• Yildiz100 on November 14, 2017

  This book introduced me to toast with tahini and date molasses. (It isn't a recipe in the book, just something he mentions in passing that he likes to eat.) It is so delicious and my new favorite thing to do with tahini. Try this!

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Hummus masabacha

  • love2laf on November 16, 2017

    http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/11/hummus-msabbaha-masabacha-musabbaha-chickpea-recipe.html

  • IvyManning on February 15, 2016

    This was a TON of work for what turned out to be a really bland hummus. I had to add a lot of cumin, olive oil, salt, and other stuff just to get a hint of flavor. Perhaps that's typical of this style of hummus, but I personally am not a fan.

• Pargiyot with amba (mango pickle) marinade

  • kari500 on August 19, 2019

    Very easy, used Indian pickled mango. C declared it his new favorite chicken marinade.

• Lemonnana

  • caitmcg on November 18, 2018

    This is a delicious cocktail that goes down very easily. Once you've made the lemon verbena syrup, it's a snap, as everything (syrup, lemon juice, bourbon, mint leaves, ice) is shaken, then poured out into a glass. I decided to forgo the sugar, and instead used a bit more lemon verbena syrup, and I liked the balance of flavor.

• Chicken schnitzel with passion fruit and amba tehina

  • lorloff on November 26, 2016

    The amba tahini sauce in the recipie is fantastic. Adding the zatar to the schnitzel breaking was very delicious. I added these techniques to the schnitzel breaking I normally make. Starting with tossing the chicken or turkey tenders in falafel mix instead of flour and using egg whites and a mixture of panko, matzah meal and breadcrumbs. Seasoned with powdered garlic, nigila black onion seeds, white sesame seeds and zatar.

• Baked mozzarella "kibbe" with freekah and green peas

  • mcvl on May 14, 2023

    I like the mild, homey flavor of this dish; what I don't like is the step portion of the recipe. It seems chaotic, unfocussed, and completely unrealistic. I'm supposed to keep 6 cups of water at a simmer for 40 minutes? Why? (To say nothing of evaporation.) I would give step 2 an F in a freshman expository writing class.

• Moroccan carrots

  • Aggie92 on April 25, 2016

    Yummy! Used a 1 lb. bag of baby carrots since that was all I had. Not sure if boiling down the carrot cooking water was worth the bother. Added the zest of the orange to the dressing to up the orange flavor even more. Despite the Aleppo pepper, this was just barely spicy. Carrots tasted better and better the longer they sat in the dressing. But, the fresh herbs suffered in color after a night in the fridge. So if you want to make this ahead, add the fresh herbs just before serving.

  • babyfork on February 03, 2016

    Family enjoyed this. I liked the technique of cooking the carrots whole and then cutting them afterward. A good one that can be prepped ahead of time.

• The Zahav lamb shoulder

  • DKennedy on April 05, 2022

    Wonderful. Worth the effort.

  • runoutofshelves on December 11, 2016

    This is a fabulous first time fail safe, delicious recipe, succulent, melt in your mouth, flavoursome, a bit of prep over three days but nothing that outrageous, looking forward to the leftovers!

  • inflytur on December 15, 2016

    The results are fantastic! Don't be frighted by this recipe. Despite the fact that you need to start 2-3 days before you want to serve it, the most difficult part is obtaining a whole lamb shoulder. The preparation is really so simple that I would not hesitate to suggest it to a novice cook. The active time is probably less than 2 ½ hours. I served this when I hosted a cookbook book club event focused on this book. It was a real winner.

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Lots of steps and therefore time-consuming. However, overall it was still fairly easy. Good, rich.

• Pilaf with kale

  • TrishaCP on June 24, 2021

    This was a good way to use up some kale and the technique worked well.

  • Lsblackburn1 on January 13, 2019

    I thought I had kale, but it was chard. That seemed to work, too! I love his pilaf recipes. They are pretty easy and very delicious.

  • jenburkholder on August 28, 2020

    This was a good pilaf. I can’t comment on his technique, as we ignored it, but the flavor was solid and the ingredients list not complex.

