The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook: 500 Vibrant, Kitchen-Tested Recipes for Living and Eating Well Every Day (The Complete ATK Cookbook Series)

I don’t normally write reviews (I’m a harsh critic), but I’ve recommended this book to so many people now, I thought I should.I lost 35 lbs. by cooking recipes from this book 3-5 times a week on average. No, I don’t exercise; I just eliminated all processed foods from my diet and replaced them with recipes from this book. I also enjoy a glass of wine (or two!) with my meal most evenings. I’m not sure how many different recipes I’ve made from the book, but it’s definitely more than 50–possibly 100. They are all DELICIOUS! There is not a single recipe in this book I would not serve to guests. In fact, I’m a bit embarrassed when I serve these recipes to guests and they tell me what a talented cook I am. I blush and point to the book and say “honestly, I can read and follow directions.” It’s really that simple! The recipes are very easy to follow and even a complete novice like me can turn out wonderful food if you follow the directions carefully. The recipes all call for readily available ingredients that you can find in any grocery store. There are a handful of ingredients I’ve never used or even heard of, but you can find them and I tell people to not be intimidated by them. If I can do it, anyone can. There are a great number of vegetarian recipes in here, which my wife’s family (Hindu strict vegetarians) LOVE. My wife even complains when we go out to fancy Italian restaurants now, “this isn’t as good as what you make!” I wasn’t much of a vegetable guy before I started this journey, now I literally crave vegetables—it makes my mouth water just thinking about it! If you’re going to diet, you have to like the food to stick to it—you really can’t do better than this.My one complaint (and it’s extremely minor) is the author(s) write in the beginning that they did not include any recipes featuring things like salmon because it’s not indigenous to the Mediterranean. Really? Because neither are tomatoes (!!!), potatoes, halibut, etc. There are plenty of AMAZING seafood recipes, however.Simply put, I would have continued cooking out of this book even if I hadn’t lost the weight—turns out that’s just a side benefit!P.S. You may want to start a small herb garden, as I recently have. Almost all the recipes call for fresh herbs (parsley, thyme, basil, oregano, etc.). While fresh herbs are relatively inexpensive, I find the quantities generally include more than I need and go bad before I can use the whole bunch. I don’t recommend trying to substitute dry herbs (unless specifically noted)—they just don’t compare.EDIT: It’s been a year now and I’ve stuck to my diet and maintained my weight (I’m right on my ideal BMI). I saw some reviews that said the nutrition info is somewhat cumbersome to find. Honestly, I never even looked at that section! I just made the recipes that appealed to me and the pounds came off. I also saw some people say they thought some ingredients were hard to find; that has not been my experience. I shop at wegmans, which granted, does carry a lot of gourmet food items. But the ones that are more unique (pomegranate molasses, Dukkah, preserved lemons, etc.) the book provides recipes on making them—however, I didn’t make any of those as you can also find them right here on Amazon.

All types of great recipes

I knocked off a star mainly because I have not actually tried a recipe yet. (I just got my copy, so I may be editing my review.)Upon browsing, I can definitely see that some recipes include some ingredients that could be harder to find in some areas, or expensive - think saffron, octopus, or certain sausages they list.One observation is that they specify "fast" recipes as taking 45 minutes or less. Upon reading some did seem to take less than 45 minutes. Another observation: a vegetarian (not vegan) recipe listed anchovies. I'm not sure if that's an issue for vegetarians?I thought I noticed in reviews that someone commented about the authenticity of some recipes. It looks like they say Mediterranean and "Mediterranean-inspired". Also, no nutritional information included, if you want that.I got this on hopes of finding good, healthy, recipes to help in my weight loss journey. We shall see.

Great, easy recipes.

The Mediterranean diet was recommended by my doctor so I bought a cookbook. I have enjoyed the recipes and they are very healthy for me.

What's good about it?The variety and sheer number of recipes. The in-depth how-to and how-comes.What's bad about it?1. I bought the hardcopy and the print is so small!!!2. Exotic ingredients that are hard-to-find. I couldn't find fontina cheese at any of the big 3 national grocery chains in my medium-size city of almost one million people. Lavash bread was not available at one of the stores. Forget about finding squid in Kentucky.3. Not enough pictures. There is not a picture of each recipe.4. Complicated recipes with a lot of ingredients. I'm an experienced cook with almost 40 years of experience preparing meals and I will have to read, and re-read as I go. This is a very advanced cookbook and not for the faint of heart.5. The nutrition information is at the back of the book instead of with the actual recipe, almost like it was an afterthought.6. Too many "just buy the premade processed crap" instead of giving 100% of the information to make the whole item from scratch. Why would you tell the reader to buy premade Lavash bread instead of giving the recipe??I bought this particular cookbook because of the 20,000 almost 5- star reviews. I'm still scratching my head at that. Not even close to 5 stars in my mind.

Love this cookbook! So many wonderful, healthy recipes. One of my favorite cookbooks now.