The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook: 500 Vibrant, Kitchen-Tested Recipes for Living and Eating Well Every Day (The Complete ATK Cookbook Series)

I’m a fair cook, but since buying this book, I’ve learned more about how to choose, mix and prepare ingredients than I could have imagined. There are fantastic, delicious recipes - yummy zucchini and feta fritters, scallops with orange/lime dressing, orzo with lemon shrimp, to name just of few of the dishes I’ve already made!! The authors explain why they do certain things (e.g. braising vs. baking), provide really helpful tips (e.g. how to devein shrimp and zest a lemon), give overviews on basic ingredients like olive oil, beans and fresh herbs, and offer variations for many of the dishes. Nutritional information for each recipe is even provided! Recipes are easy to follow and presented in a logical order that makes preparation efficient, even to the point of indicating when mixing bowls and pans can be re-used. To be fair, most of the recipes take more than 40 minutes to prepare, and while most of the ingredients can be found at any grocery store, they aren’t items I already had in my pantry. After making about 10 of the dishes, however, I now have most of the staples for Mediterranean cooking readily available and use them regularly. Buying sherry vinegar and ground coriander may seem like one-off investments, but trust me, you’ll be using these items again in no time! And to my surprise, this book has done such a great job educating me, I’m can now modify some of the recipes based on personal preferences! If you’re looking to change your diet, or for just a few great dishes, this book is a must have! UPDATE: I've been using this cookbook for a year now, and have made more than 125 of the recipes, many on multiple occasions. All but 1 of the dishes have ranged from good to great! I've even tried some of the recipes that didn't sound appealing on paper and am so glad I did...who knew Spicy Turnips and Chickpeas could be such a delicious combo?? I can't overstate how great this cookbook is! My absolute only issue is the binding is weak. Pages started falling out almost immediately, so I suggest going with the spiral bound version if it's available. Happy cooking!

I'm by no means a chef. I was a decent cook when my family was young but I'm now retired, cook only for myself, and have found myself with several serious medical conditions that have made me explore what I can do to live a healthier lifestyle. I've followed a Flexitarian diet for several years but was only 1/2-committed to it. Now, at 67 I've realized I have to get serious about making my lifestyle healthier so I discussed my diet with my doctor who referred me to his nutritionist. His practice recommends the DASH diet as a starter but also recommended marrying it to the Mediterranean diet. I won't say learning a new life style has been easy, but I've found it's also a lot easier than I thought for 2 reasons: first, a Mediterranean diet is a lot of common sense , and 2nd, The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook has everything I need to know in one book. At 400+ pages it at first seemed kind of daunting but the authors from America's Test Kitchen are a resource well-known to me from their tv programs. I know their recipes have been worked and reworked until the results are delicious and work well each time so I've bought several of their cook books, but this one has taught me how to follow a healthier lifestyle. EVERYTHING is here. The first several pages explain the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid and basic principles to get started. There are examples of meal planning, information about necessary core pantry ingredients, and why certain ingredients are essential for the diet. I want to add that I don't like spiciness; several medications I take result in a very dry mouth and spicy foods make my tongue feel like it's been burned. I've learned some spices can be omitted and there are others such as sumac and za'tar that improve the flavor profile without making a dish spicy. I've also learned how to prepare different rices and grains to vary flavor and texture profiles, and this book explains in detail how to prepare them. As an aside I also invested in an Instant Pot that also makes preparing rice and grains fool-proof and make meals much easier to prepare when possible. I particularly like the Test Kitchen Tips and Notes as well as Why This Recipe Works throughout the book as well as suggested substitutions if I don't like a particular ingredient or one isn't available. Some spices such as cumin and turmeric are now kept as staples as I'm learning I can adjust the amount to get a hint of taste without spiciness, I don't do a lot of grocery shopping because I tire easily but many spices, seasonings. cooking tools, etc. can be found on Amazon, nuts.com. and spices web sites. It's so much easier than going from store to store shopping for things. There are also beautiful color pictures of finished dishes as well as those showing preparation tips. I also like that recipes in the index are color-coded to indicate those that are fast (less than 45 minutes from start to finish) and vegetarian. I'm retired but because I tire easily I've discovered I can do much of the prep work earlier in the day then make the meal when it's time for dinner. I have no interest in some of the meals but with over 500 recipes there are also many that I've tried and are delicious and many others I've flagged to try. You can't go wrong with this book!

I like the variety of recipes that simple, healthy an flavorful. One star off for cooking food in aluminum foil, which is linked to Alzheimers.

