Root Vegetable

This Turkish specialty, usually served hot, is also good cold. The only problem is the peeling, or, rather, the cutting away of the skin, which is covered in soil.

This is one of my favorite ways of cooking vegetables for a dinner party. You can do most of it in advance and put them in the oven again 1/2–3/4 hour before serving.

A North African way of cooking carrots.

This Tunisian way with potatoes is as good hot as it is cold. Sweet potatoes can be used in the same way. Although in the Arab world potatoes never had the importance they acquired in Europe, and they never replaced grain, they are treated in a most delicious way. You must try the variations belonging to various countries which follow. Serve hot or cold with grilled or roasted meats and chicken. Some can also be served cold as appetizers.

An Arab way.

You need waxy new potatoes for this. Large ones can be quartered, baby ones can be left whole or cut in half. I don’t bother to peel the very small ones. Serve hot or cold.

I like the surprising blend of sweet potato with ginger and chili pepper.

Okra is one of the most popular vegetables in the Middle East. Cooked this way, it may be served cold as a salad, or hot with rice, or as a side dish with meat or chicken.

Use olive oil and add lemon juice if you want to eat this cold.

Takleya is the name of the fried garlic-and-coriander mix which gives a distinctive Egyptian flavor to a number of dishes. It goes in at the end. In Upper Egypt they chop up and mash the okra when it is cooked. Serve hot as a side dish with meat or chicken.

Combinations of fresh and dry vegetables are called tbikhas in North Africa. All kinds of vegetables—peppers, carrots, turnips, cardoons, spinach—are cooked together with chickpeas and dried beans. This dish can be made hot and peppery with harissa, but it is very good without.

Onions and leeks have been known in Egypt since ancient times. Romans regarded Egyptian leeks as the best. According to legend, the Emperor Nero was fond of them. This is an Egyptian way of preparing them. Serve cold as a salad or an appetizer, or hot as an accompaniment to meat or chicken.

Ma’louba means “upside down” in Arabic. This is a layered meat, vegetable, and rice dish which is turned out upside down like a cake without disturbing the layers. A special wide pan with short straight sides is used to cook it. The eggplant is normally fried first, but broiling in this case does not impair the flavor. It is famously a Palestinian dish. The rice absorbs the meat sauce and the flavor of the eggplants and becomes soft and brown. Serve it with yogurt.

This is as good cold, when it is served as an appetizer with bread, as it is hot as a side dish. It is the kind of thing people make with the leftover insides of hollowed-out zucchini when they stuff them.

Bell peppers change in color as they ripen from olive, pale, and bright green to vivid yellow and red. The red ones are the ripest and sweetest. In Turkey they are roasted or deep-fried whole and served hot as a first course accompanied with yogurt or with a tomato sauce. There is no need to peel them. A long, pointed, piquant (but not hot) variety is also prepared in the same way.

This makes a good side dish. The Arabs brought it all the way to Spain and Italy.

A North African dish which can be served hot as a side dish or cold as a salad.

The combination of spinach with chickpeas is common throughout the Middle East, but the flavors here are Egyptian. You may use good-quality canned chickpeas. It is good served with yogurt.