(Preserved lemons, olives stuffed with feta, cucumbers, zooloobia, vanilla halvah, black runner beans in olive oil and lemon, marinated cauliflower topped with bread crumbs, carrots and zucchini topped with zaatar, pita, sesame flatbread, ajvar, olive oil, ackawi cheese, dukkah, walnuts, pistachios, raita with pomegranate syrup, sweet lemons, hummus)
As-Salamu Alaykum!
This month's Daring Cooks challenge is hosted by me, and how cool is that.
The challenge is to prepare a Mezze Table including, but not limited to, homemade Pita bread and Hummus. If you’re not familiar with mezze, it’s more of a style of eating than a specific recipe or recipes. Mezze is a bunch of small dishes served all at once—sort of like the Middle Eastern version of Spanish Tapas. It can be served as appetizers before a meal, or as the meal itself.
I love the idea of mezze because, at least for me, it’s fun to eat that way--taking a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It’s also a fantastic way to share a meal with family and friends. I tried to pick a challenge that would accommodate everyone—vegans, meat eaters, gluten free cooks; and I think that having a selection of recipes to choose from will give you a chance to let your creativity shine.
This month's Daring Cooks challenge is hosted by me, and how cool is that.
The challenge is to prepare a Mezze Table including, but not limited to, homemade Pita bread and Hummus. If you’re not familiar with mezze, it’s more of a style of eating than a specific recipe or recipes. Mezze is a bunch of small dishes served all at once—sort of like the Middle Eastern version of Spanish Tapas. It can be served as appetizers before a meal, or as the meal itself.
I love the idea of mezze because, at least for me, it’s fun to eat that way--taking a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It’s also a fantastic way to share a meal with family and friends. I tried to pick a challenge that would accommodate everyone—vegans, meat eaters, gluten free cooks; and I think that having a selection of recipes to choose from will give you a chance to let your creativity shine.
The recipe requirements were making pita bread from scratch, and also hummus. If you can‘t eat wheat you can make the pita with an alternative flour. The trick to mezze is having a bunch of dishes that are easy to pick up and to eat with bread, and that all feature Middle Eastern flavors.
A simple mezze meal could be something like pita bread, hummus, olives, roasted almonds, and some feta cheese. If you want to be more elaborate you can add salads, other dips, cooked beans, roasted meat or fish, a variety of flatbreads, and on and on. The presentation is important as you want your mezze table to be just as appealing to the eye as it is to the stomach. I know that eating this way isn’t second nature to most people, but it can be a fun way to share a meal with those close to you.
This is the link to the recipes. The two desserts--zooloobia and halvah, I bought at the store.
I really want to thank Ivonne and Lisa for giving me the opportunity to host the challenge, and big kudos to all the very daring cooks that participated in the challenge. You'll be bowled over by their creativity and their gorgeous food. Please visit The Daring Kitchen to see all the amazing versions of mezze, and take the opportunity to discover the wonderful bloggers (and non-bloggers) that cooked along with me this month.
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!
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