I don’t normally write reviews (I’m a harsh critic), but I’ve recommended this book to so many people now, I thought I should. I lost 35 lbs. by cooking recipes from this book 3-5 times a week on average. No, I don’t exercise; I just eliminated all processed foods from my diet and replaced them with recipes from this book. I also enjoy a glass of wine (or two!) with my meal most evenings. I’m not sure how many different recipes I’ve made from the book, but it’s definitely more than 50–possibly 100. They are all DELICIOUS! There is not a single recipe in this book I would not serve to guests. In fact, I’m a bit embarrassed when I serve these recipes to guests and they tell me what a talented cook I am. I blush and point to the book and say “honestly, I can read and follow directions.” It’s really that simple! The recipes are very easy to follow and even a complete novice like me can turn out wonderful food if you follow the directions carefully. The recipes all call for readily available ingredients that you can find in any grocery store. There are a handful of ingredients I’ve never used or even heard of, but you can find them and I tell people to not be intimidated by them. If I can do it, anyone can. There are a great number of vegetarian recipes in here, which my wife’s family (Hindu strict vegetarians) LOVE. My wife even complains when we go out to fancy Italian restaurants now, “this isn’t as good as what you make!” I wasn’t much of a vegetable guy before I started this journey, now I literally crave vegetables—it makes my mouth water just thinking about it! If you’re going to diet, you have to like the food to stick to it—you really can’t do better than this. My one complaint (and it’s extremely minor) is the author(s) write in the beginning that they did not include any recipes featuring things like salmon because it’s not indigenous to the Mediterranean. Really? Because neither are tomatoes (!!!), potatoes, halibut, etc. There are plenty of AMAZING seafood recipes, however. Simply put, I would have continued cooking out of this book even if I hadn’t lost the weight—turns out that’s just a side benefit! P.S. You may want to start a small herb garden, as I recently have. Almost all the recipes call for fresh herbs (parsley, thyme, basil, oregano, etc.). While fresh herbs are relatively inexpensive, I find the quantities generally include more than I need and go bad before I can use the whole bunch. I don’t recommend trying to substitute dry herbs (unless specifically noted)—they just don’t compare. EDIT: It’s been a year now and I’ve stuck to my diet and maintained my weight (I’m right on my ideal BMI). I saw some reviews that said the nutrition info is somewhat cumbersome to find. Honestly, I never even looked at that section! I just made the recipes that appealed to me and the pounds came off. I also saw some people say they thought some ingredients were hard to find; that has not been my experience. I shop at wegmans, which granted, does carry a lot of gourmet food items. But the ones that are more unique (pomegranate molasses, Dukkah, preserved lemons, etc.) the book provides recipes on making them—however, I didn’t make any of those as you can also find them right here on Amazon.

Americas Test Kitchen is a fantastic resource for learning how to cook and understanding the WHY behind techniques and tool, food, spice choices. This is not a basic Mediterranean diet cookbook, though they do touch upon that. These are recipes for Mediterranean cooking, and not just recipes. Again, ATK is a learning resource, and this is chock full of information. Read it like a book, or pick from different sections at random. Follow up by making one of the many tasty looking dishes. If you want to learn how to cook, or up your game, and not just throw together food, then this is highly appealing for that. I'd say it is for more ambitious cooks with access to a wide variety of fresh food. I cook every single day and I feel like this is a tad advanced for me. Within my realm of interest, but a bit outside my comfort zone. Yet doable. Because they explain everything, and it is a good book to learn from. Anything by Americas Test Kitchen. I'd say I have learned the most between ATK and Cooks. Gorgeous book. Glossy photos. Not a pic for every recipe, but there are many pics. It is not a book for casually grabbing off shelf to follow a recipe. Use this as a means to learn about how to cook Mediterranean dishes, and learn how to use different foods in a way that they found to work best.

What's good about it? The variety and sheer number of recipes. The in-depth how-to and how-comes. What's bad about it? 1. I bought the hardcopy and the print is so small!!! 2. Exotic ingredients that are hard-to-find. I couldn't find fontina cheese at any of the big 3 national grocery chains in my medium-size city of almost one million people. Lavash bread was not available at one of the stores. Forget about finding squid in Kentucky. 3. Not enough pictures. There is not a picture of each recipe. 4. Complicated recipes with a lot of ingredients. I'm an experienced cook with almost 40 years of experience preparing meals and I will have to read, and re-read as I go. This is a very advanced cookbook and not for the faint of heart. 5. The nutrition information is at the back of the book instead of with the actual recipe, almost like it was an afterthought. 6. Too many "just buy the premade processed crap" instead of giving 100% of the information to make the whole item from scratch. Why would you tell the reader to buy premade Lavash bread instead of giving the recipe?? I bought this particular cookbook because of the 20,000 almost 5- star reviews. I'm still scratching my head at that. Not even close to 5 stars in my mind.

Recommended by a chef friend, this book has all you need for preparing authentic Mediterranean recipes

This is one of the best cookbooks I have purchased in a long time! I am a newbie to the Mediterranean diet, but super interested in a low-glycemic, anti-inflammatory and high veggie, herb and spice lifestyle. I’m fairly picky and have a good mix of need for quick and easy meals as well as a rewarding and fun longer meal. This book has both. I will highlight that it also has it organized in sections where you can find an ingredient like chickpeas, and then it gives you 5 or so recipes using that ingredient as the base. So if you are someone who is like “I want to learn how to cook with chickpeas more” then this gives you a good couple of options to get those in your diet and I’m sure you will find at least one go-to favorite from those few choices. It is well organized, informational, beautiful, and super handy! Great wedding gift, staple cookbook for any household.