Very Good Salads: Middle-Eastern Salads and Plates for Sharing

Shop Notes:

I usually do not carry books that celebrate restaurants from the other side of the world, but this cookbook is special in that it will really up your salad game with all types of new flavor combinations and inventive uses for vegetables and beans throughout all four seasons.  Even if you're not vegetarian or vegan, this book will help you incorporate more healthy ingredients, more variety, and certainly more flavor into your weekly menu.  Truly, it's a winner.

From the Publisher:

A seasonal cookbook filled with salad and dips inspired by the Middle East.

This book contains 52 very good salad recipes, brought to you by Shuki Rosenboim and Louisa Allan, owners of Very Good Falafel, a small falafel bar in Melbourne, Australia. With a focus on vegan salads, exceptional dips, soft pita and, of course, very good falafel, all made from local in-season ingredients – you’ll find all of these dishes, and more, in this very good book.

Very Good Salads shares Shuki and Louisa’s original, much-lauded falafel recipe for the first time, along with their popular salads that change with the seasons. Making the very best of fresh produce, recipes include Iraqi Jewish and Middle Eastern-focused salads that are as good on their own as they are stuffed into bread with a side of tahini.

Each salad makes use of the whole vegetable, with classic and less-expected pairings such as watermelon salad with za’atar, radish and fried pita; peaches, basil, and hazelnut; and grilled leek with pomegranate, walnuts, spring onion, mint, dill, and lemon zest; as well as larger offerings such as silverbeet rice cake and stuffed tomatoes with saffron rice and dried mint. In addition, the book shares recipes for traditional dips and the ultimate pita recipe that produces flawless bread to stuff or serve alongside share plates.