Simple summer salad offers taste of Middle East

Cookbook author Reem Kassis likes to use two colours of miniature tomatoes alongside the fresh white yogurt cheese labneh in this salad — one of 130 recipes in The Arabesque Table: Contemporary Recipes From the Arab World (Phaidon/canadian Manda Group, $49.95).

It’s a well-researched book about what Kassis calls the “cross-cultural Arab table” and is beautiful, thanks to photographs by Dan Perez. Kassis’s mini-history of Middle Eastern cuisine and rundown of basic ingredients add to the appeal, as do the anecdotes with each recipe.

The hand-rolled balls of salty, creamy labneh are easy to make if you oil your hands first. You can substitute feta or soft goat cheese, Kassis says.

PHAIDON • CANADIAN MANDA GROUP Miniature tomatoes are drizzled with olive oil, garlic and lemon juice before being topped with balls of labneh and fresh herbs.