Description

A Finalist for the 2022 James Beard Foundation Cookbook Award (International)
Shortlisted for the Andre Simon Award
Longlisted for the 2022 Art of Eating Prize
A New York Times Best Cookbook of 2021 – A Guardian Best Food Book of 2021 – A Simply Recipes Favorite Cookbook of 2021 – A WBUR Here & Now Favorite Cookbook of 2021

The acclaimed author of Zaitoun returns with vibrant recipes and powerful stories from the islands that bridge the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

For thousands of years, the eastern Mediterranean has stood as a meeting point between East and West, bringing cultures and cuisines through trade, commerce, and migration. Traveling by boat and land, Yasmin Khan traces the ingredients that have spread through the region from the time of Ottoman rule to the influence of recent refugee communities.

At the kitchen table, she explores what borders, identity, and migration mean in an interconnected world, and her recipes unite around thickets of dill and bunches of oregano, zesty citrus and sweet dates, thick tahini and soothing cardamom. Khan includes healthy, seasonal, vegetable-focused recipes, such as hot yogurt soups, zucchini and feta fritters, pomegranate and sumac chicken, and candied pumpkin with tahini and date syrup.

Fully accessible for the home cook, with stunning food and location photography, Ripe Figs is a dazzling collection of recipes and stories that celebrate an ever-diversifying region and imagine a world without borders.

Publisher Review

Once again, Yasmin Khan invites her readers to the table for both the dishes she serves and the stories she tells. The two must always go hand-in-hand, of course, for behind every dish there is a person, a family, a journey, a narrative: a story of movement, change and migration. Yasmin also manages to strike a tough balance: between serving food which is delicious and celebratory at the same time as telling hard-hitting (but also hopeful) stories -- Yotam Ottolenghi Food writing at its best: Yasmin Khan brings the people and stories behind these recipes to life, paying due respect to the hardships as well as the joy in what is a moving and beautiful book -- Nigella Lawson One of the best food writers around * Telegraph * An inspiring, joyous, celebration of food and migration. Beautifully written and delicious. I love this book -- Padma Lakshmi A brilliant cookbook that reveals the often overlooked plight of refugees and immigrants. Yasmin is a masterful storyteller who reminds us to keep an open heart and mind * Nik Sharma, author of The Flavor Equation *