• ellabee on November 17, 2014

  Recommended recipes from AmyH in chow.com forum: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/968006#9125302.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Alexandrian spicy dried fava bean spread

  • mijitsu on February 06, 2015

    The recipie asks for 2 cups of dried beans which I thought produced a) a huge amount of cooked beans (more than 4 servings for a spread served with other mezze) and b) the amount of dressing seemed to be not enough for them. I thought the result was quite bland. Would go with 2 cups of COOKED fava beans next time.

• Baalbek chickpea & sesame spread (Hummus)

  • radishseed on January 13, 2014

    I made several hummus recipes for a taste test, and this one was the clear winner. It has a nice creamy texture and well-balanced flavors.

• Bengali chickpea vegetable fritters

  • PinchOfSalt on July 03, 2013

    For some inexplicable reason, this recipe is not found by its name in the index. Look for it in the Salads section.

• Beijing bok choy with mushrooms

  • Barb_N on March 25, 2015

    What I love about EYB- I input ingredients and discover long lost cookbooks. This is a straightforward recipe- if you know how to stirfry, you almost don't need the recipe but I like to refer to it for the sauce. Strangely, this recipe is in the Salads section of the book.

  • anu_luke20 on May 02, 2026

    Easy and delicious. Made double quantity of sauce which was maybe too much, but really loved it. Added some small cubes of tofu and chopped scallion.

• Azerbaijani pomegranate & spinach soup

  • Babsadon on August 29, 2017

    I substituted lambs quarters (Chenopodium album-it's a common weed) for the spinach and left out the chervil and parsley (didn't have any). Works well. Lambs quarters is less slimy than spinach. Nice exotic-tasting soup.

• Mesopotamian barley, lentil, & tahini soup

  • radishseed on January 24, 2014

    This is extra yummy with feta cheese on top and toasted pita on the side.

• Black Sea borscht

  • Babsadon on February 24, 2022

    On p. 113

• Persian cauliflower kuku

  • jenburkholder on March 12, 2024

    Colorful kuku with a bit different flavor profile to others I’ve had. Used one bag of frozen cauliflower and added a bit more parsley, cooking in a frying pan before baking at 350 for ~35 minutes in a casserole. Would repeat.

• Isfahani green bean & tomato braise

  • campusbrownie on January 07, 2016

    I used a small amount of grape tomatoes, rather than the stated value, and just a little bit of cayenne rather than the chili paste, and cooked the beans al dente. Very popular.

• Elam kidney bean & lime braise

  • jenburkholder on June 24, 2024

    Admittedly, I’ve mostly lost my sense of taste due to illness, but I still quite enjoyed this. Subbed a bit of dill in for the cilantro and cooked the kidney beans fully before starting the rest of the recipe. Nice depth of flavor.

• Persian butternut squash braise

  • Babsadon on December 30, 2020

    It’s in the index under squash, p.190. Very good. I substituted sour cherries and pistachios for the prunes and walnuts.

• Sichuan spicy stir-fry tofu

  • anu_luke20 on January 27, 2026

    Wasn't as flavorful as I had expected. Would recommend sauteeing or roasting chopped eggplant (along with tofu?) prior to adding to dish. Also added a little mushroom oyster sauce and chinkiang black vinegar. Needed to cook for much longer than recipe stated.

• Indian samosa [cilantro relish; tamarind chutney]

  • LFL on May 15, 2021

    4.5 stars. My husband was craving samosas and decided to make samosa filling (he wasn’t up to the time suck of dough and chutneys). I went through all the potato samosa recipes I had that were indexed here and decided this one looked best so that’s what he made. I was right. The samosa filling turned out so, so good! One of the best I’ve had (I particularly loved the coriander seeds). Though we didn’t make the dough I think it would be very good too; there are cumin seeds in it. The only changes my husband made in the recipe was to leave out the green chili and reduce the oil and salt. We used a nonstick saute pan and doubled the recipe so it made no sense to put in 1/2 cup (1/4 per single recipe). We reduced the salt to 2/3. It would probably be even better with more salt but we drew the line at 1 tsp. It turned out almost perfect. The only change we might make in the future is to add more ginger. But even that I would add cautiously since it’s so good as is, and quite spice-laden.

• Samarkand baked candied quince with walnuts

  • Ganga108 on June 10, 2023

    A very similar recipe to the "Baked candied quince with walnuts" recipe in Food of Life by the same author. Requires 3 hrs cooking time.

• Rhubarb syrup

  • LKrishnan81 on March 17, 2014

    Strain rhubarb through mesh sieve and save pulp to use as spread/jam for toast, yogurt, ice cream, syllabubs, etc.