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Mushrooms are not common in the Middle East but you do find them—in Cyprus, for instance.

For this Tunisian salad, use old carrots and mealy potatoes.

This simple and delightful North African salad is easy to make with the frozen artichoke bottoms obtainable from Middle Eastern stores.

Okra is one of the most popular vegetables in the Arab world.

A North African appetizer full of rich sensuous flavors.

If you want to use fresh baby artichokes, see instructions for preparing the hearts on page 282.

In this Tunisian salad the blandness of zucchini is lifted by the very rich flavoring.

The combination of raisins and pine nuts was brought by the Arabs all the way to Spain and Sicily.

Every country in the Middle East has a roast-pepper-and-tomato combination. This is an Egyptian one.

Another Moroccan orange salad. Argan is the preferred oil for it in Morocco, but you could also try hazelnut, walnut, or sesame oil.

This common Turkish way of serving eggplants is simple and quite delicious.

A Moroccan salad with an intriguing combination of flavors

The delicate nutty argan oil is particularly good in this spicy Moroccan salad. It is made from the nut in the fruit of the argan tree, which grows exclusively in southwestern Morocco.

This salad brings back for me memories of the garlands of islands floating in the deep blue sea, the plaintive sound of the bouzouki, and the sugar-cake houses.

Tomatoes are banadoura in Arabic and tamatem in Egypt.

This is a homely version of the very green parsley-and-mint salad with buff-colored speckles of bulgur wheat you find in all Lebanese restaurants all over the world. Like many items on the standard Lebanese restaurant menu, it was born in the mountain region of Zahlé, in the Bekáa Valley of Lebanon, where the local anise flavored grape liquor arak is produced. Renowned for its fresh air and its natural springs and the river Bardaouni, which cascades down the mountain, the region acquired a mythical reputation for gastronomy. In 1920 two cafés opened by the river. They gave away assorted nuts, seeds, olives, bits of cheese, and raw vegetables with the local arak. Gradually the entire valley became filled with open-air cafés, each larger and more luxurious than the next, each vying to attract customers who flocked from all over the Middle East with ever more varied mezze. The reputation of the local mountain-village foods they offered, of which tabbouleh was one of the jewels, spread far and wide and became a national institution. What started as a relatively substantial salad, rich with bulgur, was transformed over the years into an all-green herby affair. When the first edition of my book came out, I received letters telling me I had too much bulgur in that recipe. One letter from Syria explained that mine was the way people made the salad many years ago, when they needed to fill their stomachs. You see, many of my relatives left Syria for Egypt a hundred years ago, and that was how they continued to make it. The following is a contemporary version.

The salad is made in the Lebanese mountain villages with a fermented goat cheese, but you can use a strong, crumbly goat cheese.

This strong-tasting Egyptian salad made with feta cheese is good with ful medames (page 328).

In this most common of Arab salads, all the ingredients are cut very small. Do not prepare it too long before serving, and dress it just before serving.

You need good feta cheese for this. Serve with pita bread to dip in.