A Mediterranean diet shopping list

[ComeBackPeterComeBackPaul]

Please write me a shopping list of your essential store cupboard items - the ones that allow you to cook a meal at short notice without detailing all your good work. Thanks.

Neither is risotto rice, but both are staple meals in Mediterranean countries.

Love the idea of 14 good meals and I really need to overhaul our diet.

I love interesting veggie dishes when out but at home look at cucumber/letuce and tomato and get stuck. I need some interesting ideas and this could be a way to do it.

Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and North Africa all on the Med. Middle Eastern food has a huge crossover with Mediterranean food. (Portugal isn't on the Med, a pedant writes!)

Portugal isn't on the Med, a pedant writes!)

My bad, sorry. The food is lovely though.

I bet it is! I've never been to Portugal, would love to go.

Frozen sliced peppers, frozen diced onion, jars of roasted red peppers, tinned lentils and beans, jars of passata rustics, garlic.

Za'atar

I kill my Lebanese friend's spirit when I tell her how I butcher this glorious herbal concoction. I put it on anything! I'd put it on Weetabix if I could get away with it. It's gorgeous.

Things such as tinned mackerel, sardines, tuna are probably a good basic for store cupboard.
Then tomato puree, passata, chick peas, lentils, olives, and all your herbs and spices.

Normal olive oil to use in cooking and a very good extra virgin olive oil for dressings.

Good balsamic vinegar for dressings.

Also don't forget a bag of lemons. I get through about 12 a week!

Fresh herbs on everything- use as seasoning versus too much salt.

Salads for lunch

Tray bakes are quite good for week day dinner, including fish of some kind, veg, and/or lentils / brown quinoa, beans and fresh herbs

One glass of red wine occasionally if you drink.

Lots of water

Lose the sugar, refined / processed carbs, and reduce the dairy and meat.

Ooh yes, @haba reminded me as well. There are some lovely tinned sardines "al limone" you can get which are delicious. A stock cupboard essential.

If you are hoping to go more Mediterranean then remember this mantra ' Eat the rainbow ' so basically lots of coloured fruit and veg . Toms, peppers , courgettes , spinach , onions , garlic, etc .

@OxfordCat any links for your tray bakes? The great thing about the Med diet is that it all just sounds so bloody gorgeous! Great name btw

For traybakes you want The Roasting Tin books. Even DH can cook from them and he has zero skills.

They are veg and wholegrain focussed.

Has anyone used the Ottolenghi Simple book - looks lovely.

Thanks OP :-) I recommend this book. Most of the recipes are Mediterranean and once you get a sense of the recipes you can easily adapt ingredients to work with your Mediterranean store cupboard and fridge contents.

Weeknights, a nice fillet of salmon or sea bass roasted with olive oil, a range of med veg and then sprinkled with fresh herbs and pine nuts is super easy and filling.

Ps - I always find Ottelenghi a bit of a faff and too many ingredients. But judging by the title of that book it sounds like he might have got that feedback?

We eat a little bit like this as I have just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Some of the things we've brought in the last couple of weeks that haven't been mentioned, and some new to this thoughts to add.

1. We tend to use fresh tomatoes to make sauces and bases rather than tinned or chopped tomatoes. That being said we also took up the Sainsbury's offer on 12 cans of KTC Chopped Tomatoes for 3.40.
2. We've brought fresh mackerel from the fish monger - it was £1 per fish and we got two meals out of each fish (grilled mackerel, then two spinach and sweet potato fish cakes each).
3. Garlic, lots and lots of fresh garlic... it's supposed to have really superb health properties.
4. Chopped liver - this is a popular Jewish dish and we found it cheap and easy to make.
5. Olive Oil should be extra virgin and cold pressed. We don't fry in olive oil anymore (just add a little water instead) but we do use it on salads and for baking.
6. We don't buy farmed fish due to the chemicals in farming (I know people debate this). Iceland do packs of sustainably caught, quick frozen wild fish (tuna and salmon).
7. Grilled vegetables with herbs and a drizzle of olive oil are super quick and extremely delicious.
8. Haloumi and Feta are wonderful cheeses; we wash both to get rid of the salt. I don't actually eat these but the rest of the household do.
9. Whilst not strictly "Mediterranean" in origin Buddha / Nourish Bowls are superb for lunch times.

We found it easier to empty the cupboards and start from scratch. We did this over a house move and cooked up all the remaining food for our local street homeless folk.

I have made quite a few of the Ottolenghi recipes from his weekend column in the Guardian. All have been lovely but when I bought a book, it wasn't a winner.

The recipes do tend to be faffy and you have to be thinking that you want to enjoy the experience of cooking as well as eating.

All the Roasting Tin books are great for mid-week, even the ones that aren't 'Quick' just involve bunging stuff in a tin.

For actual Mediterranean without spending the whole day in the kitchen unless you want to I'd go with Zaitoun or a Claudia Roden book like Arabesque.

Thanks all, have just ordered the Zaitoun Cook book and am busily writing lists. Was a bit shocked at the price of the Ottolenghi "starter pack".

His online shop is with a big helping of and

@HeronLanyon

Parmesan isn’t suitable for vegetarians as it contains rennet.

Has anyone used the Ottolenghi Simple book - looks lovely.

Yep - got given it for Christmas by my sister, as well as a wanky Ottolenghi starter pack .

No to tinned everything. What is the point of following a fresh food diet if you buy the tinned version? Look up Akis Petriziakis. He's a Greek chef and his website is in English and Greek. He used to write recipes for Jamie Oliver but without all the tinned/tubed nonsense. I absolutely love his recipes especially the korou dough feta cheese pies

Cake recipe (white flour) by Petriziakis.
Most the recipes & foods people are linking to don't mention whole grain versions. There's a video how to make donuts on that site, too.

I deduce that wholegrain foods are NOT essential part of the Med diet.

Wholegrain foods are almost non existent here in Italy. Wholewheat pasta and rice is mocked by everyone as a "vegan-y" lentil weaving thing and really you only find it in the health food aisle not with the ordinary pasta, rice and bread.

Pasta and rice form the bulk of every meal, it's a very carb heavy diet. (Pasta and potatoes, pasta and lentils are both typical pasta dishes) You'll then have a small piece of meat or fish as your "second" course. In the UK we tend to think of "first" course as being the starter, so less important, while the "second" or "main" provides the biggest bit of the meal. In Italy it's the opposite- the pasta dish is the biggest part.

I'd say the Med diet "thing" is eating veg in season (not always as Jamie Oliver as it sounds- try being here for the 3 weeks when broad beans are in season and you fancy an aubergine) and using olive oil.

My store cupboard staples are:
Good quality tomato sauce (just sauce, no added bits)
Good quality Italian brand pasta
Tins of lentils, and other beans
Risotto rice
Tinned fish like tuna, mackerel.