• Pargiyot with harissa marinade

  • TrishaCP on June 12, 2018

    This made a quick and easy dinner, but wasn't that flavorful, even with an overnight marinade. It may have been the harissa that I used, which is super mild to me and not my favorite, or my regular (Mina- bought in a pinch). Use the good stuff with this recipe.

• Pomegranate-glazed salmon

  • TrishaCP on May 14, 2021

    This is a simple and delicious treatment for salmon. We cooked this on a grill pan on the stove since the weather turned stormy- I’m sure it is even better outside on the grill.

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    I cut the fillet into four pieces and cooked it under the broiler. Quite easy, quick, and good.

• Pargiyot with onion marinade

  • TrishaCP on August 19, 2020

    We loved this marinade for chicken, which apparently is the house marinade at Zahav. It makes the meat very tender. The parsley also makes the chicken greenish, which I thought was a fun addition to the dinner plate!

  • twoyolks on June 09, 2022

    Simple and great marinade for chicken. I definitely plan to make it again.

• Twice-cooked eggplant

  • blintz on November 02, 2021

    This was the big hit at a potluck mezze party. I took the advice of other posters and instead of frying, I oven roasted the eggplant slices on cookie sheets at 400 degrees. Since I doubled the recipe, it took a while to get them close to burned, but it was worth it. When I mixed in the eggplant, I thought the crunchy texture of the charred skin might be a bit off-putting, but by the time I served it, those bits had softened and were part of the deliciousness!

  • hirsheys on June 10, 2018

    You begin by salting slices of eggplant (does salting really do anything? I'm unconvinced by the process), then frying in batches until the slices get nearly blackened. This takes roughly forever, but the good news is that you can prep the rest (chop some onion and a red pepper) while you fry. I made it through literally every slice and on the last one, the smoke detector started going off [Note to self: turn on vent!!!] This is an extremely yummy mezze and improves daily. It's a pain, though, so I doubt that I will make it often unless I can figure out a better way to cook the eggplant (roasting it?)

  • PinchOfSalt on September 07, 2016

    Very, very tasty, but some might be put off by the charred bits of eggplant. So, best served in an informal setting. Also, it took three batches to fry two thickly sliced eggplants in a good-sized skillet, which at 20 minutes or so per batch, meant that it took over an hour to complete that step. The next time I make this, I will experiment with brushing the slices with olive oil, arranging them on a cookie sheet and broiling them. This should save a lot of time.

  • agentmnm on December 25, 2016

    This dish is a family favorite. The cooking of the eggplant does take time but this dish can be made 2 days before serving. Just add the lemon juice before serving. One thing - it is very salty. I might use a little less salt next time.

• Baba ganoush

  • L.Nightshade on July 09, 2018

    No grills were about to be in action, so I did the eggplant under the broiler, cut side up, until they were quite blackened and the smoke alarm had gone off. I love baba ganoush, and this one did not disappoint, but I don’t think it’s superior to many others I’ve made. I used some of it to make lamb naan-wiches, mixing cultures indiscriminately.  I’ll need to get the book from the library again to try the Twice-Cooked Eggplant. That one sounds quite inviting to me.

• Laffa in the home oven

  • Corrinie on June 16, 2017

    Place the hot breads into a plastic bag and seal them to steam. This creates a lovely tender chewy bread that won't dry out as quickly. Great frozen and reheated in the oven.

  • twoyolks on January 09, 2022

    Easy, relatively fast, and quite good. They work better for rolling food in (burrito-like) than pita does.

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Quite good and fairly easy.

• Chocolate-almond situation

  • jenmacgregor18 on April 01, 2023

    Excellent. This is rich like a flourless cake, but the almond flour gives it a texture somewhat similar to a brownie. The edges are crisp. And you can pick up a piece to eat if you want. It didn't take long to put together and only 25 minutes to bake. A winner all around. I was contemplating 70% cacao chocolate, but I tried 60% Ghirardelli. And that's as high as I would go with this. I think 70% would be too much. I don't think I could eat more than 1 ounce.

