This week's healthy menu is built around one of the Mediterranean diet's most fundamental ingredients — the tomato. It's July, they're at their absolute peak, and there is no better moment to let them be the star.

I’m so lucky to live in Spain where the tomato season starts, unseasonably, in November and December when the winter “Raf” tomato shows up at the market, dark green on the outside, deeply flavored and ripe on the inside. The first time I saw them, it made no sense to me at all. Dead of winter? Garden (not hot-house) tomatoes? Boy, did I have a thing or two to learn.

But it didn’t take long to realize just how essential tomatoes are to the Mediterranean diet. Fresh tomatoes just can’t be out of season for very long here.

They appear in some form almost every single day in the Spanish kitchen — from the simplest pan con tomate for morning toast to a toss-it-together-at-the-last-minute summer platter for lunch or a slowly simmered pasta sauce for dinner.

During the summer months, this love affair just gets steamier when all sorts of varieties are at their absolute peak. So it is time to set aside the rest of the summer garden’s bounty and pay homage to the humble tomato.

fruit or vegetable: cooked or raw

Botanically a fruit, culinarily a vegetable, and nutritionally one of the most versatile and well-studied foods in the Mediterranean pantry. They do something most ingredients don’t: they qualify as both - but if you’re tracking your “5-a-day”, it wouldn’t be quite fair to count it twice!

Lycopene is the headline nutrient — the antioxidant that gives tomatoes their red color and is linked to reduced risk of heart disease and certain cancers.

What a lot of people might not know is that lycopene becomes more bioavailable when tomatoes are cooked, which is one reason a simple tomato sauce is one of the most nutritious things you can put on pasta.

On the other hand, raw tomatoes bring a different mix of healthy goodness to the table: vitamin C, potassium, folate, and vitamin K in measurable amounts, plus a collection of polyphenols that support cellular health.

And at 95% water content, a simple plate of ripe summer tomatoes is one of the most hydrating things you can eat — a big benefit in the middle of a steaming hot Mediterranean July.

what to do with them

Start with the famously simple dish from the isle of Capri, Caprese salad.

Quality of the ingredients is everything — which is exactly why right now is the right moment.

Vine-ripened tomatoes, the best buffalo mozzarella you can find, a handful of fresh basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil and a smattering of sea salt. No cooking, no dressing.

Serve it as a dinner starter alongside grilled sea bass, roasted vegetables and bulgur, and you’ll have this week’s dinner on the table in no time.

But your options to celebrate tomatoes in the kitchen are only limited by your imagination. This week, I’ve grabbed just three recipes from the archives to show how far one ingredient can travel. But you’ll find plenty there if you’re looking for even more fresh inspiration.

• Spanish gazpacho — made from a mix of summer varieties blended cold — is silky, intensely flavored, and one of Spain’s greatest contributions to the summer table.

• A cherry tomato pasta sauce is Granny’s weeknight answer to an abundance of small tomatoes: twenty minutes, bright and slightly sweet, works on pasta, polenta, or spooned over fish.

• And tomatoes & tuna belly salad (ensalada de tomate y ventresca) — oil-packed tuna belly plated simply on sliced ripe tomatoes with olive oil, razor-thin onion slices and sea salt — it’s one of the great tapas of the Spanish table. Effortless and completely disproportionately good.

  Want to make any of these along with me? Just click on the videos for a few minutes of hands-on lessons!

If you’re already a paid subscriber, you know that these bonus recipes are just one of the small extras that show up in the PDF almost every week - my way of saying thanks for supporting my work.

If you’ve been reading the free issues and wondering what’s waiting on the other side — the recipes, the full menus, the shopping lists, the archive — this is a good week to find out. Peak tomato season only comes once a year.

Subscribe now

But right now, it’s time to pull up a chair, grab a glass of something cool, and join me in my Mediterranean kitchen while we work our way from one flavor-packed meal to another.

Read more

It’s almost not fair to call this a “recipe” so I’ll call it a reminder. A reminder to lean into the freshest most flavor ingredients of the season and let them shine all on their own.

Summer time produce is your best friend during the hot months. It doesn’t require prep, it doesn’t require time in the kitchen, it doesn’t require anything fancy.

Just plate and serve!

Want to upgrade to a paid subscription so you don’t miss out on anything? Everything you’ll want to know to master the Mediterranean diet including exclusive weekly meal plans and recipes, how-to-guides and behind the scenes are all here waiting for you to spend a few Mediterranean minutes with me.

Upgrade to paid

Give a gift subscription

Share Mediterranean Minutes • Master the Mediterranean Diet

Read more

When I was growing up in Michigan, my version of salmon was rainbow trout.

If you’ve never had it, rainbow trout is milder in flavor, a little more delicate and equally beautiful baked or grilled. It was the fish I grew up with — the one that meant a good day on the water, a fire later, and dinner that you actually caught yourself. I didn’t think much about the nutrition at the time. I just knew it tasted like summer.

Moving to the Mediterranean shifted a lot of things about how I eat. But the fish habit stayed — it just upgraded. Many more types, many more nights. And I was happy to switch from trout to salmon.

Salmon is what rainbow trout always wanted to be when it grew up. Richer, fattier, more complex in flavor, and nutritionally in a category of its own. George and I eat it at least once a week, sometimes more.

It’s the rare ingredient that works either as a dead-simple weeknight dinner (11 minutes in an air fryer) or as the kind of dish you put on the table when people are coming over and you want to treat them to something special.

Today’s recipe is firmly in the second category. But it’s easier than it looks.

what makes it work

Salmon is one of the most nutritionally complete foods you can put on a plate.

It’s a rich source of EPA and DHA — the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids that your body cannot produce on its own and that almost everyone, everywhere, is not getting enough of. The research on omega-3s is among the most consistent in nutrition science: regular consumption is linked to lower risk of cardiovascular disease, reduced inflammation, improved brain function, and better mood regulation over time.

The Mediterranean diet’s recommendation to eat fish two to three times a week wasn’t written with one type of fish in mind — but if it had been, salmon would have been a strong candidate.

Beyond the omega-3s, a single serving delivers around 30 grams of high-quality protein, meaningful amounts of B12, selenium, and potassium, and a fat profile that is almost entirely heart-healthy unsaturated. It is, in short, one of the most efficient things you can eat.

I’ve covered salmon before in this newsletter so I won’t dwell. But I do want to say something about the fennel.

