kitchen has earned the respect of the publishing industry, the culinary world, and millions of home cooks. America's Test Kitchen the television show launched in 2001, and the company added a second television program, Cook's Country, in 2008. I couldn't get monkfish, so I ended up using a mix of salmon and yellow fin tuna and it was good! I don't think I'd use salmon again though, it fell apart a little too easily. A sturdier fish definitely works best.