Mediterranean Recipes67 authentic family recipes

Mediterranean cuisine is what nutritionists tell you to eat — olive oil instead of butter, fish instead of red meat, beans and grains instead of refined starch, vegetables at every meal, and a glass of wine that the doctors say is optional but the Greeks insist isn't. The cuisine spans Greece, southern Italy, southern France, coastal Spain, Cyprus, and parts of North Africa.

The flavour anchors are olive oil, garlic, lemon, oregano, basil, and the unselfconscious use of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and leafy greens. Cheese is usually fresh and crumbly (feta, halloumi, ricotta), and the protein leans toward fish, chicken, and pulses rather than red meat. Dishes are simpler than Indian cooking — five or six ingredients done well, not twenty layered.

Our Mediterranean recipes cover Greek salads and moussaka, Spanish tortilla and gazpacho, Provençal ratatouille, Cypriot halloumi dishes, and the Lebanese-Cypriot-Greek overlap that we class as Mediterranean rather than Middle Eastern. About half are vegetarian or vegan.