Fennel has been an ingredient I’ve liked for a long time — raw in salads, shaved thin with citrus, as a base for a braise. But I came late to baking it. And baking it, it turns out, is where fennel becomes a completely different vegetable.

The raw version has a sharp anise note that not everyone loves. Roasted or baked, that sharpness softens almost completely. What’s left is sweet, slightly caramelized, and silky in a way that makes it one of the best possible companions for rich fish. Nutritionally it brings fiber, vitamin C, potassium, and folate to the plate — a clean, underrated addition that earns its place on its own terms.

what to do with both

The salmon sits on a bed of baked fennel, finished with toasted pistachios, and a scattering of Parmesan to garnish. A little fennel seed and fresh thyme. Lemon over everything.

It takes about thirty minutes start to finish and it looks like something from a restaurant (once it’s plated of course). The pistachios add crunch and a toasty richness that ties the whole dish together — and they happen to be one of the lowest-calorie nuts available, with protein, fiber, and heart-healthy fat all showing up in the same small handful.

The half cup of white wine in the recipe is listed as optional. But if I were you, I’d add it. And if you don’t want to open a bottle just for a half cup, here’s a trick I use constantly: freeze leftover wine in ice cube trays. Two cubes is roughly a quarter cup. Problem solved, nothing wasted.

Serve it with the toasted buckwheat, the mixed green salad, and a couple of fresh apricots alongside. The buckwheat is earthy and nutty in a way that matches the fennel perfectly — and if you haven’t cooked with it before, this is a good time to be introduced.

how it fits in today’s menu

The rest of the day is built to let the salmon be the centerpiece — light and seasonal from morning through afternoon, so that dinner feels like the arrival it’s meant to be.

Your full menu PDF is just below, along with three bonus salmon recipes from the archives — one weeknight simple, one for company, one for fun — and the complete day’s menu with shopping list.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, this is just one of the small extras that show up almost every week — my way of saying thank you for being part of this community. And if you’ve been on the fence about joining, this is a good week to see what you’d be getting.

If you’ve been reading the free issues and wondering what’s waiting on the other side — the recipes, the full menus, the shopping lists, the archive — this is a good week to find out.

Subscribe now

But right now, it’s time to pull up a chair, grab a glass or cup, and join me in my Mediterranean kitchen while we work our way from one flavor-packed meal to another.

Read more

Salmon is such an easy fish to incorporate into your everyday diet. It bakes in minutes and plays nice with so many different flavors, from tomato-based sauces to this bright and cheery anise-flavored finish with fennel and pistachios.

The crunchy nut crust is a perfect juxtaposition to the tender, almost creamy salmon and the succulent bulbs. Just add a simple salad of mixed greens, a hunk of rustic baguette or a side of grains and lunch is all set!

Want to upgrade to a paid subscription so you don’t miss out on anything? Everything you’ll want to know to master the Mediterranean diet including exclusive weekly meal plans and recipes, how-to-guides and behind the scenes are all here waiting for you to spend a few Mediterranean minutes with me.

Upgrade to paid

Give a gift subscription

Share Mediterranean Minutes • Master the Mediterranean Diet

Read more

Growing up in Michigan, there were two things that meant summer had properly arrived.

Cherries and corn.

The cherries came first — those deep, dark sweet ones from the orchards up near Traverse City that you could eat by the handful until your fingers were stained red. And then, a few weeks later, the corn.

My family would drive out to the farmer’s big wagon parked by the side of a dirt road early in the morning with a big cooler in the car, pick up the freshest ears we could find, and keep them cold the whole way home — because we knew that the moment you let sweet corn sit, the natural sugars start converting to starch and you’ve already lost something.

I’ve lived a long way from Michigan for a long time now. But every July 4th, I still think about that cooler in the back of the car.

So, this week’s special menu is a treat for me and for the holiday. Two featured recipes not one, sizzling hot links, cold drinks, good company, and a plate that feels like exactly what summer is supposed to taste like.

a note about those links

Locally-made bratwurst is a July 4th essential. It’s non-negotiable. I can’t imagine the fireworks party without them. But they also fall into that food category I might refer to as “once in a blue moon”. So let’s talk about the role of meat and the Mediterranean diet.

The diet guidelines have a category I call “meats and sweets” — the things you enjoy a few times a month rather than every day. The smallest part of the pyramid.

Red meat. Porterhouse. T-Bone. Sausage. The occasional indulgence. It’s not a cheat. It’s not a failure. It’s a built-in feature of the most well-researched eating pattern in the world, because the people who designed it understood that sustainable eating has to include the meals worth celebrating.

A bratwurst on July 4th is exactly that kind of meal.

The fat numbers in today’s menu are higher than a typical issue — I’ll be honest about that. The bratwurst is why. But everything else on the plate is clean, seasonal, and genuinely good for you. And one cookout in July is not going to undo anything.

Especially when it includes so many healthy sides.

what makes it work

Corn doesn’t always get credit for what it actually is.

It’s a whole grain. The same category as farro, bulgur, and buckwheat — just in a form that most people eat straight off the cob without thinking about the nutrition at all. One ear of corn delivers meaningful fiber, B vitamins, and a lineup of antioxidants including lutein and zeaxanthin, which support eye health in ways that accumulate quietly over years of eating well.

And here’s the thing about fresh corn in peak season: it tastes completely different from what you find in a can or a frozen bag. The sugars haven’t had time to convert. The kernels are still tender. It’s worth getting to the farm stand early.

Sweet cherries are working just as hard on the other part of this plate.

Whether sweet or tart, their deep red color comes from anthocyanins — the same family of antioxidants that show up in blueberries and pomegranates and that research consistently links to reduced inflammation, better cardiovascular health, and faster recovery after physical activity. They’re also one of the few natural food sources of melatonin, which is not nothing on a summer night when you’re trying to wind down after a long day outside.

staying in the moment

Eating seasonally is one of the simplest things you can do for your health — not because out-of-season produce is harmful, but because in-season produce is more nutritious, more flavorful, and usually cheaper. July 4th happens to fall at one of the best possible moments of the American summer calendar. Take advantage of it.

this week’s recipes

The corn salad started exactly the way the recipe description says — at a farm stand, early morning, cooler in hand.

Shuck it. Cut the kernels off (a mandolin makes it extra easy). Fire up the stovetop. Toss with bell peppers, red onion, a jalapeño or two, fresh cilantro, good olive oil, and lemon. That’s it. And take it from me, make plenty — this will be the first dish on the table to disappear.

