How to Make Your Own Vegan Middle Eastern Food

Learning to cook your own food is empowering, as you no longer have to rely on expensive plastic-wrapped ready-meals and takeaways. Master your favourite cuisines at home. Then every night is restaurant night!

The Vegan Middle Eastern Cookbook is a beautiful book of authentic recipes, based around grains and pulses, nuts, vegetables and fruits, from cuisine in Iran, Armenia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Turkey.

Never eat rice after 24 hours. Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (many ingredients are unsafe near animal friends). Bin allium scraps (onion, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives) as acids may harm compost creatures (same with tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps).

Find dishes to use as a main course or traditional mezze. This book features warm and spicy stuffed vegetables, cool and fragrant soups, delicate preserves, pilafs, bread, pickles, relishes and pastries.

About the Author

Parvin Razavi was born in Iran, and spent her early years at the Caspian Sea and in Tehran, until their family emigrated to Europe. She has always been fascinated by her family kitchen, and her culinary talent was valued for years among friends, before she turned her passion into her profession.

Vegan Middle East and One Arab Vegan are nice recipe blogs, proving that this  popular cuisine is suitable for Muslims worldwide. Plant Based Arab is another nice recipe blog, by a man who is a part-Syrian Palestinian, born in Jordan.

His site offers Ramadan recipes, and an e-book of Middle Eastern Recipes.

Middle East Vegan Society is an organisation to support businesses transition to plant-based.  It has info on being a vegan Muslim, a country guide and its own V-label certification (already used for over 50,000 products in over 30 countries).

Other Good Middle Eastern Vegan Cookbooks

• Veganistan
• Tahini and Turmeric (fusion food)

Allah (God) will not give mercy to anyone, except those who give mercy to other creatures. Prophet Mohammed

This lentil harissa pasta (So Vegan) is a North-African-inspired take on traditional pasta. The dish is very high in protein due to tinned lentils and beans, and made with plant milk and cheesy-tasty nutritional yeast (find in health stores) along with garlic, tomato, pitted green olives – serve with fresh parsley and vegan yoghurt.

Harissa paste is a spicy ingredient that can be found in all shops, and often used to make North African recipes including soups. It has quite a lot of ingredients but if you’re a foodie or professional chef, try this recipe at Pick Up Limes to make your own.

If you never know which pasta shape to choose, know that as a rule, thick pasta shapes hold on better to thick sauces (say creamy ones like this) and reserve the thinner pasta for thin tomato sauces. We think spaghetti is quite thin, and recommend linguine which is a bit thicker, and holds onto the sauce better.

Unless there are medical reasons not to, it’s best to salt the pasta water. In Italy, if pasta is cooked without salt, it’s called ‘silly pasta!’

Did you know that you can now buy homegrown pasta (British wheat) in plastic-free packaging? Choose from Yorkshire Pasta or Northern Pasta (from Cumbria).

Falafel mix is a delicately spiced mix with cumin and coriander, ideal made into 8 falafels to stuff into pitta pockets, with crisp salad and a drizzle of tahini. Or serve on a bed of hot couscous with spicy vegetable stew.

Just Wholefoods is a small artisan food company that create lovely plant-based mixes, to create your favourite teatime treats, made with kind ingredients and lots of love, from the Cotswolds.

Find these items in health shops, or buy online in bulk. Read up on food safety for people and pets. You can recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside does not recycle.

 

 

Make Your Own Middle Eastern Hummus 

This homemade hummus (So Vegan) is better than the ice-cold greasy stuff in supermarket plastic tubs. In the Middle East, hummus is served fresh and warm, like this one.

To simplify this recipe, sub dry soaked chickpeas with drained canned ones. Then blend with garlic cloves, lemon juice, tahini, spices and salt. Serve with fresh crudities or pitta.

Garlic can increase bleeding, so check medication if you have any medical conditions or are due for surgery. Don’t feed birds or wildfowl garlic bread, it choke or harm. 

This butter bean hummus (The Veg Space) is full of protein. A great basic recipe that only needs 4 ingredients (lemon juice, tahini, canned butter beans and garlic), you can then have fun varying up the flavours: Add cooked beetroot or vegan pesto to make pink or green hummus, or swap the soil for jarred sun-dried tomatoes.