• Hummus tehina

  • ncollyer on March 24, 2019

    First rate. So delicious I had to eat it warm for breakfast. Plus there is advantage of the extra tehina sauce for other dishes.

  • hirsheys on July 17, 2018

    This hummus is insanely creamy, smooth, and light. The garlic and lemon are a little too mild for me, maybe, but overall, it's very special. Also, if you make the tehina sauce that is its basis, you can make the beets tehina, which I love.

  • chawkins on November 15, 2021

    The creamiest and smoothest hummus I’ve ever made. Very mild, very well balanced, not dominated by any one of the flavoring ingredients: lemon juice, cumin and garlic. I cooked the dry chick peas in the IP with 1 t of baking soda for 40 minutes, no soaking overnight.

  • Yildiz100 on March 08, 2016

    I totally messed up this recipe. I accidently made it too thin because I wasn't paying attention. Still commenting because there are a couple of things I want to note for next time. 1. Baking soda WORKS-wow! My food processor was able to make this smooth in no time. I just used a pinch-no need to use so much. Secondly, I added the cumin and as soon as I tasted all I could think of supermarket hummus-think Sabra. So, I paid attention to my most recent restaurant hummus orders and I've realized that the hummus that I am accustomed to (from local Lebanese places) has no cumin. Maybe a regional distinction. Lastly, I like the idea of blending the garlic in the lemon juice and then straining it since that gives you ultra smooth hummus, however, I think I might like a more pronounced garlic flavor.

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Fairly easy. Super creamy. So. Freaking. Good!!!

  • chezmaryb on January 01, 2021

    Made new years day. So satisfying, and healthy. Also ultrsaaasmooth

• Basic tomato sauce

  • hirsheys on June 10, 2018

    This is just basic tomato sauce, though the coriander does add an interesting note.

• Seasoned ground beef

  • hirsheys on June 10, 2018

    This is a simple and tasty recipe for the seasoned beef that is part of several other recipes in the book.

• Stuffed peppers

  • hirsheys on June 10, 2018

    These are good, but not brilliant. The seasoned beef is yummy, but I felt like there was some moisture missing and maybe some sweet and sour flavor? I think I would stir some tomato sauce into the rice/meat mixture next time at the very least.

  • Josefa_Mark on April 10, 2021

    These are delicious, and the recipe is more of a “batch size” so we had enough stuffing mix and tomato sauce to freeze for another night.

• Pita in the home oven

  • hirsheys on June 10, 2018

    I was super impressed by this recipe - it was easy to follow and the pitas came out both delicious and with real pockets! I'm excited to try the laffa version next - it's the same dough, just rolled thinner. I may also try it with a bit of whole wheat flour, since I love pita made with whole wheat... Solomonov says they cook in 3 minutes, but I preferred the second set that I cooked, which I had in for more like 5 minutes. They probably could have gone even longer, honestly.

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Quite good; fairly easy.

• Challah

  • hirsheys on June 16, 2018

    This worked well and is quite tasty. Make sure to make really skinny ropes like in the picture - I didn't and the bread ended up looking ridiculous. Left off the seeds because I don't like them. (Good way to use lots of yolks - uses 7!)

• Mujadara

  • hirsheys on July 01, 2018

    This recipe for mujadara calls for you to cook the spiced rice separately from the spiced lentils, which allows you to cook them both fully. (Big win - in past recipes I've made one always seems overcooked and one under.) That said, following the directions to cook the rice in the oven made the rice just a bit more al dente than I would have chosen. The lentils came out great, though. (I used green lentils, since I couldn't find beluga in the store...) All stirred together, this is absolutely fantastic, but I could also happily eat either of the two parts alone.

• Caramelized onions

  • hirsheys on July 10, 2018

    Method works well and they freeze beautifully. Takes forever, though.

• My mom's coffee-braised brisket

  • hirsheys on June 15, 2018

    This one grew on me, though I would definitely cut WAY back on the cardamom and would not use black cardamom. The eggs become super yummy. Does not beat my grandma's pot roast, but it was a nice change. I served with basmati rice cooked in the rice cooker with a pinch of salt, pinch of turmeric, and pat of butter.

