As promised, here are the recipes for the vegetarian mezze items from the Vegetarian Middle Eastern dinner party that V & I hosted last weekend for two of my cousins and their families. The leftover Baba Ghanoush kept pretty well in the refrigerator for a few days and so did the Za’atar Dip. We did not have any of the Beetroot Dip left over. Of course it was pretty easy to bake some more pita bread quickly in the oven to enjoy the leftover dips with.
As I mentioned in my previous post, mezze consists of several small dishes that serve as appetizers or tasters before the main meal. My mezze table is pretty modest compared to what we have seen in our travels in Egypt. Here is what my mezze table consisted of; recipes below:
- Baked Pita Chips
- Baba Ghanoush
- Beetroot Dip with Yogurt
- Za’atar Dip
- Stuffed Olives (store bought)
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| Mezze for a vegetarian middle-eastern party |
Baked Pita Chips (Recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa)
[Printable Recipe]
Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Pita Bread
Generous amount of extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil
Salt
Black Pepper
Za’atar (optional)
- Brush both sides of the pita bread with olive oil
- Sprinkle salt, pepper and za’atar to taste on one side evenly
- Cut the pita bread in to 8 wedges
- Bake for 10 mins at 350 deg F turning it over once
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| Baked Pita Chips & Baba Ghanoush |
Baba Ghanoush (Recipe adapted from various food blogs)
Ingredients:
2 large eggplants (~3 lbs)
1/3 cup tahini
3 garlic cloves (optional)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch chili powder
2 Tbsp parsley chopped fine
Extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil for drizzle
- Prepare the eggplant:
- Brush the eggplant with olive oil and place it on a baking tray lined with Aluminum foil
- Set the oven to Broil on High and place the tray directly under the coils (you do not need to pierce the eggplant as I was advised by one blogger)
- Check every 15 mins and turn the eggplant once or twice.
- It will take not more than 45 mins for the skin to split and the eggplant to become nice and gooey inside so that a knife slides in all the way super easily
- Let the eggplant cool, peel off the skin and scoop the insides in to a food processor
- Prepare the Garlic:
- Wrap the garlic with skin tightly in Aluminum foil and place it in the baking tray with the eggplant
- Remove after 30 mins and let it cool
- Peel and throw in to food processor
- Combine tahini, lemon juice, cumin powder, salt and chili powder in the food processor and pulse until smooth
- Garnish with chopped parsley
- Drizzle olive oil on top of the eggplant before serving
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| Beetroot Dip with Yogurt |
Beetroot Dip with Yogurt (Recipe adapted from various food blogs)
Ingredients:
2 medium-sized beet root
1 cup yogurt
salt to taste
paprika to taste
1 clove minced garlic (optional)
ground black pepper to taste
chopped cilantro or parsley for garnish
2 medium-sized beet root
1 cup yogurt
salt to taste
paprika to taste
1 clove minced garlic (optional)
ground black pepper to taste
chopped cilantro or parsley for garnish
- Pressure cook the beetroot after slicing in to two or whole. Alternately boil until soft. Remove skin
- Coarsely grate the beetroot
- Whip yogurt in a bowl with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic
- Add the grated beetroot and mix
- Garnish with cilantro or parsley and serve
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| Mezze table: Pita Chips, Stuffed Olives, Baba Ghanoush, Beetroot dip with Yogurt and Za’atar |
Za’atar Dip (Recipe adapted from saveur.com)
[Printable Recipe]
Ingredients:
For the Za’atar:
4 Tbsp dried thyme
1 Tbsp roasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black pepper whole
2 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp salt
For the dip:
3 Tbsp Za’atar
1/2 cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic minced (optional)
1 bunch cilantro
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- Za’atar:
- Toast in a skillet (or in an oven if you prefer) the sesame seeds, cumin seeds and black pepper until fragrant
- Grind to a fine powder all the ingredients
- Dip:
- Stem the cilantro taking out most of the hardy stems
- In a food processor, pulse together all the ingredients until smooth
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| Mezze table: Pita Chips, Stuffed Olives, Baba Ghanoush, Beetroot Dip with Yogurt, Za’atar Dip |
Would love to go back to this theme again for a dinner party someday and extend my mezze repertoire to include more items, especially Muhammara. Any other suggestions to enhance my vegetarian mezze table?