Healthy Mezze Guide
Mediterranean Herbs & Spices Guide
Mediterranean cooking depends on contrast and freshness as much as on seasoning intensity. Herbs and spices can make legumes, vegetables, grains, grilled foods, and sauces more distinctive without making the food complicated.
Parsley and mint
Parsley brings a fresh, grassy quality to salads, dips, grains, and grilled foods. Mint adds cooling brightness and works especially well with yogurt, vegetables, salads, and drinks. Both are often best added close to serving.
Cumin and coriander
Cumin provides warm, earthy notes and works naturally with beans, lentils, vegetables, and grilled foods. Coriander seed or ground coriander adds citrus-like spice and can complement cumin without overwhelming a dish.
Sumac
Sumac contributes a tart, lemon-like acidity. It can brighten salads, onions, grilled foods, hummus, and breads. Because it adds acidity as well as seasoning, taste before adding extra lemon or vinegar.
Za'atar
Za'atar is a fragrant seasoning blend whose exact composition varies. It commonly combines dried herbs, sesame, and sumac. It can be used with bread, olive oil, vegetables, eggs, yogurt, and simple roasted dishes.
Cinnamon and warm spices
Cinnamon and related warm spices can appear in both sweet and savory regional cooking. Small amounts can add depth to rice, meat, stews, desserts, and drinks without making the dish taste strongly of cinnamon.
How to use spices well
Add dried spices at a stage where their aroma can develop, but avoid prolonged high heat that can make delicate spices taste harsh. Fresh herbs usually benefit from shorter exposure to heat and are often best used as a finishing element.
Recipes from this guide
Try these recipes to put the ideas and ingredients from this guide into practice.
Fattoush Salad Recipe — Classic Lebanese Bread Salad
A classic Lebanese fattoush made with crisp vegetables, parsley, mint, toasted pita, sumac, lemon juice, olive oil, and pomegranate molasses. Its appeal comes from the contrast between crunchy vegetables, crisp pita, fresh herbs, and a bright sweet-tart dressing.
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Shish Tawook Recipe — Juicy Lebanese Chicken Kabobs with Yogurt Marinade
This Shish Tawook recipe makes juicy Lebanese-style chicken kabobs marinated in Greek yogurt, lemon, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, tomato paste, paprika, cumin, oregano, and turmeric, then grilled until tender with golden-brown and lightly charred edges. An easy Mediterranean chicken recipe that's high in protein and perfect with toum, warm pita, rice, grilled vegetables, pickles, or fresh salad.
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Turkish Sumac Onion Salad Recipe — Authentic Soğan Piyazı
This Turkish Sumac Onion Salad recipe, known as soğan piyazı, combines thinly sliced red onion, tangy ground sumac, fresh lemon juice, flat-leaf parsley, extra virgin olive oil, and black pepper. The onion is gently massaged with salt before resting with lemon and sumac, creating a crisp, mellow, and intensely flavorful Turkish salad that is traditionally served with kebabs, grilled meats, kofta, falafel, lahmacun, wraps, and mezze.
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