177 middle recipes

Chocolate caramel nut bars with a German chocolate cake-mix crust, melted caramel middle, and chopped walnuts and chocolate chips. A potluck-ready bar cookie you can shortcut with a boxed mix.

Lentil kufta, a Middle Eastern vegetarian patty made with red lentils and bulgur, seasoned with sauteed onions, scallions, and red pepper. No-fry vegan appetizer shaped into balls or one big mound.

Mujaddara: the humble, soul-satisfying Middle Eastern dish of lentils, rice, and bulgur, cooked with cumin and crowned with deeply browned onions. A hearty, protein-rich vegan meal made from pantry staples.

Simple Middle Eastern yogurt and onion condiment with just three ingredients. Purple onion mingles with tangy yogurt and black pepper for a cooling sauce that pairs perfectly with grilled meats, rice, or flatbread.

Black pepper focaccia with freshly cracked pepper in the dough, dimpled crust glossed with olive oil, flaky sea salt, and fresh thyme. Steam-baked for a bakery-style crackle and a pillowy middle.

Spicy red lentil soup with mustard greens, dry-toasted cumin and cinnamon, and a finishing splash of white wine. A Middle Eastern-leaning vegetarian soup with deep spice and a peppery green bite.

Old-school chocolate chip cookies built on shortening and brown sugar for crisp edges and chewy middles, studded with semi-sweet chips and toasted pecans. A throwback recipe from the original Crisco era.

Fried chickpeas sauté cooked garbanzos with browned onions, lemon juice, parsley, mint, cinnamon, garlic, turmeric, and cumin for a fragrant Middle Eastern side. Equally delicious hot from the pan or cold for picnics.

Stewart's Salad is a layered retro Jell-O salad with sugar-free lemon jello and pineapple, a fluffy cream cheese middle, and a golden pineapple-juice custard topping. A diabetic-friendly potluck classic.

Stuffed eggplant pickles filled with minced cabbage, red bell pepper, garlic, and dill, tied with softened celery ribs and fermented in vinegar brine. A traditional Middle Eastern style pickle ready in 2 to 3 weeks.

Chewy oatmeal cookies loaded with carob chips and walnuts, made with whole wheat flour, egg replacer, and rice milk. A hearty, egg-free cookie that's crunchy on the edges and soft in the middle.

Throughout the Middle East, bureks are made by folding buttered, cheese-filled phyllo dough into little triangular shapes. Cigarro bureks taste the same but, as the name implies, are rolled into cylindrical shapes resembling small cigars.

Oven-fried potato stew: layered potatoes, onions, and cardamom-spiced beef cubes baked in a deep tomato broth until the potatoes turn a rich red. A rustic Middle Eastern home-style dish from the Arabian Gulf.

Butternut squash soup with honey and a roasted barley risotto center, a restaurant-plated autumn soup where creamy risotto sits in the middle of a pool of silky squash soup. Elegant fall entertaining in a bowl.

Peanut butter cup cookies: soft peanut butter cookie dough baked in mini muffin tins, with a whole mini peanut butter cup pressed into each one straight out of the oven. A melt-in-the-middle Christmas favorite.

This is a Middle Eastern soup, typical of the simple foods served in the desert regions. Serve with pita bread and a grain or vegetable dish for a simple meal. This soup is also food served cold, stuffed into a pita bread.