The 12 Best Mediterranean Diet Cookbooks

Trying to eat healthy on a Tuesday in a world where take-out exists is no easy feat. Thankfully, this weeknight-friendly Mediterranean cookbook from Milk Street has tons of recipes that are even quicker than your delivery guy. Packed with recipes inspired by the cuisines of Southern Europe all the way to the Middle East and North Africa, Milk Street: Tuesday Nights Mediterranean proves that eating a Mediterranean diet goes way beyond fish and olive oil.

The Mediterranean is a vast region and a delicious one at that. Which is why we totally nerded out about how comprehensive and inclusive the The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook from America's Test Kitchen is. Compiling dishes from Lebanon and Morocco all the way to Italy and France, each and every dish is meticulously tested with easy-t0-find supermarket staples. Which is great, because we're planning on making some prosciutto-wrapped dates and orange polenta cake as soon as we can.

We've long been fans of The Mediterranean Dish, so we didn't blink when it came to adding Suzy Karadsheh's debut cookbook to our online shopping cart. Blending her Egyptian upbringing with her new Southern roots, Karadsheh's signature recipes are as approachable as they are vibrantly delicious. With flavors from all across the Mediterranean, her recipes for chickpea soup with lemon and Pecorino Romano and Mediterranean breakfast boards are a must-try.

Starting is always the hardest part, and these 100 recipes are perfect for beginners looking to dip their toes into the Mediterranean diet. If you're looking for a one-and-done comprehensive guide, this is the book for you, since it includes helpful shopping tips, suggested meal plans, and even snack options. Focusing mostly on Greek cuisine, each recipe in The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Beginners is bright, light, and sure to satisfy any one at your next dinner party (Personally, we're huge fans of that sardine and herb bruschetta recipe.)

As the title suggests, Mediterranean Every Day will have you following your health goals all day, every day. And with recipes for one-pan sausage bake or dessert like roasted figs with dark chocolate and sea salt, could it get any easier? Bonus: Prakash also details tons of pantry-building tips, meals perfect for gatherings, and three-ingredient snacks and cocktails. That sounds like balanced eating to us, TBH.

Did you know? The northern Aegean island of Ikaria is home to some of the oldest-living residents in the world, and they credit it to their stress-free lifestyle and Mediterranean diet. And no one knows the island better than Chef Diane Kochilas. Her cookbook, Ikaria, is a beautiful mix of cookbook and travelogue, touches on the Ikarian culture and how they build meaningful communities and long lives through sharing food and it shows; Kochilas' recipes for skordalia and dolmas are too good not to share.

As the saying goes, we eat with our eyes first, which is probably why we love Samantha Ferraro's The Weeknight Mediterranean Kitchen cookbook. Each of Ferraro's vibrant and modern takes on Mediterranean classics include a beautiful photos that had us dog-earing pretty much every page. Best of all, most of her recipes (like meat-stuffed eggplants and Turkish lentil soup) have layers of complex flavor that don't lead to layers of dishes to clean up.

While the Mediterranean has long been hailed as a home to many "Blue Zones" (regions where locals often live longer due to cultural and environmental practices), it's also the epicenter of culinary fusion between the East and West. Yasmin Khan's Ripe Figs distills this delicious history in her seasonally-inspired, vegetable-packed recipes that traverse Turkey, Greece and Cyprus.

With innovative dishes like garlicky eggplant salad and Turkish bride soup, Fahr's latest cookbook is a big-hearted look at the region as a whole, one that's full of community, history, and complexity.

We've all been there; You're craving some of your favorite grilled Mediterranean classics, but don't want to fire up the grill. Well, thanks to your air-fryer (that can roast, bake, and grill in addition to frying) and The Mediterranean Air Fryer cookbook, your days of dealing with charcoal are pretty much over. Even if you're new to air-frying, Hale's recipes for honey-apricot granola and chicken shawarma are fool-proof and will have you busting out the appliance for every meal.

It should come as no surprise that we'd most like to teleport into the pages of Erin Gleeson's The Forest Feast Mediterranean. Each of Gleeson's recipes are as dreamy as the watercolors that embellish them, including the likes of vibrant snap pea paella and cacio e pepe spaghetti squash. Touching upon the cuisines of Spain, Portgual, Italy, and France, this collection of Mediterranean vegetarian dishes will surely revitalize how you craft your next meal.

What has become clear in all of our top Mediterranean cookbooks is their focus on food that's not only healthful, but also soul-nourishing. And no ones does it better than Christos Sourligas' My Big Fat Greek Cookbook. Including classic soul food recipes across all meals, like savory kestedes and spanakopita, these are the real-deal Greek dishes that'll make you run to the dinner table.

While the Mediterranean diet is well-known for its emphasis on seafood, that doesn't mean vegetarians can't join in on the fun, too. The Vegetarian Mediterranean Cookbook is the perfect culinary guide to the classic dishes of the Mediterranean, whether you're in the mood for Spanish or Syrian food. We have a lot of favorite parts of Sanaa Abourezk's cookbook, but we're especially fond of the way she breaks down the culinary philosophies of the region so home cooks can get the most of their ingredients, too.