Another dish that screams “summer party”, this cherry and pineapple salsa is the kind of recipe that surprises people.

Sweet cherries, pineapple, jalapeño, lime, Aleppo pepper, and fresh parsley. It’s fruity and bright and has just enough heat to make you reach for another spoonful. It works on the bratwurst, alongside the corn salad, and honestly just on a cracker with nothing else going on.

Both recipes are in your PDF below, along with the full day’s menu and shopping list.

how the rest of the day looks

Breakfast is a yogurt bowl with fresh strawberries, blueberries, banana, granola, and honey — all the July fruit in one bowl, no cooking required.

Mid-morning: cold watermelon and a small handful of almonds. The definition of a hot-day snack.

Lunch is the cookout. Grilled bratwurst on a whole wheat bun, the corn salad, the cherry salsa, and a cold beer or a glass of wine if that’s your July 4th. Eat outside if you possibly can.

The afternoon snack is hummus and cucumber — cooling, simple, exactly right after a big lunch in the sun.

Dinner is deliberately light. A chopped salad of iceberg, tomato, red onion, carrots, a hard boiled egg, and a scoop of white tuna with an EVOO and red wine vinegar dressing, alongside a good thick slice of baguette. Spain does this kind of simple supper better than almost anywhere — and it turns out it’s perfect for the night of July 4th too.

This issue is free for everyone — no paywall, no subscription required. If you’ve been reading along and wondering what the paid side looks like, the full menus, recipe PDFs, and shopping lists are what’s on the other side. This week you get a taste of all of it.

Subscribe now

And if you’re already a paid subscriber — thank you. Genuinely. Every issue exists because you’re here.

Happy Fourth everybody. The corn is ready. The salsa is in the fridge. The grill is lit.

Come join me for the best kind of summer celebration.

Motd 77 Corn & Cherry July 4

19MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Disclaimer: The nutritional information provided in Mediterranean Minutes is intended for general guidance only and is not a substitute for personalized medical or dietary advice. Individual needs vary. Please consult a qualified health professional before making significant changes to your diet.

Usually salsas are tomato-laced affairs, but this sweet and spicy option is an unexpected, delightful addition to a party spread.

Cherries are always counted for end-of-the-meal desserts... who doesn’t love fresh cherry pie, crumble or trifle? But sometimes these nutritional powerhouses deserve a seat at the table at the beginning of the meal too.

Motd 77 Corn & Cherry July 4 Recipe #2

648KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Growing up in Michigan, corn season was a highlight of the summer when we could head over to the farm early in the morning with a big cooler in the car and collect fresh ears for the day... keeping them cool before the natural sugars converted to starch.

The rest is simple. Shuck, cut the kernels off, cook lightly and make plenty. This will be the first dish of the party to disappear!

Motd 77 Corn & Cherry July 4 Recipe #1

568KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Living in the Mediterranean will do things to your pantry. If you’ve been reading the newsletter lately, you might remember the little reveal of my grains drawer.

What you might not know is how that drawer started.

One bag. One grain. Farro.

I found it at Alicante’s Mercado Central, brought it home, cooked it, fell completely in love with it, and then — in the way that these things tend to go — got wildly distracted by everything else. Barley. Buckwheat. Bulgur. Freekeh. Teff. Millet. Sorghum. Three kinds of quinoa. I went deep, I went wide, and I had a whole bunch of fun doing it.

But here’s the thing about going wide.

You find out what you actually keep coming back to.

And for me, every single time, it’s farro. Perhaps that’s why its share of the drawer space is twice what every other grain gets.

But before I get ahead of myself, I want to address…

the elephant in the room

There’s a question I get asked a lot about: the Mediterranean diet and carbohydrates. People see a macronutrient split with 50 to 55% of calories from carbs and immediately get nervous. It looks like exactly the kind of eating they’ve been told to avoid.

But the Mediterranean diet isn’t built on the most popular refined grains like white pasta, white rice, white bread and dinner rolls.

It’s built on fruits, vegetables and whole grains — all complex carbohydrates that digest slowly, feed your gut bacteria, and arrive bundled with the fiber and micronutrients your body needs to actually function well.

what makes it work

The Mediterranean diet recommends three to six servings of whole grains every day. Not refined grains — but the real thing. The whole kernel. Bran, germ, and endosperm intact.

Here’s why that distinction matters so much.

When a grain is refined, almost everything useful gets stripped away in the milling process. What’s left is essentially just the starchy interior — fast carbs with very little fiber, very few minerals, and none of the antioxidants and phytochemicals that made it worth eating in the first place.

Whole grains work completely differently in your body.

The fiber slows digestion, which means blood sugar stays steadier and hunger stays quieter for longer. The B vitamins — thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate — show up in meaningful amounts. So do iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium. And the polyphenols and carotenoids that whole grains carry reduce inflammation in ways that add up over years of eating well.

Once that clicked for me, hitting three to six servings a day stopped feeling like work and started feeling like the easy part — because there are just so many good options.

Oats in the morning that keep you going until lunch without the 10am slump. Bulgur or buckwheat that you can get on the table in fifteen minutes. Quinoa with more protein per cup than almost anything else in the plant world. Barley with the lowest glycemic index of any grain and my favorite childhood memory - a hot, chewy bowl of chicken barley soup on a cold snowy day.

And farro. Which has its own treasured spot in my head and my pantry.

I made an entire video on the fundamentals of whole grains — including farro and where it sits in the Mediterranean diet — and if you haven’t watched it yet, you might enjoy it. It covers everything I wish someone had told me when I was standing in front of that grain stall for the first time.

playing favorites

I’ve covered a lot of ground in that drawer since the beginning — and I stand by every grain in it. But farro has a few things going for it that nothing else quite matches.

One serving covers around 20% of your daily fiber needs, which is a strong return for something that tastes this good. It delivers niacin, magnesium, and zinc alongside polyphenols, carotenoids, and selenium — a lineup of antioxidants that support heart health, blood sugar regulation, and brain function in ways that accumulate slowly but meaningfully over time.

It comes in three varieties — emmer, einkorn, and spelt — and it benefits from an overnight soak if you can manage it. Minutes to prep, fewer minutes to cook, easier on the digestive system. Same principle as soaking beans, same payoff.

And then there’s the flavor. Toasty, nutty, satisfyingly chewy. The kind of flavor that makes you wonder why you ever bothered with anything blander.