• Seared chicken livers with caramelized onion tehina

  • hirsheys on July 01, 2018

    This recipe is quite easy if you have caramelized onions and tehina sauce in the freezer (as I did...) All in all, this was a very impressive and yummy meal, though I think I'd be more likely to make this with chicken thighs in the future - the livers are delicious, but just too rich for a regular meal for me. (Goes great with mujadara.)

• Mango, cucumber, and sumac-onion Israeli salad

  • hirsheys on June 03, 2018

    This is easy, lovely to look at, and very yummy! For me, the combo of sumac-onions and mint was really bright and fresh tasting (and I don't even always love mint!) and it went beautifully with the cucumbers and mango. My mango was extremely ripe, so it didn't cube up well. Still worked fine, though. My one complaint is that the amounts were a bit off - the recipe calls for 1 cucumber and 2 mangos, each of which are supposed to equal 3 cups. I found that 1 (relatively large English) cucumber and 2 regular sized mangos actually equaled only 1 1/2 c each. Since I had planned to make a half recipe, it worked out fine, but I can imagine being annoyed if I had thought 1 cucumber was going to feed more...

  • klrclark on October 04, 2020

    This is very bright tasting. My mangoes were very ripe but I think it needed more cucumber. I would love to serve with pork loin.

  • chezmaryb on December 13, 2020

    Fantastic. Better than the classic Israeli salad

• Beets with tehina

  • hirsheys on June 03, 2018

    I've been wanting to make this recipe forever and it did not disappoint! This is a very basic concept - shredded salt-roasted beets mixed with tehina sauce, herbs (dill & mint), olive oil, and lemon juice. It came together very easily and tastes great. My one issue - I realized after the fact that the box of Morton's salt I had was table salt, rather than kosher salt, and I wasn't sure the table salt would work for baking the beets. It worked fine and the beets were roasted beautifully. This will definitely go in my rotation.

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    I thought it was quite good, but my wife didn’t care for it.

  • rhughes24 on December 29, 2021

    This is a great salad, though I don't know that you need to roast the beets in salt. I found them quite hard to peel after that. I've made this with regular roasted beets (i.e. roasted in aluminum foil packets or just drizzled with olive oil) and it's still very good.

• Simple sumac onions

  • hirsheys on June 03, 2018

    I diced my onions because I was using them in a salad. Mine also weren't pink like the book, but nicely speckled. That said, I really love how they taste (I always forget how wonderful sumac is...) and can't wait to add them to other recipes.

• Mom's honey cake with apple confit

  • Aramis on September 15, 2017

    In the book, the recipe states that it makes one loaf then the recipe tells you to prepare two loaf pans. I had enough mixture for one medium sized loaf pan but the cooking time stated in the recipe (30 minutes) is insufficient. It needs 45 minutes at least. Very irritating when baking recipes are inaccurate.

• Chocolate babka

  • chawkins on March 13, 2016

    Very unusual recipe for chocolate babka, but the end result was very good. The babka was rich with a very soft crumb, nut then why wouldn't it, between the dough and the filling, there was a stick and a half of butter in there. It uses 2 tbs of yeast for 2 1/4 c of flour,but it does not taste yeasty. The dough was too wet, I had to add 6 more tbs of flour for it to come together. After the first rise, you rolled it out, filled and rolled it, then it went in the freezer for 3 hrs. You then sliced the roll and resembled back into loaf pan, let rise again and baked.

• Basic tehina sauce

  • rmardel on November 10, 2020

    Really good. This is now my go-to tehina sauce.

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Fairly easy. Started out quite rough but the sauce definitely became creamy and smooth as I whisked in additional water. Really good.

• Matzo ball soup with black garlic

  • Rinshin on May 25, 2022

    For this style of chicken soups I do not normally use recipes and go with my taste and whatever flavor of the day I want to coax out. But, I was intrigued with his use of black garlic in the soup and used it along with dried maetake mushrooms I had on hand. Although I made this soup using store bought rotisserie chicken carcass, the flavor was excellent. The matzo balls were indeed not dense. Instead of cinnamon, added nutmeg in mine along with small amount of seltzer water. The soup has a sweeter note from black garlic and darker in color than regular chicken soups. Photo added.

