Falastin: A Cookbook

A ground-breaking Middle Eastern cookbook from the co-author of Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Jerusalem, and co-founder of the innovative Ottolenghi delis.

This lavish compendium of Palestinian recipes ... photographed so vividly you can almost smell the freshly chopped parsley.

Falastin is a beautifully relaxed, detailed and affectionate celebration of the Palestinian cuisines Tamimi grew up eating

Essential reading ... a labour of love that fully deserves the fervour

Fantastic celebration of contemporary Middle Eastern food

Falastin is a transporting and illuminating read in lockdown

a vibrant collection of recipes that reflect Palestinian traditions and yet is utterly contemporary... I really want to cook everything in this.

Like the best cookbooks, this one opens a window to expand both palates and minds.

Expect enthusiastic demand from home cooks and foodie readers.

Sami Tamimi (Author) Sami Tamimi was born and raised in Jerusalem and was immersed in food from childhood. He started his career as commis-chef in a Jerusalem hotel and worked his way up to become head chef of Lilith, one of the top restaurants in Tel Aviv in the 1990s. 
 
Sami moved to London in 1997 and worked at Baker &amp; Spice as head chef, where he set up a traiteur section with a rich Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean spread. In 2002 he partnered with Noam Bar and Yotam Ottolenghi to set up Ottolenghi in Notting Hill. 
 
Alongside Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi is co-author of two bestselling cookbooks: Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Jerusalem: A Cookbook, which the New York Times recently named as one of the 25 most influential cookbooks from the last 100 years. Sami’s third cookbook Falastin is co-authored with Tara Wigley and won the Fortnum &amp; Mason Cookery Book of the Year 2021. Tara Wigley (Author) Tara Wigley spent a decade working in publishing – at the Abner Stein Literary Agency in London and then Simon &amp; Schuster – before going to cookery school in Ireland when her twins were 18 months old. She met Yotam Ottolenghi in 2011 and has been writing in collaboration with him ever since. She began by developing, testing and writing recipes for Yotam’s weekly column in the Guardian magazine and his longer monthly column, in 2017, for the New York Times. Plenty More. NOPI: The Cookbook, SWEET and Ottolenghi SIMPLE were all written with Tara. Yotam Ottolenghi (Foreword By) Yotam Ottolenghi is the restaurateur and chef-patron of the seven Ottolenghi delis, as well as the NOPI and ROVI restaurants. He is the author of eight bestselling and multi-award-winning cookery books. Yotam has been a weekly columnist for the Saturday Guardian for over thirteen years and is a regular contributor to the New York Times. His championing of vegetables, as well as ingredients once seen as 'exotic', has led to what some call 'The Ottolenghi effect'. This is shorthand for the creation of a meal which is full of colour, flavour, bounty and sunshine. Yotam lives in London with his family. www.ottolenghi.co.uk @Ottolenghi

Winner of Fortnum &amp; Mason Cookery Book of the Year 2021 
 
'This lavish compendium of Palestinian recipes... photographed so vividly you can almost smell the freshly chopped parsley.' The Times 
 
'a vibrant collection of recipes that reflect Palestinian traditions and yet is utterly contemporary... I really want to cook everything in this.' Nigella Lawson 
 
FALASTIN is a love letter to Palestine. An evocative collection of over 110 unforgettable recipes and stories from the co-authors of Jerusalem and Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, and Ottolenghi SIMPLE. 
 
Travelling through Bethlehem, East Jerusalem, Nablus, Haifa, Akka, Nazareth, Galilee and the West Bank, Sami and Tara invite you to experience and enjoy unparalleled access to Sami's homeland. As each region has its own distinct identity and tale to tell, there are endless new flavour combinations to discover. 
 
The food is the perfect mix of traditional and contemporary, with recipes that have been handed down through the generations and reworked for a modern home kitchen, alongside dishes that have been inspired by Sami and Tara's collaborations with producers and farmers throughout Palestine. 
 
With stunning food and travel photography plus stories from unheard Palestinian voices, this innovative cookbook will transport you to this rich land. 
 
So get ready to laden your table with the most delicious of foods - from abundant salads, soups and wholesome grains to fluffy breads, easy one-pot dishes and perfumed sweet treats - here are simple feasts to be shared and everyday meals to be enjoyed. These are stunning Palestinian-inspired dishes that you will want to cook, eat, fall in love with and make your own.

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

Ottolenghi’s ground-breaking classic cookbook, which captured the zeitgeist for using imaginative flavours and ingredients, is relaunched with a contemporary design.

Ottolenghi’s ground-breaking classic cookbook, which captured the  zeitgeist for using imaginative flavours and ingredients, is relaunched  with a contemporary design.