The cooking itself is straightforward. You can watch how it’s done on another of my YouTube videos if you want to cook along with me.

And it’s worth knowing that batch cooking and freezing in perfect serving-sized portions was made for this grain. It holds up really well for 2-3 months in the freezer.

this week’s recipe

Today’s recipe takes that cooked farro somewhere worth going. It’s a classic in the Mediterranean region using classic Mediterranean ingredients.

Bell peppers, pomegranate seeds, red onion, pistachios, and a generous handful of fresh parsley, all brought together with a dressing built on pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, and good olive oil.

It’s bright and chewy and colorful and luscious — the kind of salad that makes you want to make a double batch just so you have it for the rest of the week.

Which, for the record, is exactly what I plan on doing (and BTW, I store the prepped ingredients in separate little glass boxes and toss them together just before I want to enjoy it, dressed at the last minute so it doesn’t get soggy).

One batch makes six servings. Make it on a Sunday and lunch is essentially handled until Thursday. It’s the kind of weekday win that makes this way of eating so sustainable in the long run.

The full recipe is in the PDF below, along with three bonus recipes from the archives that I put together specifically for this week’s theme.

If you’re a paid subscriber already — genuinely, thank you. Every issue I write is possible because you’re here. Your PDF with the complete recipe, the full day’s menu, and the shopping list is just below.

If you’ve been reading the free issues and wondering what’s behind the paywall — the recipe PDFs, the full menus, the shopping lists, the archive — this week is a good one to step through.

Subscribe now

The farro is in the pot. The pomegranate arils are ready and waiting. Please come & join me in my Mediterranean kitchen as we work our way from one flavor-packed meal to another.

Read more

Farro, bell peppers, pomegranate seeds, red onion, pistachios, and a generous handful of fresh parsley, all brought together with a dressing built on pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, and olive oil.

It’s bright and toothy and colorful, the kind of salad that makes you want to make a double batch just so you have it for the rest of the week. Which, for the record, is exactly what I recommend doing.

Want to upgrade to a paid subscription so you don’t miss out on anything? Everything you’ll want to know to master the Mediterranean diet including exclusive weekly meal plans and recipes, how-to-guides and behind the scenes are all here waiting for you to spend a few Mediterranean minutes with me.

Upgrade to paid

Give a gift subscription

Share Mediterranean Minutes • Master the Mediterranean Diet

Read more

If you’ve ever shopped for fish in a typical American grocery store, you know what the fish counter (if they have one) looks like. Fresh or flash-frozen pre-packaged options. Some salmon. Some shrimp. Maybe tilapia. Next to the much larger meat section that might even be staffed by a butcher.

It’s a little different here. Grocery stores all have a long fish counter manned by staff that clean and prep your fish and seafood to order. Where I shop, the central market in Alicante has more than a hundred fishmongers.

More than one hundred.

With countless types of seafood and fish to choose from.

When I walked into the first floor of the market for the first time, I almost didn’t know which way to turn. Whole fish on ice. Octopus, squid, and cuttlefish. An entire counter of different types of clams. Shellfish still moving. And the fishmongers — patient, opinionated, confident that whatever they had was exactly what I needed to take home.

I made myself a promise to eventually try them all. But began with something familiar.

I dipped my toe in the water (thanks for the lessons in pun-making, Dad) and started with cod.

Because cod was everywhere. Because the Spanish have been eating it for centuries. Because dried bacalao — salt-cured cod — is as fundamental to Spanish cooking as olive oil and garlic, and if a culture has been doing something that long, it’s usually worth paying attention to.

what makes it work

Here in the Mediterranean, fish is a centerpiece — recommended at least 2-3 times per week, every week, as one of the diet’s most consistent sources of lean protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and a lineup of micronutrients that most people aren't getting enough of.

And when you think about fish and the Mediterranean diet, salmon is probably what comes to mind. Salmon is wonderful — rich, fatty, and a great source of omega-3s. George and I eat it almost every week.

But the Mediterranean diet’s recommendation to include fish in your diet every week wasn’t written with one type of fish in mind. It’s built on variety — fatty fish, white fish, shellfish and other seafood whenever you can get them.

So I want to take a minute and talk about lean white fish. Cod, tilapia, hake, halibut, sea bass, snapper, sole. The ones that don’t get nearly as much attention but deserve it. And here’s why.

fatty v. lean

Fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines, and tuna get their omega-3s from fat stored throughout the flesh — which is why they taste so rich and succulent and why they are always a Mediterranean diet recommendation.

White fish store fat primarily in their liver rather than their flesh, which means the fillet itself is super lean — low in calories, high in protein, and light enough to eat several times a week without ever feeling heavy.

Cod specifically delivers around 20 grams of protein per 100 grams — on par with chicken breast — with almost no fat to speak of. It’s also a meaningful source of B12, iodine, selenium, and phosphorus. B12 for your nervous system and energy metabolism. Iodine for thyroid function. Selenium as an antioxidant. Phosphorus for bone health.

double duty

While a beautifully sautéed fillet of cod supported with a simple sauce or side is an elegant option for a light lunch, one of the things I love most about this week’s recipe is that I’ve teamed up those fillets with another protein powerhouse, French flageolet beans.

Flageolet beans — pale green, creamy, and one of the most prized legumes in Mediterranean cooking — are among the best plant sources of protein you can put on a plate. Combined with the cod, served on a bed of fresh spinach, a single serving of this dish delivers around 40 grams of protein before the salad even shows up.

The combination also hits fiber, iron, folate, and magnesium in one bowl — nutrients that white fish on its own doesn’t cover. They work together in a way that neither one quite manages alone.

Which is, if you think about it, a pretty good description of Mediterranean cooking too.

this week’s recipe

I’d seen variations of a citrus-caper sauce floating around for years. Some leaned heavily on the capers, some on the citrus, some added mustard, some didn’t. Mine is a simple riff: fresh orange juice and zest, lemon juice to keep it bright, capers roughly chopped so they distribute through the sauce rather than sitting in clumps, a little honey to round out the acidity, Dijon, good olive oil, and fresh cilantro (if cilantro’s not your thing, swap in parsley).

It takes about three minutes to make and it does a remarkable amount of work on the plate.

The brightness of the orange lifts the earthiness of the beans. The capers add a briny edge. And the cod — pan-seared until it just flakes — sits on top of it all looking exactly as good as it tastes.

how the rest of the day shapes up

The menu this week is built to let the featured recipe do its thing at lunch without competing with anything else.

