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

Not just another recipe book!
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!

Didn’t work for me
I must have missed the description of the countries this book focuses on. I’m not a fan of the flavors for most of the recipes it contains. That said, a solid 5 stars for the format and quality of the book. This should be the poster child for the correct way to publish a cookbook! Lots of educational information concerning unusual ingredients and suggestions for commonly available substitutes. Each recipe has detailed instructions and a full color picture. The recipes are grouped according to type which is helpful. There were a lot of dip and salad combination suggestions that would be helpful to a novice cook. Gluten free users should note that there are at least 70 pages of this book that will be a challenge for you. Multiple ways to cook barley and other grains is not helpful in the US due to agricultural practices.As noted, the book is 5 star quality but I took off a star because the listing description did not give enough information to correctly judge the contents,

6 MONTHS AND I LOST 35 lbs!!!
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.

A cookbook filled with so many new ideas for a Mediterranean menu.

Really loved the book. So many good recipes, really recommend!

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