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Fairly quick and easy. Pretty decent. Flavorful broth. Maybe the first time I’d made matzo balls. They turned out pretty good.

• Yemenite beef soup

  • Barb_N on December 28, 2016

    I made this with leftover brisket, and skipped the accompaniments to make it weeknight friendly. Very delicious, and with the shortcuts, very quick too.

• Crispy haloumi cheese with dates, walnuts, and apples

  • MmeFleiss on March 24, 2016

    Really easy to make; looked and tasted impressive.

  • sosayi on June 28, 2018

    Agree that this is very, very easy to make. Next time, I'd make the date/walnut paste a bit chunkier (to match the photo, and not the directions which say to puree until smooth) and I'd cut the apple just a teensy bit larger for more crunch. Salty, sweet, tangy... great dish!

  • Nkrieda78 on October 25, 2021

    I loved this dish and based on a previous review used my knife for the dates and nuts to maintain texted. I didn’t have walnuts only pecans and this was still excellent.

  • dc151 on November 30, 2021

    This was amazing! Great flavors, so much payoff for little work. After reading the comments, I left the sauce on a bit on the chunkier side. I was asked to serve this for one of the kid's next birthday!

• Persian rice

  • a2cook on October 16, 2016

    Horrible! I ways skeptical of this recipe, but tried it anyway, thinking maybe the chef had come up with some new, ingenious way of making Persian rice (Tahdig). The chef uses Jasmine rice, turmeric, and canola oil instead of the more traditional Basmati rice, saffron, and ghee. His technique is just crazy - he has you coat the pot with canola oil, wipe it out, the coat it again with fresh oil. Then he has you sprinkle the bottom of the pot with turmeric before adding the rice. This caused the turmeric to burn slightly, and it produced a really unappetizing smell while the rice cooked. The result was Tahdig with zero flavor. A total waste of ingredients!

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Turned out fine.

  • karya on April 14, 2022

    Not sure if I cooked it wrong, but it seems that I had the same experience as a2cook. The bottom completely burned instead of making a nice crispy top and the rest was a bit bland. I will admit I wasn't using a heavy-bottom pan or cast iron dutch oven to make this, so that may have been where I went wrong, but given how black burnt the bottom was after only 20 minutes of the final cooking, I can't imagine a thicker bottom pan would have helped.

• Mina with ground beef, cardamom, and coffee

  • kitchen_chick on December 24, 2017

    Delicious! I used a 10" cast iron pan, and I think 1.5lb beef (other ingredients scaled up, too) would fill it better.

  • mfranklin125 on March 28, 2019

    Did 10” and 1.5 ground beef. The meal was delicious.

• Shakshouka

  • inflytur on December 27, 2018

    Perfect for a quick dinner or to clear out your vegetable drawer.

• Chicken albondigas

  • inflytur on January 04, 2020

    Tasty, spicy meatballs with a interesting crunchy element due to the almonds. I simmered them in a tomato sauce flavored with saffron. Reheat slowly on a low temperature to keep the chicken from getting tough.

• Tehina shortbread cookies

  • inflytur on March 02, 2018

    Lite and crumbly. Strong tahini flavor.

  • TonyInSeattle on April 15, 2020

    These were delicious — tender and with a robust tahini flavor. We went overboard and dipped them halfway in tempered dark chocolate, making them OMG. They also freeze well after they are cooked, so you can pull them out one or two at a time.

• Roasted zucchini with anchovies, feta, and hazelnuts

  • mfranklin125 on March 27, 2019

    I added greens to the salad and just used tahini because didn’t have sauce.

  • sosayi on June 28, 2018

    Really good dish. If you had the tehina sauce on hand, it would be a very quick weeknight dinner. Great combo of creamy savory sauce, blackened and sweetish zucchini, crunchy nuts, salty cheese.