Breakfast is a warm whole grain pita with hummus, tomato, cucumber and za’atar — the kind of thing that takes five minutes and keeps you going all morning. A small glass of fresh orange juice alongside, because even though it’s June, the Valencia oranges are still wonderful.

Mid-morning: a handful of grapes, a few walnut halves, and a square of dark chocolate. No explanation needed.

Lunch is the cod and beans on a bed of spinach with a simple mixed green salad.

The afternoon snack leans savory — whole grain crackers with tzatziki and radishes, plus another juicy end-of-season orange. Crunchy, cooling, just right for a warm June afternoon in Alicante or anywhere else.

Dinner is a slow-cooked vegetable and chickpea tagine (think: a deeply spiced Mediterranean stew) over whole wheat couscous with a little drizzle of a slightly spicy harissa yogurt. Bell peppers, eggplant, zucchini, canned tomatoes, chickpeas — everything that’s good right now, served over a generous cup of couscous.

If you’re already a paid subscriber — thank you. Genuinely. Every issue exists because you’re here. And it means you already know the weekly PDF usually includes a few bonus recipes too.

All variations on the white fish theme. All proof that white fish is the most versatile fish at the market. And all plucked from the archives of my Substack.

If you’ve been reading the free issues and wondering what’s on the other side of the paywall — the recipes, the full menus, the shopping lists, the archive — this is a great week to check it out.

Subscribe now

So if you’ve unlocked all these goodies with a subscription, it’s time to pull up a chair, grab a glass of something cold or a cup of something hot, and join me in my Mediterranean kitchen while we work our way from one flavor-packed meal to another.

The cod is sizzling in the pan. The beans are tender and ready. The orange-caper sauce is three minutes away.

Read more

A protein powerhouse of a lunch or dinner, baked or sautéed cod over delicate, creamy French flageolet beans and a bed of spinach. All dressed up with a bright, tangy, citrusy dressing!

Prep for the beans takes a little extra time so make the most of it and cook extra for later in the week. You’ll have plenty of dressing to go with those leftovers too. The perfect extra side.

Want to upgrade to a paid subscription so you don’t miss out on anything? Everything you’ll want to know to master the Mediterranean diet including exclusive weekly meal plans and recipes, how-to-guides and behind the scenes are all here waiting for you to spend a few Mediterranean minutes with me.

Upgrade to paid

Give a gift subscription

Share Mediterranean Minutes • Master the Mediterranean Diet

Read more

It’s mid-June and the markets here in Alicante are practically collapsing under the weight of summertime zucchini. Come back tomorrow and there are more. Ask around the neighborhood and everyone has the same story: the garden went completely sideways and now there’s zucchini on every surface in the kitchen.

When we had backyard gardens in California and Spain, I had to get creative. Adding zucchini to our breakfast smoothie (I promise you won’t even know it’s there), making oodles of mini-loaves for George to snack on, and making oodles of “zoodles” to pile raw in salads or barely sauté as a spaghetti alternative.

Every year, my kitchen creativity strains under the weight of “too much of a good thing”. But, eventually, I always find a new way to enjoy summer squash.

Which made this the obvious week to give zucchini its proper moment. Not as a filler. Not as the thing you sneak into a pasta sauce hoping nobody notices. As the actual point.

What makes it work

Zucchini has an image problem.

It gets treated as the background vegetable — the one that stretches a dish, absorbs whatever flavors are around it, and simply disappears into the meal. Which is exactly why most people are surprised to learn how much nutritional work it’s actually doing.

It’s low in calories and high in water content, without adding weight to a meal. It’s a solid source of vitamin C, potassium, and B vitamins. And it contains lutein and zeaxanthin — two antioxidants that are particularly valuable for eye health and that almost nobody talks about.

And at the height of summer heat, with its high water content, zucchini is an easy defense against dehydration. Strawberries and watermelon aren’t the only ones to tackle that problem.

Summer squash more broadly — yellow squash, pattypan, and zucchini — all share this profile. Different shapes, same solid nutritional story.

In the Mediterranean diet, vegetables aren’t a side note. They’re the foundation. The base of the pyramid that everything else is built on — recommended daily, in abundance, as the main event rather than the supporting cast. Zucchini fits that role perfectly, in abundance. It just does the work.

And at this time of year, it costs almost nothing.

What to do with it

Most people default to one of two moves with zucchini: slice and sauté, or grate and hide. Both are fine. But neither makes for a particularly show-stopping side.

The technique in the featured recipe in this week’s Healthy Menu Meal Plan does just that.

A very hot griddle pan. Zucchini cut into half-inch rounds. The goal isn’t to cook it through gently — the goal is proper char marks before it softens. That high heat is what unlocks the sweetness that’s been sitting there all along.

Then balsamic vinegar goes on while the slices are still warm enough to absorb it. Fresh basil from my countertop garden or yours. Toasted hazelnuts. A generous drizzle of good olive oil. Parmesan shaved over the top.

This is what I call flavor layering — building complexity from simple ingredients by giving each one its moment. The zucchini is the base. The balsamic lifts it. The hazelnuts add crunch and a toasty richness. The basil keeps it fresh. The Parmesan ties it all together.

And my thanks to Yotam Ottolenghi for the inspiration — and if you haven’t spent time over on his Substack, consider this your nudge.

How it fits in today’s menu

The charred zucchini is tonight’s dinner side — alongside herb-roasted chicken thighs with preserved lemon and a bowl of freekeh (or any other whole grain in the pantry). It does most of the flavor work at the table, which means the chicken can stay simple.

The rest of the day is very June. A poached egg toast with roasted pepper and goat cheese to start. Fresh peaches and almonds mid-morning. White bean tuna salad at lunch — one of those combinations that sounds like a weeknight shortcut and tastes like you planned it. Sweet pea guacamole in the afternoon, because June deserves a good dip. Watermelon to close.

To give you a few more ideas about zucchini, you’ll find a few extra recipes from my archives in the menu PDF besides the meal plan.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, this is just one of the small extras that show up almost every week — my way of saying thank you for being part of this community.

And if you’ve been on the fence about joining, this is a good week to see what you’d be getting.

Subscribe now

But right now for all you paid subscriber folks, it’s time to pull up a chair, grab a glass of something cold or a cup of something hot, and join me in my Mediterranean kitchen while we work our way from one flavor-packed meal to another.

Read more

This recipe is a classic example of what I like to call “flavor layering”. A simple way to add more depth, taste and nutrition to any dish.

Charred or grilled zucchini with fresh basil, toasted hazelnuts and shaved parmesan packs so many healthy qualities in its many layers of flavor.

What a yummy way to celebrate spring with this nutrient-dense, healthy dish high in anti-oxidants, fiber and Vitamin A!

I will always be eternally grateful to Yotam Ottolenghi for sharing his depth of knowledge and passion for humble vegetables like the zucchini. This recipe was inspired by his renown version from one of my favorites, his popular cookbook, “Plenty”.

Want to upgrade to a paid subscription so you don’t miss out on anything? Everything you’ll want to know to master the Mediterranean diet including exclusive weekly meal plans and recipes, how-to-guides and behind the scenes are all here waiting for you to spend a few Mediterranean minutes with me.

Subscribe now

Read more

Hola! I’ve wanted to write a newsletter about olive oil and the role it plays in the Mediterranean diet. But every time I get started, I don’t know where to stop.

Today, I’ve decided to take another stab at it. And my greeting was the first hint.

H-O-L-A. The single easiest mnemonic (or “tricky way to remember stuff”) for the four most important factors in taking care of this precious ingredient.

Heat. Oxygen. Light. Age.

I’ll get back to these points in a minute, but for now, I want to muse on the single most important ingredient in the Mediterranean diet and why you’ve seen it in every single Healthy Menu Meal Plan on my Substack.

Extra virgin olive oil.

what makes it essential

For over 22 years, there’s been a bottle of extra virgin olive oil within arm’s reach in my kitchen. Because it never makes sense to stash it away deep in the pantry. It’s in everything.

The toast in the morning. The potatoes at lunch. The salad dressing I make the same way every single time and never measure. The pan I reach for at dinner before I’ve even decided what we’re eating.

If the Mediterranean diet had a mascot, it would not be a plate of glistening grilled fish or a refreshing bowl of quinoa studded with feta cheese. It would be a dark bottle of extra virgin olive oil resting in the fridge or sitting on a kitchen counter (away from the window and away from the stovetop).

my long-standing love affair

It all began when George and I started producing olive oil in the Santa Barbara hills of California in 2003. I devoured everything I could study, ended up editor of the #1 website in the world dedicated to olive oil and being invited to speak at industry conferences.

It continued when we moved to Spain, bought a small farm with far fewer trees but still enough to press and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

And at this point, I don’t think I could manage without it.

what’s on the menu

This week’s Healthy Menu Meal Plan is a perfect example of what I mean — which, honestly, isn’t that different from any other week around here.

Breakfast is crunchy whole grain toast with smashed white beans, a good drizzle of the good stuff, and a fresh orange. Mid-morning, a small bowl of marcona almonds and green olives — the kind of snack that requires zero effort and makes you feel very Mediterranean.

Lunch is where it gets interesting. Pan-seared sea bass, baby potatoes roasted with rosemary, a green salad — all perfectly fine on their own. But served alongside a bowl of that Spanish kitchen indispensable, alioli? Completely different meal.

The afternoon snack is something new: a slice of olive oil zucchini bread with a glass of herbed iced tea.

And dinner is grilled chicken thighs with summer squash, cherry tomatoes, fresh figs, and couscous. Light, seasonal, utterly effortless.

Your morning snack skips the ever-present essential, but the rest of the day, don’t put the bottle away!

the one ingredient you actually want… to understand

I made a four-part series about olive oil on YouTube because I kept being asked the same questions over and over.

“What’s the difference between extra virgin and regular? How do I know if it’s fake? Can I cook with it? Do I really need two bottles?”

Yes to the last one. You really do need two bottles.

One really good extra virgin for finishing and dressing — the one that actually adds a distinct flavor to the dish. And one decent everyday olive oil for cooking. If budget is a factor, virgin olive oil — not light, not “pure,” not refined — can be your second bottle. It costs less, it has a slightly higher smoke point, and it won’t interfere with the flavor.

making the grade

Extra virgin is the first cold pressing of fresh olives — no heat, no chemicals. Think of it like fresh-squeezed orange juice. Olives are a fruit too.

So what would you rather have: juice pressed straight from the tree, or what’s left after the the fruit’s being sitting around for days or has already been pressed once and is being run through the mill a second (or third) time?

That second pressing is virgin olive oil. It’s not bad. It’s just not as good.

And then there is “light” or “pure” olive oil — please don’t bother. They’re just marketing terms that mean flavorless and colorless (and possibly not olive oil at all). The calories are identical to any other fat: around 110 per tablespoon and it’s been stripped of its healthiest qualities like antioxidants (polyphenols like oleocanthal) and vitamin E.

Extra virgin has the highest concentration of polyphenols — the compounds that make a really good oil taste slightly bitter and peppery, and sometimes catch at the back of your throat when you taste it straight.

That catch is not a flaw.

It’s a feature. George and I used to make what was known as a “two-cough oil” on our California farm — early harvest, super spicy, ridiculously aromatic. We loved it.

the smoke point story — let’s set the record straight

This is the question I get more than almost any other: “can you actually cook with extra virgin olive oil, or will it lose all its best values the moment it hits a hot pan?”

Here’s the thing. Extra virgin olive oil starts smoking somewhere between 350°F and 465°F. The ideal temperature for sautéing or frying almost anything at home is around 375°F. Which means you are almost certainly fine.

The alarm about smoke point has been, in my opinion, blown way out of proportion. The research backs this up.

Where olive oil does start to break down is with repeated use — the way restaurants cycle oil through a fryer all day. At home, cooking a piece of sea bass or sautéing summer squash? You are nowhere near that threshold.

T.L.C.

The four things that genuinely degrade olive oil — whether you’re cooking with it or storing it — is the introduction of heat, oxygen, light, and age. And now we’re back to where we began.

The rules are super simple:

• Heat: Store it away from the stovetop and not on the windowsill.

• Oxygen: Store it sealed up tight. Bag-in-box packaging is the very best.

• Light: In a dark bottle, away from that sunny window.

• Age: It’s not wine. It doesn’t improve with age. Don’t make the mistake of saving it for special occasions.

So that’s the story about olive oil and how to enjoy it every day, including today’s meal plan. A menu built around the one ingredient that has been sitting on Mediterranean counters, more or less unchanged, for four thousand years.

