Mediterranean meals made simple, healthy, and unforgettable.

I’m Mokhtar Hassan, and my wife and I created Healthy Mezze to share our culture, the homemade dishes we make, and commonly known dishes that we enjoy with the world. We believe that behind every home comes a great dish, which is why many of the recipes we share are dishes we actually make at our own table, whether it is breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

The recipes we share are tested the way we personally make them at home or in our café. We want them to be easy to make, and we make sure to show how some ingredients can be replaced or how a recipe can be adjusted to suit your needs, whether that means extra lemon, more spice, or an ingredient replacement when something is not available.

We like to taste as we go rather than waiting until the very end. We take a little spoon and feel each step as we go, making sure the overall taste is not overwhelmed by one ingredient over the other. When making a salad dressing, we taste it after mixing and make our judgment based on whether we like it more salty or need another adjustment.

For chicken and other proteins, we always make sure they are fully cooked. For example, we may take the tray out of the oven, cut a small piece, and check whether it is still pinkish or fully cooked. Our goal is to share a practical way of cooking rather than simply giving you a timer to follow blindly.

Many of these habits are simply what our parents and grandparents taught us. At the same time, we know that traditional recipes change over time, especially when families live in regions where ingredients or preparation methods may be different. Healthier and more practical adaptations are therefore part of our cooking methodology, while we make a distinction between a traditional preparation and an adaptation we offer.