Book review: The Levantine Vegetarian by Salma Hage

The Levantine Vegetarian will soon become a staple on vegetarians’ shelves

With ingredients like tahini and feta and a gorgeous array of spices, the Middle East can be a huge source of inspiration for vegetarian cooking, and 140 such recipes are collected in The Levantine Vegetarian, the latest publication from Salma Hage, author of The Lebanese Kitchen.

Here Hage does for the Middle East what Meera Sodha did for the East, plucking inspiration from across the region to create accessible and inspiring recipes without meat.

Whoever said to not judge a book by its cover never handled this gorgeously designed cookbook. It should come as no surprise that Levantine cooking encompasses the entire colour wheel, with red beetroots, green pops of herbs and smatterings of saffron yellow. A salad of harissa and lime aubergines with crushed chickpeas is the perfect example, with a liberal handful of pomegranate seeds tossed over the beige ingredients. Any of the recipes from this book will undoubtedly get heads turning.

There’s a core set of ingredients that you’ll get to know very well. With chickpeas used in 10 recipes and za’atar in 13, you’d think the book would veer dangerously close to one-note cooking, but Hage offers variety through soups, salads and interesting morsels, such as a herb and couscous cake that looks more like a quiche than a boring bowl of grains.

Another beauty of this book is the fact it can be used throughout the year, with fresh, crunchy vegetables for summer and warming bowls for the colder months. A dish of spiced chickpeas in broth with whipped tahini yogurt looks mouth-watering and will warm you to your core.

The sections in this book include small plates to sandwiches, brunch and desserts, but if you were only going to pay attention to one section it should be spices, sauces and preserves, as it provides the building blocks of the entire cuisine.

The Levantine Vegetarian will soon become a staple on vegetarians’ shelves, and even meat eaters would be wise to become familiar with its recipes to help keep things fresh.

The Levantine Vegetarian by Salma Hage (Phaidon, £29.95)