Yotam Ottolenghi (Author) Yotam Ottolenghi is the restaurateur and chef-patron of the seven Ottolenghi delis, as well as the NOPI and ROVI restaurants. He is the author of eight bestselling and multi-award-winning cookery books. Yotam has been a weekly columnist for the Saturday Guardian for over thirteen years and is a regular contributor to the New York Times. His championing of vegetables, as well as ingredients once seen as 'exotic', has led to what some call 'The Ottolenghi effect'. This is shorthand for the creation of a meal which is full of colour, flavour, bounty and sunshine. Yotam lives in London with his family. www.ottolenghi.co.uk @Ottolenghi Sami Tamimi (Author) Sami Tamimi was born and raised in Jerusalem and was immersed in food from childhood. He started his career as commis-chef in a Jerusalem hotel and worked his way up to become head chef of Lilith, one of the top restaurants in Tel Aviv in the 1990s. 
 
Sami moved to London in 1997 and worked at Baker &amp; Spice as head chef, where he set up a traiteur section with a rich Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean spread. In 2002 he partnered with Noam Bar and Yotam Ottolenghi to set up Ottolenghi in Notting Hill. 
 
Alongside Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi is co-author of two bestselling cookbooks: Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Jerusalem: A Cookbook, which the New York Times recently named as one of the 25 most influential cookbooks from the last 100 years. Sami’s third cookbook Falastin is co-authored with Tara Wigley and won the Fortnum &amp; Mason Cookery Book of the Year 2021.

'Ottolenghi changed the way we cook in this country just as surely and enduringly as Elizabeth David’s A Book of Mediterranean Food had in 1950. It brought into our kitchens bold flavours, a vivid simplicity, a spirited but never tricksy inventiveness and, above all, light.’ Nigella Lawson 
 
Inspired by their childhoods in West and East Jerusalem, Yotam Ottolenghi’s and Sami Tamimi’s original cookbook Ottolenghi: The Cookbook showcases fresh, honest, bold cooking and has become a culinary classic. 
 
Yotam and Sami's inventive yet simple dishes rest on numerous culinary traditions, ranging from North Africa to Lebanon, Italy and California. First published in 2008, this new updated edition revisits the 140 original recipes covering everything from accomplished meat and fish main courses, through to healthy and quick salads and suppers, plus Ottolenghi's famously delectable cakes and breads. 
 
A new introduction sheds fresh light on a book that has become a national favourite. 
 
Ottolenghi is an award-winning chef, being awarded with the James Beard Award 'Cooking from a Professional Point of View' for Nopi in 2016, and 'International Cookbook' for Jerusalem in 2013. In 2013 he also won four other awards for Jerusalem. 
 
Praise for Ottolenghi: 
 
‘[A] book that has barely left my kitchen…the fact that Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi have been generous to put their recipes in a book is something I had long dreamed of’ Nigel Slater, The Observer Magazine 
 
‘Possibly the best cookery book I have ever owned. The recipes…are well-tested and produce results that will astound your tastebuds. Try the aubergine-wrapped ricotta gnocchi with sage butter, the chicken with three-rice salad or their famous meringues and you'll know just what I mean.’ Caroline Jowett, Daily Express 
 
‘A wonderful book for vegetarians and cake lovers alike’ Bee Wilson, Sunday Times

Jerusalem

Packed with mouthwatering recipes inspired by the food of Jerusalem, this is the long-awaited third cookbook from Yotam Ottolenghi, winner of the Observer Food Monthly Best Cookbook award 2013

Jerusalem works both as a recipe book and as a touching tribute to (Yotam Ottolenghi’s) war-torn native city

A complicated love letter to a city…a memorable book that has as much to do with friendship as with food

Jerusalem will dominate dinner parties for the next year through its deceptive and inviting simplicity

‘(A) celebration of the complex currents that shaped Jerusalem’s culinary, as well as political, history

An evocative book about the overlapping cultural and culinary traditions of an often fraught city, Jerusalem pays tribute to Yotam Ottolenghi’s childhood in the Jewish west and Sami Tamimi’s in the Muslim east

The recipes are as stunning as you’d expect from Ottolenghi

Winner of the Observer Food Monthly Cookbook of the Year 2013. 
Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi are the men behind the bestselling Ottolenghi: The Cookbook. Their chain of restaurants is famous for its innovative flavours, stylish design and superb cooking. 
 
At the heart of Yotam and Sami's food is a shared home city: Jerusalem. Both were born there in the same year, Sami on the Arab east side and Yotam in the Jewish west. Nearly 30 years later they met in London, and discovered they shared a language, a history, and a love of great food. 
 
Jerusalem sets 100 of Yotam and Sami's inspired, accessible recipes within the cultural and religious melting pot of this diverse city. With culinary influences coming from its Muslim, Jewish, Arab, Christian and Armenian communities and with a Mediterranean climate, the range of ingredients and styles is stunning. From recipes for soups (spicy frikkeh soup with meatballs), meat and fish (chicken with caramelized onion and cardamom rice, sea bream with harissa and rose), vegetables and salads (spicy beetroot, leek and walnut salad), pulses and grains (saffron rice with barberries and pistachios), to cakes and desserts (clementine and almond syrup cake), there is something new for everyone to discover. 
 
