Mediterranean Diet Recipes
What’s the Mediterranean diet? The Mediterranean diet focuses on eating lots of plants, like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts. Mediterranean diet recipes use healthy fats like olive oil, and feature seafood and fish (but not red meat). Of any eating philosophy, this is the closest to ours!
Baked gnocchi that will knock your socks off
A fresh, plant based couscous bowl with tahini drizzle
A simple standby: our creamy vegan pasta marinara
All Mediterranean Diet Recipes
What’s the Mediterranean diet?
The Mediterranean diet is getting a lot of air time lately as one of the healthiest in the world But exactly what is the Mediterranean diet? Mediterranean diet recipes prioritize fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, and mainly uses olive oil for cooking. Fish and seafood is a part of the Mediterranean diet, while red meat is extremely limited. And guess what: a moderate consumption of red wine is allowed (and encouraged)!
For us here at A Couple Cooks, the Mediterranean coast of Italy, Greece and Spain are some of our favorite places in the world. So it’s only fitting that we’re also enamored with the Mediterranean diet. Of any eating philosophy, the Mediterranean diet is the closest to what we eat (though we eat more vegetables than fish).
Mediterranean diet recipes
Though not all of the recipes on this website are marked as Mediterranean, almost all of them are created with that philosophy in mind. Olive oil is the cooking oil of choice. Beans, lentils, bulgur wheat, quinoa, and rice are all featured heavily in Mediterranean diet recipes. While beans and grains have gotten a bad rap with the current interest in the keto diet and Whole 30, Mediterranean diet recipes have always included beans and whole grains as nutritious foods. While Mediterranean diet recipes are heavy on vegetables, they also include fish and seafood.
Some of our favorite Mediterranean diet recipes:
- Italian Soup with Vegetables & Gnocchi
- Feta and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
- Chickpea Couscous Bowls with Tahini Sauce
- Truffled Egg with Smoked Salmon (Brain Food)
- Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
Mediterranean lifestyle
One of the best things about the Mediterranean diet is not just the food: it’s the lifestyle. This eating philosophy originated based on the longevity of people in the Mediterranean, and researchers observed more than just eating habits. Simply eating Mediterranean diet recipes is not all there is to it: it’s staying active and exercising regularly. It’s not smoking. It’s reducing the amount of stress in your lifestyle. And it’s actively participating in community: being invested and engaged in the people around you.
Our cookbook, Pretty Simple Cooking, has 10 lessons to a sustainable practice of healthy cooking. And it’s no surprise that they sound a lot like the tenets of the Mediterranean lifestyle! That’s no accident. Many of the principles we learned about how to cook healthy on an everyday basis are less about food and more about lifestyle—the same principles that contribute to longevity in the Mediterranean diet.