Craft a delicious Mediterranean meal with our collection of recipes. (Photo: Miriam Kresh, Sarah Berkowitz)
Make a 5-course Mediterranean holiday dinner
Options are all over the map for a fully stacked holiday table. Here's how to add some Mediterranean flair to it.
What's on your menu for your 2017 holiday dinner? A golden-brown roasted turkey with all the trimmings? Aromatic pumpkin pie and inviting apple crisp? A spicy mulled wine to whet your winter whistle? A warm loaf of fresh bread to welcome guests inside and out of the cold?
These all sound so great, don't they?
But they also sound – what's the word – so traditional. We need a menu change, ya'll!
Enter our Israeli Kitchen channel. We've been putting a Mediterranean accent on the holidays for years now, and this season is no different. This time, we bring you a comprehensive, five-course holiday menu that has all the Mediterranean flair and finesse you've been looking for in your efforts to jazz up the table.
Course 1: Bread
The pumpkin puree gives this bread a pleasant golden-orange color. (Photo: Sarah Berkowitz)
Pumpkin puree is useful for more than pie, as you'll see in this braided pumpkin bread recipe. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds lest your guests think this is just another workaday loaf.
Course 2: Salad
Moroccan carrot salad (Photo: Miriam Kresh)
Let the humble carrot shine with a light salad that balances out the heaviness of the other items on your list. Serve the aforementioned pumpkin bread on the side, if you're pressed for time and need to condense the five courses into four.
Course 3: Appetizer
Bourekas are a popular Mediterranean appetizer, side dish or snack food. (Photo: Daniel Reiner
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Shutterstock)
Bourekas conceal all kinds of goodies in their puff-pastry hearts. Drop by any Israeli bakery and you’ll find trays of bourekas stuffed with potatoes, or cheese, or mushrooms, or eggplant. Some are as large as dinner dishes, coiled like snails and eaten with knife and fork. Those are usually stuffed with spinach and salty white cheese, and accompanied by a hard-boiled egg. And in Israel, you'll find them everywhere, including holiday dinners.
Course 4: Main course
Mediterranean pot roast and one-hour turkey roast. Two great options for the holiday table. (Photo: Miriam Kresh, Sarah Berkowitz)
For the all-important main course, we present two options: a Mediterranean pot roast simmering in the flavors of paprika, rosemary, thyme and even a hint of cognac; or a one-hour turkey roast, perfect for those who adore hosting but don't think they have the time to prepare. Serve simultaneously to give guests a choice of white or red meat.
Course 5: Dessert
Mochaccino cream pie, apricot persimmon bundt cake and pumpkin pie hummus. (Photo: Sarah F. Berkowitz)
It wouldn't be a full holiday meal without at least two desserts on the table, would it? We'll do you one better: three options! Mochaccino cream pie, apricot persimmon cake and – because no Mediterranean meal is complete without it – hummus! Another excuse to use pumpkin puree for something other than pie, in an unusual and really delicious dip.
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