Packed with beautiful recipes and with gorgeous photography throughout, Jerusalem showcases sumptuous Ottolenghi dishes in a dazzling setting.

Sami Tamimi

Full of food that’s sincere and homely but also bold and vibrant. I want to cook everything. There’s nothing like being able to cook the recipes from someone else’s childhood. Vibrant, intense, bold food from Sami’s childhood and home. A gift of a book.

I have been working alongside Sami in one form or another for nearly 20 years and have never failed to be inspired by him. He is supremely graceful in the kitchen, has an exquisitely-tuned palate and uncannily good judgment. It is no coincidence that Sami’s food is always delicious, and true to its name, Boustany is a verdant treasure. How lucky we are to have this beautiful book.

I have known Sami for over 25 years now and have always loved his food and his personal modern take on classics from our region. In this book, he applies that same inspired take on vegetarian and vegan dishes from his tragic homeland, making this collection of recipes and stories even more invaluable given the systematic erasure of both Palestine and Palestinians.

This is my dream cookbook. It's full of heart, soul and Sami's very delicious food. I have a library of cookbooks, but Sami's are one of the only ones I genuinely cook from.

I love Sami Tamimi’s wonderful Boustany. It is thrilling and also moving to see what a great chef has done with the flavourful home cooking of a people with a rich and diverse culinary tradition and a deep connection with the land.

Yotam and Sami brought a generation of Brits and then Americans to za’atar and harissa and pomegranate molasses. They made us comfortable with a type of ingredient and a type of food that didn’t really exist in the mainstream before that.

There are wine bars in New York’s Greenwich Village run by young chefs where, I bet if you looked through the vegetable sides on their menu, a significant chunk would derive from “Jerusalem” — and they might not even know it.

A celebration of vegetables from my Palestine

Vegetarian recipes celebrating the food of Palestine, from the co-author of Falastin, Jerusalem and Ottolenghi: The Cookbook. 
 
A homage to Palestinian food and culture, Boustany, is the first solo cookbook from Sami Tamimi, Ottolenghi co-founder and champion of Palestinian food and culture. 
 
Boustany translates from Arabic as 'My Garden', and the down-to-earth, relaxed and plentiful recipes are reflective of Sami's signature style and approach to food. Bold, inspiring and ever-evolving, Boustany picks up where Falastin left off, with flavour-packed, colourful and simple vegetable- and grain-led dishes; this is how Sami grew up eating - platters of aubergine and chickpeas with a spicy green lemon sauce and fragrant lentil fatteh that always tasted better the next day. These are the dishes he has known, loved, cooked and shared with friends. 
 
With over 100 recipes, Sami offers recipes for breakfast, sharing plates, big celebrations, simple breads, moreish sweet treats, easy dinners and more. It’s an approach that’s strongly present in Palestinian cuisine, from building your mooneh, or pantry, by preserving seasonal vegetables and herbs to lining the dinner table with a variety of salads and condiments reflective of a love for fresh and vibrant food.

Sami Tamimi

Praise for Boustany

Full of food that’s sincere and homely but also bold and vibrant. I want to cook everything. There’s nothing like being able to cook the recipes from someone else’s childhood. Vibrant, intense, bold food from Sami’s ...

I have been working alongside Sami in one form or another for nearly 20 years and have never failed to be inspired by him. He is supremely graceful in the kitchen, has an exquisitely-tuned palate and uncannily good ...

I have known Sami for over 25 years now and have always loved his food and his personal modern take on classics from our region. In this book, he applies that same inspired take on vegetarian and vegan dishes from h ...

Full of food that’s sincere and homely but also bold and vibrant. I want to cook everything. There’s nothing like being able to cook the recipes from someone else’s childhood. Vibrant, intense, bold food from Sami’s ...

I have been working alongside Sami in one form or another for nearly 20 years and have never failed to be inspired by him. He is supremely graceful in the kitchen, has an exquisitely-tuned palate and uncannily good ...

I have known Sami for over 25 years now and have always loved his food and his personal modern take on classics from our region. In this book, he applies that same inspired take on vegetarian and vegan dishes from h ...

Full of food that’s sincere and homely but also bold and vibrant. I want to cook everything. There’s nothing like being able to cook the recipes from someone else’s childhood. Vibrant, intense, bold food from Sami’s ...

I have been working alongside Sami in one form or another for nearly 20 years and have never failed to be inspired by him. He is supremely graceful in the kitchen, has an exquisitely-tuned palate and uncannily good ...

I have known Sami for over 25 years now and have always loved his food and his personal modern take on classics from our region. In this book, he applies that same inspired take on vegetarian and vegan dishes from h ...

Books by Sami Tamimi

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter