The Everything One Pot Mediterranean Cookbook: 200 Fresh and Simple Recipes That Come Together in One Pot

• Author: Peter Minaki
• Genre: Travel/Food
• Publication Date: April 11, 2023
• Publisher: Everything

Thank you to NetGalley and Everything for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Mediterranean diet has never been easier to follow with these 200 one-pot recipes so you can spend even less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying delicious meals!

The Mediterranean diet provides many health benefits including weight loss, reduced cholesterol, lowered blood pressure, and reduced risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. So, if you’re looking to simplify mealtime and do away with the labor of washing pots and pans, all while enjoying the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet, this cookbook is here to help.

With 200 satisfying recipes using only one sheet pan, pot, Dutch oven, or skillet, The Everything One Pot Mediterranean Cookbook will guide you as you move towards a healthier lifestyle one simple meal at a time.

As anyone who is responsible for cooking and cleanup knows, one pot dishes are always appealing. Especially when you have a chronic illness. The fact that this book was full of Mediterranean recipes made it even more of a lure, since there’s usually an emphasis on fresh ingredients and whole foods.

I was right in expecting that—Minaki has compiled 200 recipes incorporating fresh vegetables and whole foods. Some of the recipes are plant based, and there’s a lot of seafood included, as well as some recipes with chicken, pork, lamb, and beef. Some of the recipes include pictures, and they were incredibly visually appealing. I would have loved to see photos of more of the recipes, since many of them were unfamiliar to me (as an uncouth American lol), and I do like to have an expectation of what the food should look like when I prepare it. Plus, Mediterranean food is just so beautiful to look at!

The recipes are sorted by the method by which they are prepared (skillet, sheet pan, dutch oven, slow cooker, pressure cooker/instant pot, baking/casserole dishes, and desserts). I liked that everything was sorted that way, making it easy to find a recipe I would want to prepare in a certain way on any specific night. However, some of these recipes are a bit beyond what a beginner might be comfortable with. A lot of them seem intimidating because of long lists of ingredients, although many of these are spices, but every so often, they include items that aren’t on-hand in a typical pantry or found in a regular supermarket, so a visit to a specialty store might be required. 

I did find myself bookmarking more recipes than I didn’t, and the only reason I didn’t save more recipes was because I keep kosher in my house, so mixing meat and dairy or eating shellfish or pork isn’t something we do, although many of the recipes did sound fantastic. I’ll absolutely be making many of the plant-based, chicken, and fish recipes out of this book in the near future, and hopefully some of the desserts as soon as I have an occasion to do so.

Overall, this is a great recipe book, as long as you know your way around a kitchen and are comfortable with some intermediate cooking techniques. The recipes sound fantastic, and while many are higher in sodium, there are many that I’d be willing to try, or even make a few tweaks to. The Mediterranean diet has plenty of appeal, and so does the fact of incorporating more whole foods into a diet on a consistent basis.