Spicy White Bean Buffalo Hummus (The Vegan 8) is by a super-talented chef, whose recipes always turn out fab. This recipe swaps the chickpeas for tinned cannellini beans, along with roasted red peppers, garlic, paprika, tahini, lemon juice and hot sauce.

 

Falafel Sandwich (Hey Nutrition Lady) is worlds away from the greasy items offered in supermarkets. This packs hot falafel next to cool cucumber and pickled onions, in a homemade tahini sauce.

Magical Green Falafel (Full of Plants) are super-easy to make, with just 6 ingredients and a few spices. Serve with pita bread, salads and hummus. Also try Thomas’ Falafel Pasta Salad which combines two favourite foods.

A Book of Homemade Falafel Recipes

Falafel is the ultimate guide to the popular Middle Eastern fast food, by Croatian chef Dunja Gulin. Using vegetables, nuts, seeds, lentils and grains, find recipes for fennel lemon scented falafel, juicy brown rice faux-lafel, crunchy sesame falafel or falafel croquettes.

You’ll also learn how to make a tasty Mediterranean seed falafel, served with homemade tahini sauce, alongside tangy quick pickles, crispy herb salads and easy flatbreads.

Where to Buy Falafel and Hummus Mix

If you do go down this route, then you can recycle plastic packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your council does not collect kerbside. Amisa Organic Falafel Mix is gluten-free. Serve with mixed salad leaves, olives, cherry tomatoes, sliced onion and hummus for a nice summer lunch.

Just Whole Foods Organic Falafel Mix is delicately spiced with cumin and coriander. Serve in pitta pockets with crisp salad and a drizzle of tahini, or serve on couscous with spicy vegetable stew.

Hummus Where The Heart Is is another of Dunja’s books, this time offering 65 inventive recipes for this delicious favourite. Learn how to make the perfect homemade hummus (from chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic and tahini) then again find recipes to use it – onion jam hummus, Indonesian-style hummus, baked aubergine/eggplant version and dippers, plus even chapters for hummus meals and desserts.

The Magic of Tahini shows how to make your own creamy sesame paste that’s high in protein and calcium (from both black or white sesame seeds).

Then use it to create dreamy recipes including strawberry tahini yoghurt, sesame-full quiche, velvety white soup, marbelled muffin and coconut black tahini ice-cream.

Middle Eastern Vegan Desserts

Eastern desserts and cakes carry cultural taste in every bite, yet are rare to find on sale in England. From Asia to the Middle East to closer-to-home Greece, these desserts and cakes offer plant-based indulgence. Why not try a couple of these delicious recipes?

Vegan Persian Love Cake (The Heartful Table) is a dense cake beautifully balanced with orange, cardamom and almonds, with a rose pistachio glaze.

Orange Semolina Cupcakes (Lazy Cat Kitchen) only need a few ingredients. If you thought that semolina was only reserved for school puddings, try this recipe. Made with fine semolina and orange marmalade, the cupcakes are drizzled with an orange syrup.

This Lebanese Semolina Pudding (Lands and Flavors) is super-simple to make, made with coconut cream (chilled coconut milk) along with orange syrup and rosewater.

Baklava is a Greek baked treat made with layers of phyllo pastry, then filled with nuts sand drizzled with syrup. Try this vegan date baklava (Lazy Cat Kitchen).

Meet a Middle Eastern (vegan) Prince!

A controversial law in England is that of religious slaughter, when animals are not stunned, in accordance with laws for the Jewish and Islamic faiths. Veterinary experts at Compassion in World Farming say this causes immense suffering.

The fact is that it’s perfectly possible for both faiths to be vegan, so no ritual slaughter is needed. It may be religious ‘law’ if you eat meat, but you don’t actually have to eat meat. So this can keep everyone happy, without breaking any faith traditions. Here are some helpers:

Compassion in World Farming says that many ‘Halal’ meats are from stunned animals (so not compliant). While some supermarkets sell Halal meat, without labelling it properly. So people buy it, not realising that it comes from animals that were not stunned.

Let’s Meet a Middle Eastern (vegan) Prince!

Religious slaughter is very controversial in England, where animals are killed without stunning, in line with religious slaughter rules of both the Islamic and Jewish religions.

Some of the best-selling vegan cookbook authors in the world are vegan. One Arab Vegan is one of the most popular recipe blogs (its founder a practicing Muslim). And Prince Khaled bin alwaleed (above) is so passionate about the lifestyle, he now has invested heavily in the world’s biggest plant-based news website.