Mediterranean Sauce Kitchen:
Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East

A smoky roasted eggplant dip seasoned with tahini, garlic and lemon and olive oil.

Find a Babaganoush recipe from Anissa Helou here.

Find a Babaganoush recipe from the Guardian here.

Tangy yogurt, garlic, and cucumber dip, often finished with olive oil.

Find a Cacik recipe from Oldways here.

A Turkish dip made from blending walnuts, dried red chiles, onion, cumin, sumac, breadcrumbs, and olive oil. This sweet, smoky, earthy, spicy dip, is similar to muhammara, and served as part of a mezze.

Find Musa Dagdeviren’s Cevizli Biber recipe here.

A creamy, earthy puree of yellow split peas, garlic, onions, lemon, and olive oil, similar to hummus. A specialty of Santorini, fava is often finished with tomato, braised capers, or fresh herbs.

Find Aglaia Kremezi’s Fava recipe here.

Find Diane Kochilas’ Fava recipe here.

A spicy Lebanese sauce made with cilantro, walnuts, garlic, onions, jalapeños, cumin and olive oil. The sauce is delicious on whole baked fish or served with roasted potatoes.

Find a Harra recipe from Food52 here.

Dip made from blended chickpeas, tahini, lemon, garlic and olive oil. Usually garnished with olive oil, parsley and paprika.

Find a hummus recipe from the Guardian here.

A puree of spinach, walnuts, cilantro, parsley, garlic, paprika, turmeric, fenugreek, cayenne, vinegar, and olive oil. This sauce can also be prepared with green beans, eggplant, or beets in place of the spinach. This sauce is commonly served as a dip with bread or vegetables.

Find an Ispanakhis Pkhali recipe adapted from Jenny Holm here.

A tangy lemon juice and olive oil sauce, similar to a vinaigrette. Variations of ladolemono can also contain mustard or dried oregano. Ladolemono is delicious as a salad dressing, or served with fish.

Find Aglaia Kremezi’s Ladolemono recipe here.

A mixture of olive oil and oregano, and sometimes garlic, used as a marinade for fish, meat, and cheese.

A simple and tangy vinaigrette flavored with garlic and fragrant dried Greek oregano. Ladoxitho is typically prepared with red wine vinegar, but other vinegars can be used.

A classic sauce enjoyed in Santorini and other Aegean islands made with sautéed tomatoes, capers, garlic, vinegar, and olive oil.

Find Aglaia Kremezi’s Kaparokoumba recipe here.

A spicy and creamy whipped feta with roasted red peppers, chiles, oregano and olive oil. Ktipiti means “beaten” and can be served as a dip, used to stuff peppers, and as a topping on fish or chicken.

Find Diane Kochilas’s Ktipiti recipe here.

A sauce made with vegetables and aromatics cooked in olive oil until tender, then gently mashed to a coarse puree. Ingredients may include peppers, onions, eggplant, garlic, chiles, Aleppo pepper, paprika, brown sugar, tomatoes, and olive oil. Matbucha can be served at room temperature or warm as part of mezze.

Find Tori Avey’s Matbucha recipe here.

Bright and grassy, this spread is made from parsley, garlic, bread, lemon, olive oil, and an optional egg yolk. Maidanosalata is served as a dip with vegetables or on a rusk as an appetizer.

Find a Maidanosalata recipe from Greek Boston here.

A smoky charred eggplant dip seasoned with garlic, parsley, lemon and olive oil. Served with pita, melitzanosalata can be garnished with olives and feta.

Find Aglaia Kremezi’s Melitzanosalata recipe here.

Find Diane Kochilas’s Melitzanosalata recipe here.

A puree of cooked yellow lentils, carrots, potatoes, onions, cumin, paprika, feta cheese, pine nuts, parsley, mint, lemon juice and olive oil. Traditionally made in autumn and winter, during olive harvest.

A rich and nutty pounded dip of roasted peppers, walnuts, garlic, pomegranate molasses, cumin, Aleppo pepper and olive oil. Served as part of mezze.

Find Yottam Ottolenghi’s Muhammara recipe here.

A Smoky roasted eggplant dip seasoned with lemon, sautéed garlic, and olive oil, served as part of a mezze.

Find Musa Dagdeviren’s Patlican Ezmesi recipe here.

A spiced tomato sauce made with cinnamon, cloves, coriander, allspice, cumin, and olive oil.

Find Martha Stewart’s Salta Domata recipe here.

A delicious and creamy pounded potato, garlic, walnut (or almond), lemon juice and olive oil dip. Aliatha is an Ionian island version. Skordalia is served as part of mezze, or as an accompaniment to vegetables, fish or seafood.

Find Aglaia Kremezi’s Skordalia recipe here.

Find Diane Kochilas’ Skordalia recipe here.

A smooth, creamy, whipped spread made from cured carp roe, breadcrumbs (or potatoes), garlic, lemon, and olive oil. Rengosalata is another variation using herring eggs.

Find Aglaia Kremezi’s Taramasalata recipe here.

Find Daine Kochilas’ Taramasalata recipe here.

A classic Turkish sauce made with walnuts, garlic, and olive oil pureed or pounded together to form a smooth emulsion. Tarator in Lebanon and Syria includes tahini. Tarator is usually served with mussels, fried fish, and vegetables.

Find a Tarator recipe from Epicurious here.

Find a Tarator recipe from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health here.

A smooth, creamy and bold sauce made with an emulsion of raw garlic, lemon, ice water, and olive oil. Toum is traditionally served with shawrma.

Find a Toum recipe from Olive Oil Times here.

Bright, grassy, spicy and herbaceous, zhoug is a spicy herb sauce from Yemen. Made with cilantro, parsley, chiles, garlic, cumin, coriander, and olive oil, zhoug is often served with falafel, sabih, and shakshuka. Zhoug can be stirred into yogurt to make a dip, or served over scrambled eggs.

Find a Zhoug recipe from Food and Wine here.

Find Yotam Ottolenghi’s Zhoug recipe here.