As always, you'll find a few extra treats in the menu PDF besides the meal plan I promised you (mostly because I just can't help myself). When I can, I'll reach into the archive so that you don't have to go hunting around.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, you already know this is just one of the small extras that show up almost every week — my way of saying thank you for being part of this community.

And if you’ve been on the fence about joining, this might just be a great week to see what you’d be getting.

Subscribe now

But right now, it’s time to pull up a chair, grab a glass of something cold or a cup of something hot, and join me in my Mediterranean kitchen while we work our way from one flavor-packed meal to another.

Motd 73 Olive Oil

16.4MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Disclaimer: The nutritional information provided in Mediterranean Minutes is intended for general guidance only and is not a substitute for personalized medical or dietary advice. Individual needs vary. Please consult a qualified health professional before making significant changes to your diet.

What’s the #1 condiment worldwide? Mayonnaise. In Spain? Garlic Mayo.

Because Spaniards know adding garlic is a sure fire way to make most favorite dishes even better.

In the Mediterranean, garlic mayonnaise is known as Alioli or Aioli. No matter what you call it, it’s a super easy, very versatile sauce using extra virgin olive oil and garlic. You can use it everyday on almost everything.

If you love olive oil and you like garlic, this dish is for you.

Alioli:aioli

446KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Want to upgrade to a paid subscription so you don’t miss out on anything?Everything you’ll want to know to master the Mediterranean diet including exclusive weekly meal plans and recipes, how-to-guides and behind the scenes are all here waiting for you to spend a few Mediterranean minutes with me.

I have three stories about lentils. And they all fit a pattern.

1. My friend Ignacio, born and bred in Spain, has to be coaxed into eating lentils as an adult — hidden in a meatless bolognese sauce — because his mother fed them to him almost every day when he was little. Maybe a little too much of a good thing.

2. I recently watched my friend and world-famous chef María José San Román demonstrate the value of frying lentils in olive oil at a local event, and witnessed kids making a mad scramble after them like they were M&Ms. Healthy protein disguised as candy. Genius.

3. And her daughter Geni Perramon — Michelin restaurateur with five locations in Alicante — raises her three children on bowls of veggie-packed lentils every week without drama or fuss. She looked genuinely puzzled when I told her lentils hadn’t been part of my childhood. “But what did you eat?” she asked.

Fair point.

Lentils are on school menus here. They show up on weekdays at Geni’s table because they showed up on weekdays at her mother’s table, and on her grandmother’s before that.

Nobody makes a thing of it. They’re just there — cooked simply, eaten without ceremony, completely taken for granted in the best possible way.

And here’s what those Spanish mothers have known all along.

What makes them work

Lentils are one of the oldest cultivated foods in the world — at the very foundation of the Mediterranean diet — recommended not as an occasional addition but as a near-daily staple.

And unlike every other legume in that category, they require no soaking. None.

You rinse them, you cook them, and twenty-ish minutes later you have a protein source that would cost considerably more in any other form.

That practicality is the first thing that earns them a permanent spot in the pantry.

Which brings us to another one of my color-coded pantry drawers (remember the grain one?)

Tiny but powerful

One serving delivers around nine grams of plant-based protein alongside eight grams of fiber — a combination that stabilizes blood sugar, keeps you genuinely full, and does good things for your gut microbiome over the long term.

They’re rich in folate, magnesium and iron (more than most people expect from something this inexpensive), and loaded with polyphenols — the same antioxidant compounds in olive oil and red wine that researchers keep pointing to when they try to explain why Mediterranean populations tend to age so well.

And then there is the flavor question. Lentils have an earthy, subtly nutty depth that absorbs whatever you put near them — veggies, lemon, olive oil, fresh herbs, a good vinaigrette — and gives it back to you with something extra.

Red lentils melt into silky soups and dips. Black lentils are intensely flavored and hold up beautifully in warm salads. Green and French Puy lentils hold their shape through cooking, which makes them the natural choice for grain salads and composed plates.

All these varieties are worth getting to know.

Meet your legumes

Lentils get the spotlight this week, but they’re just one member of a remarkably versatile family.

Beans and legumes come in enough varieties that you could rotate through them all week without repeating yourself — and the Mediterranean diet, which recommends them three to four times a week, essentially encourages you to do exactly that.

Each one brings its own flavor, texture and nutritional personality to the table.

Some hold their shape beautifully in salads. Some melt into silky soups. Some are best slow-cooked into something rich and deeply satisfying.

The chart below is a quick reference for the ones worth keeping in your pantry — a starting point for getting comfortable with the whole family, not just the one you already know.

how they fit into today’s menu

Today’s menu puts legumes front and center — not just at lunch, but woven through the whole day.

It starts at snack time with hummus and crudités — chickpeas at their most elemental, creamy and satisfying in a way that also happens to take about ninety seconds to put together if you have a batch in the fridge. The recipe is on my website and it’s one I make on rotation.

This week’s featured recipe is an Lentil Salad with Orzo and Zucchini.

Brown lentils are the right call here — they hold their shape through cooking without going mushy, absorb the lemon and olive oil vinaigrette without losing their texture, and bring just enough earthy depth to anchor a dish that could otherwise feel too light for a proper lunch. They’re doing the simple structural work that makes the whole bowl hang together.

And dinner brings the third legume of the day: a white bean salad with roasted red peppers, red onion and fresh parsley alongside grilled swordfish. A small homage to growing up in the Midwest — cannellini beans standing in for the navy beans of my childhood, dressed rather better than they ever were back then.

Three different legumes. Three completely different preparations. One very good day of eating.

If you remember the three Spanish stories at the start of this post, you’ll find a few extra recipes in this week’s PDF that speak to each of them — meatless bolognese for Ignacio, María José’s fried lentils, and a simple everyday lentil bowl in Geni’s spirit. My way of closing the loop.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, you’ll know that this is just one of the small extras that show up almost every week — my way of saying thank you for being part of this community.

And if you’ve been on the fence about joining, this might just be a really good week to see what you’d be getting.

Subscribe now

But right now, it’s time to pull up a chair, grab a glass or cup and join me in my Mediterranean kitchen while we work our way from one flavor-packed meal to another.

Read more

Pasta and lentils and raw veggies celebrated in a lightly lemoned dressing. It is the definition of balanced nutrition in a bowl.

