KaoutarFrom Italy to Greece via the south of France, Mediterranean recipes bring their summer touch to mealtime. Stuffed vegetables, fresh salads, salty cakes, tarts, and appetizers, stock up on sun-drenched recipes to brighten up your table.
Mediterranean cuisine is said to be products and methods of preparation specific to the inhabitants of the Mediterranean basin. Tasty at will, it revolves mainly around vegetables from the sun, olive oil, fish, and fresh fruit. In this very sunny area of the globe, there are countless salads to enjoy. They are sometimes tabbouleh, sometimes Greek with beautiful tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, and feta, but also caprese based on tomatoes and mozzarella so as not to displease our palates. As an aperitif, we like to tackle bruschettas topped with ham, goat slices, cherry tomatoes, and basil or a pissaladière as found in Nice. When we get to the hot dishes, we melt for paella with seafood, lasagna, or moussaka with eggplant. On the sweet side, we long for a good tiramisu, baklavas, or a bowl of Greek yogurt with seasonal fruits.
Famous dishes of Mediterranean cuisine
Paella
It is possibly the best known worldwide and a reference in Spain. It is understood as it is a dish full of flavor that allows you to mix the favorite ingredients of each house. Whatever option you choose: seafood paella, Valencian paella, black rice. if you prepare the paella with fresh, local products and cook it with love, you will be facing an incredibly good dish full of nutrients.
Gazpacho
Its internationalization is more than justified. The mixture of tomato, pepper, garlic, olive oil, and vinegar never gave so much play. Today, with the new trend of vegetable juices and smoothies, we could say that gazpacho is a vegetable smoothie of the first magnitude. Prepared at the whim of each family, it is perfect for hot summer days.
Bruschetta
Typical Italian dish consists of toasted bread with olive oil, accompanied by various ingredients such as tomato, basil, garlic, eggplant, artichokes, and cheese. It is often served as an appetizer.
Lentils Folded into Yogurt, Spinach, and Basil
Let’s start with something light and delicious. One of the classic Mediterranean preparations, this dish has a soothing taste and a spicy delight for your palate.
As the name suggests, the main ingredients of this dish are lentils, yogurt, spinach, and basil. But, there’s more to this dish than meets the eye. It has cloves, garlic, lemon, olive oil, ground pepper, and more.
Even pine nuts and walnuts are added to this dish to give it crunchy effects. Chefs do this by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl and making a perfect blend, then this mixture is placed on toast before being served on a platter. In fact, a great way to be appetizing.
Spanakopita
While the name can be quite difficult to imagine the dish, this is a Greek delicacy that simply melts in the mouth. Appreciated by all Greek food lovers, this is a dish that is healthy and plentiful. Although it resembles a typical breakfast croissant, it can be eaten at any time of the day.
Baked in small sizes, Spanakopita has a rich filling of tender spinach, feta cheese, and cottage cheese. The filling is placed on the puff pastry dough and wrapped before putting it in the oven to bake perfectly. The more butter you add to each layer of the dough, the richer and more puff pastry you will enjoy later.
Baba Ghanoush:
No meal is complete without a dressing to enrich the food you are eating. In Mediterranean cuisine great importance has been given to sauces and when you know which sauce to combine with what type of food, you have discovered the secret of tasty food.
Baba Ganoush is a tasty dip made with eggplant that combines with all kinds of Greek dishes. Round and purple eggplants are roasted or grilled to perfection and the soft interior of the eggplant is mixed with sesame tahini, lemon juice, garlic, and other spices for a perfect texture that tastes divine
Mediterranean Potato Salad:
Oh, so tasty, this salad is so divine that a bowl is never enough. You get a full stomach, but that doesn’t satisfy your cravings. You always end up wanting more and more.
Made with simple potatoes, this salad is rich in nutrients and flavors. It can be enjoyed during lunch or with dinner. Hand-selected potatoes are seasoned with mustard, wine vinegar, salt, olive oil, and other spices and served hot and spicy.
Roasted bell pepper dressings make the compilation successful and there you are to enjoy a perfect, delicious, and hearty Greek dish.
