Middle Eastern

We do vary the fruit on top, so we use red plums or yellow plums or raspberries, but really the cherries are the best version. The contrast between the cherries and the green pistachios, and the addition of mahleb to the cake batter, together create something electric.

This obviously isn't really a shawarma—there is no lamb and no fat—but it is a way of slow-cooking cauliflower that makes it feel substantial and tasty enough to warrant the association.

This is a great one for midweek as it takes no more than 20 minutes from slicing the leeks to serving the finished dish, but it is good enough for weekends as well-filling, fresh and very tasty.

Shakshuka is Tunisian in origin but has become hugely popular in Jerusalem and all over Israel as substantial breakfast or lunch fare. Tunisian cuisine has a passionate love affair with eggs and this particular version of shakshuka is the seasonal variant for the summer and early autumn. Potatoes are used during the winter and eggplants in spring. Having published recipes for shakshuka once or twice before, we are well aware of the risk of repeating ourselves. Still, we are happy to add another version of this splendid dish, seeing how popular it is and how convenient it is to prepare. This time the focus is on tomato and spice. But we encourage you to play around with different ingredients and adjust the amount of heat to your taste. Serve with good white bread and nothing else.

Prep your green beans quickly; stack a handful of them together on a cutting board and trim the stem ends off the whole stack at once.

You'll love this spiced alternaburger with its fresh finishes; kids will love the handheld dinner.

I rarely rave about my own recipes, but this is one I can just go on and on about. It is the definition of freshness with its sweet-and-sour late-summer flavors, and it is also an utter delight to look at. But the most incredible thing about it is that it uses a few ingredients that I have been lovingly cooking with for many years, and believed I knew everything there was to know about, yet had never thought of mixing them in such a way. That is, until I traveled to Istanbul and came across a similar combination of fresh tomatoes and pomegranate seeds in a famous local kebab restaurant called Hamdi, right by the Spice Bazaar. It was a proper light-bulb moment when I realized how the two types of sweetness-the sharp, almost bitter sweetness of pomegranate and the savory, sunny sweetness of tomato-can complement each other so gloriously. I use four types of tomato here to make the salad more interesting visually and in flavor. You can easily use fewer, just as long as they are ripe and sweet.

Top this thickened, spreadable yogurt with a drizzle of olive oil and some spices (we're suckers for za'atar).

You can find labneh at Middle Eastern markets and specialty food stores.or you can make your own.

Borani is a Persian dip made with yogurt. The chioggia beets in this recipe give the dip a gorgeous hue.

As the lamb cooks inside the pita, the fat will render into the bread, creating a crunchy, compact, vibrantly flavored meat pie that's unlike any burger you've ever had.