Title:	Flavors of the Sun: The Sahadi’s Guide to Understanding, Buying, and Using Middle Eastern Ingredients
	Author:	Christine Sahadi Whelan
	Published:	September 7, 2021, Chronicle Books
	No. of Pages:	352
	Cover Price:	$35.00 Hardcover, $13.79 Kindle

---

For anyone who loves Middle Eastern food, Flavors of the Sun: The Sahadi’s Guide to Understanding, Buying, and Using Middle Eastern Ingredients by Middle Eastern Food expert, Christine Sahadi Whelan, is amazing. Not only does it have information on little known and well-known ingredients, but also includes fabulous recipes to make with those ingredients.

This is the most comprehensive book on Middle Eastern ingredients I have ever seen, and it will not only have a prominent place on my cookbook shelf, but will be used constantly. Middle Eastern food connoisseurs probably have unique ingredients such as Ras al Hanout, pomegranate molasses, preserved lemons, and sumac (to name a few) in their cupboards, and have used them in the past to make one or two dishes. This cookbook names those ingredients and then gives numerous different ways to use those ingredients. The book is divided into five different chapters, each covering several ingredients: Bright, Savory, Spiced, Nutty, and Sweet. In each category, there is information on choosing, storing, and cooking with the ingredients.

The cookbook is well-organized, and it is very easy to find an ingredient and what to do with it. There are beautiful photographs of most of the dishes. The recipes are written in the traditional way and are easy-to-follow for anyone with beginning to advanced cooking skills.

If you aren’t familiar with Middle Eastern ingredients, you’ll need to take a trip to a good Middle Eastern grocery store with a list from this cookbook, but it will be fun and definitely well-worth it. The dishes are mouthwatering and will appeal to almost everyone, so the ingredients won’t be wasted.
If you are tempted by the flavors and health benefits of Middle Eastern cooking, this is a “must have” cookbook. It is definitely worth more than five stars.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.