Baked Sole In Fresh Tomato Sauce:
The mere mention of this dish is enough to make the mouth water. Just like the name suggests, the dish is healthy because it’s baked, so all those fitness fans who aren’t ready to stay deprived of a good meal can jump onto this plate.
It’s a low-carb dish that has plenty of soles and tomatoes. When topped with thyme, lemon, and black olives, this is perfect preparation for your cravings. It is a perfect choice for dinner. Order this and impress your company with its authentic taste.
Eggplant Moussaka:
A combination of the best ingredients, Eggplant Moussaka is a dish for souls. It has a mixture of garlic, onion, lamb, tomatoes, white wine, sugar, cinnamon, pepper, and lots of eggplants.
The sauce for the dish is prepared separately and includes milk, flour, butter, parmesan and salt, and spices. The dish requires diligence and experience to cook and only an expert Mediterranean chef can bring it to perfection. Enjoy the dish during dinner and we are sure that you will always be grateful to us for recommending this delicious dish.
Greek chicken dumplings:
A delight for non-vegetarians, this dish is a perfect starter for a multi-course meal. Greek chicken dumplings are soft, juicy, and delicious. A lot of spices, chicken, and experience are mixed to make this dish come alive.
Meatballs are made and fried to perfection. They are served with a combination of feta cheese and cucumber along with yogurt sauce. Choose this dish at any time of the day, you will not regret ordering this incredible preparation.
Mediterranean-Style Chicken Salad:
Chicken salad is something essential that we all love to eat. It can be done in several ways, but we bet that the Mediterranean style is the best. It is made with a combination of spices that are not too spicy for anyone’s taste. So, basically, it’s a soft, tasty, easy-to-digest salad that completes your meals.
Ask for it at any time and let your taste buds dance with pleasure. It is made with red onion, vinegar, olives, chili flakes, and, of course, mixed chicken.
Mediterranean vegetable bowls:
For all vegetable lovers, here is something tasty and spicy for your delight. When you combine the best vegetarian ingredients, you get tasty vegetable bowls. The key ingredients of this dish are eggplant, zucchini, olive oil, chickpeas, lemon juice, and many spices and herbs. It is served with tahini sauce, a famous Mediterranean delicacy. Choose it for lunch or brunch and enjoy the flavor flavors.
Ratatouille
Ratatouille comes from Nice. The first recipes date back to 1877, but the modern recipe gained fame during the 1930s. This ratatouille is built on a rich base of tomato stew. Slices or chunks of eggplant, bell peppers, and zucchini provide vibrant colors and fresh flavors.
Into the stew also go generous amounts of garlic and onion. The broth is then flavored with basil, thyme, and a number of other herbs. Old-school French chefs believe the true way to make ratatouille is by cooking the vegetables separately, then adding them into a big pot.
Ratatouille is cooked slowly, to attain a thick, creamy texture. This also allows the flavors to seep into the liquid. French cuisine needs no introduction. But ratatouille’s influences and ingredients make it an iconic Mediterranean food.
Risotto
Hailing from northern Italy, risotto is a simple and wholesome rich dish, that has been eaten for centuries. The key to risotto is in the broth, in which the rice cooks. Both cook together until a thicker, creamier consistency is achieved. Through the years, many flavors of risotto have been created and curated.
Common risotto recipes see parmesan cheese, onions, wine, and butter all cooked in the broth with rice. Legend has it that in 19th century Italy, a chef’s apprentice added saffron to a rice dish at a large wedding. For those who believe the tale, this is credited as the very first ‘risotto’.
Today, you can find risotto with a range of different flavors and tastes. Mushroom risotto is a signature at many Italian restaurants.
Conclusion
Mediterranean cuisine offers delicious and healthy dishes that can be prepared in a short time using regional foods.
For example, if your goal is to lose weight, you don’t have to go on a drastic diet to lose weight.
You can achieve a calorie deficit with a Mediterranean diet through healthy eating thanks to the high consumption of vegetables. You don’t have to starve, and you can still lose weight.
The Mediterranean diet is not a diet, because you are changing your diet in the long term and not just for a certain period of time. So there is no danger of the yo-yo effect – another advantage.
In addition, eating these dishes can prevent a variety of diseases.
The preparations are very varied and can be made with all kinds of vegetables, depending on tastes and preferences.