  • purrviciouz on July 19, 2021

    Excellent! I thought it could use a good amount more hazelnuts as they were kind of drowned in the sauce flavors.

• Salt-baked leg of lamb

  • Dskamin on November 23, 2017

    This recipe notes at the end that there should be natural juices to use as a sauce. Didn't have any juices, and the salt in the roasting pan soaks up any juices emitted during roasting. beautiful spicing here.

• Turkish coffee ice cream

  • sosayi on June 11, 2018

    This is good. So creamy, so rich, and the coffee/cardamom flavor just sings. I did make a few changes, but I don't think they affected the final deliciousness. I used lactose-free half and half instead of a mix of cream (2 cups) and milk (2/3 cup). A bit less fat overall, probably, but the ice cream was rich enough and the texture was still very creamy and since they don't make lactose-free cream yet.... sigh. I also used decaf instant espresso powder in place of Turkish coffee. I keep this on hand for baking (no caffeine before bed for the DH) and while the fact that it dissolves fully might have slightly changed the appearance, the coffee flavor is still strong with it, so it worked. This really was SO good.

• Potato salad with pickled peppers

  • sosayi on June 27, 2018

    Really ridiculously easy potato salad to make and open to easy variations and riffs. I'd recommend salting the water for boiling the potatoes and upping the garlic. Worked fine with parsley in place of the pickled peppers (for which I used pepperoncini, not the shifkas).

• Kale, apple, walnut, and sumac-onion tabbouleh

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Easy and really good.

• Hummus with fresh beans and lamb

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    I couldn’t find fresh fava beans, so I used 1 c. frozen Lima beans and 1 c. Frozen edamame. I used 2 c. Shredded lamb shoulder and about 3/4 c. Sauce for four servings. Quite good.

• My chicken stock

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Easy and flavorful

• Lemon syrup

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Super easy; made for the classic konafi. I saved the candied lemon rinds and used them to top the konafi.

• Classic konafi

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Fairly easy; quite good. I saved the candied lemon rinds from the lemon syrup and put it on top which was a nice addition.

• Whole roast chicken with laffa and tehina

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Super easy; crispy and flavorful

• Poppy seed pilaf (Pilaf coquelicot)

  • Dannausc on June 20, 2019

    Fairly easy; tasty.

• Lamb shishlik with pistachio tehina

  • Lsblackburn1 on May 20, 2018

    I love this marinade! Really easy and delicious. I just did the meat - served it with store bought hummus and flat bread.

• Rugelach with apricot jam and pistachio filling

  • Lsblackburn1 on December 23, 2020

    These worked really well. Just ate 2 for breakfast and can report that they are delicious!

• Pumpkin broth with fideos

  • hbakke on November 03, 2021

    There was no weight listed for the red kuri squash and I think mine was considerably larger than the one the author used. After adding the fideos and cooked squash to the broth and letting it cool enough to eat it there was no broth left. No soup for me, I guess. The flavors were very muted in the resulting dish and I doubt I would make this again.

• Traditional tabbouleh

  • Shelmar on September 03, 2019

    Simple and good.

• Schug

  • rhughes24 on December 29, 2021

    This makes a huge quantity, but it packs a punch and is a great condiment if you're making a bunch of Israeli food.

• Green beans and mushrooms with tehina, lentils, and garlic chips

  • jinna on August 11, 2021

    Green beans were oily, whole dish felt greasy, taste was questionable. We threw it out, as it was not worth saving, or even eating . I was very disappointed because I have made many Solomonov recipes and never had a failure before. He is usually excellent and one of my favorites.

• Food52

  ...isn’t just about how he translated modern Israel's "delicious and soulful, vibrant and elemental" cuisine for the American palate. It’s also an ode to his late brother David.

  Full review

• San Francisco Chronicle

  Best Cookbooks of 2015: The family snapshots remind us that this type of food is about sharing, cooking together and longstanding traditions, and yet Solomonov manages to keep it current and fresh.

  Full review

• Eater

  ...the kind of book that will redefine the conversation around Middle Eastern cuisine in America. And yes, a recipe for the restaurant’s iconic hummus is included.

  Full review