Lentils are best when married with flavors that infuse the legumes with a bright bite. Zucchini is one of those vegetables that’s perfect served raw. Tiny pasta that cooks in minutes. Thanks to Ali Slagle of the New York Times for the inspiration to make this fabulous combination.

Want to make sure you don’t miss out on anything? Everything you’ll want to know to master the Mediterranean diet, including 400+ posts & notes of exclusive weekly meal plans & recipes, how-to-guides and behind the scenes are all here waiting for you to spend a few Mediterranean minutes with me. Upgrade or invite more friends to join those of us who want to master this healthy way of eating.

Upgrade to paid

Give a gift subscription

Share Mediterranean Minutes • Master the Mediterranean Diet

Read more

The first year we moved to Alicante Spain, there was a crazy windstorm and the entire seaside city (and our apartment patio) was covered in fine reddish-yellow dust. The skies and the sidewalks were the same eerie shade for days.

It just didn’t make sense.

Then somebody casually mentioned it was just the Sahara sands. No biggie.

And it brought home just how close we live to Morocco, Algeria and the northern deserts where Europe and Africa are practically breathing on each other.

In Mediterranean terms, it’s a neighbor. And its flavors — cumin, pimentón (paprika - three kinds no less), harissa, preserved lemon, the deep red heat of Moroccan spice pastes — have always felt completely at home in Spanish kitchens and mine.

In creating today’s menu, I reached for local spice blends and ingredients that have become common place over the years. My hands-down favorite? A tube of harissa paste.

While this week’s featured recipe originated in my own backyard, it arrived in my hands the way the best recipes often do: handed down through a chain of people who love food. Melissa Clark published a version of it in the New York Times back in 2017. David Lebovitz — one of my long-time favorite food writers and bloggers — picked it up and made it his own. And then I found it through David and made it mine.

As the youngest of five sisters, I’ve always known that the best things come to you a little late, already broken in and improved by everyone who had it before you.

This is that kind of recipe.

What makes it work

Chicken sits in an interesting spot in the Mediterranean diet. It’s not the star of the show the way fish is, and it’s not the occasional indulgence that red meat represents. It occupies the middle ground — a reliable, versatile protein that the Mediterranean diet recommends a few times a week, and one that earns its place at the table without demanding much attention - or effort.

That’s exactly what makes it useful.

A skin-on, bone-in chicken thigh or leg is nutritionally quite different from the boneless, skinless breast that tends to dominate diet culture.

The darker meat carries more fat — but the right kind. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, the same family that makes olive oil so valuable, are well represented here.

It’s also richer in iron, zinc and B vitamins, particularly B12 and B6, than breast meat, and the collagen in the skin and around the joints supports joint health in a way that leaner cuts simply don’t.

In the Mediterranean diet pyramid, poultry sits with fish and seafood, less frequent than the daily plant-food foundation of vegetables, legumes, whole grains and olive oil.

Two to four servings a week is the general rule — enough to provide consistent protein and those fat-soluble nutrients without crowding out the plant foods that do the heavier nutritional lifting.

And then there’s harissa

Harissa is one of those ingredients that looks like a condiment but behaves like a flavor transformation. I am never without a tube, frequently one that is front-of-fridge because it’s reached for so often.

Made from roasted red peppers, dried chilies, garlic and warm spices — cumin, coriander, caraway — it’s been a staple of North African cooking for centuries, particularly in Morocco and Tunisia.

What it does to chicken is remarkable. The paste works its way into the meat during the marinade, and when it hits a hot oven, it caramelizes against the skin and the vegetables in a way that fills the entire house with something that smells deeply, unmistakably Mediterranean.

The combination here is simple and very forgiving. Chicken thighs and legs — the flavorful, stay-moist cuts — roasted with sweet potato, white potato and carrots, finished off with wilted leeks and a cool lemon-garlic yogurt drizzle that cuts right through the heat.

And if you want to make it along with me, just click on the video below (right AFTER you finish reading the newsletter!)

I serve it with warm wholegrain pita, a few good olives and extra yogurt sauce on the side. In late May, when the first summer warmth is arriving in Alicante, it hits exactly right. Today, I had a bunch of watercress that was a perfect stand-in for the cucumber salad and a handful of mint leaves and fresh basil instead of parsley.

The moral of this tale: it’s never wrong to go with what you’ve got.

On today’s menu

The full day is built to balance the richness of the harissa chicken at lunch with lighter, fresher flavors throughout the rest of the day — a yogurt and ricotta morning, beans for a mid-morning snack, cool watermelon in the afternoon, and a simple pasta e ceci in the evening that brings the legume story full circle.

It’s a satisfying, complete Mediterranean day at around 2,000 calories, with macros that sit comfortably within the guidelines. Remember those?

• 50-55% healthy carbs (mostly veggies and fruit)

• 25-30% healthy fats (mostly extra virgin olive oil)

• 15-20% healthy proteins (mostly plants, fish, seafood and birds).

A quick note on the numbers

Harissa chicken is not a light dish — and it’s not meant to be. The olive oil in the marinade, the skin-on cuts, the yogurt sauce — these are all quality fats doing real work. The day as a whole lands at around 30% fat, right at the top of the Mediterranean guideline range, and that’s fine. These are the fats that belong in this way of eating.

Protein sits at about 17% across the day, which is well within range and appropriate for keeping energy steady. Carbs come from whole sources throughout — wholegrain bread, sweet potato, pita, cannellini beans, chickpeas pasta. No refined anything.

It’s a full, nourishing day. The kind that feels indulgent but is actually doing its job.

To give you a few more ideas about why chicken deserves a permanent place in your kitchen, you’ll find a few extra recipes from my archives in the menu PDF besides the meal plan.

If you’re already a paid subscriber then you know these little extras show up almost every week as a small bonus to show my appreciation for your support. If you haven’t yet had the chance to join us, what are you waiting for?

Subscribe now

But right now, it’s time to pull up a chair, grab a glass or cup, and join me in my Mediterranean kitchen while we work our way from one flavor-packed meal to another.

Disclaimer: The nutritional information provided in Mediterranean Minutes is intended for general guidance only and is not a substitute for personalized medical or dietary advice. Individual needs vary. Please consult a qualified health professional before making significant changes to your diet.

Read more

Today’s Mediterranean dinner recipe brings together succulent oven-roasted chicken with sweet potatoes and carrots bathed in a deeply rich sauce and then finished off with a refreshing, crisp and cool lemon garlic yogurt dressing.

We’ll round out the menu with a lightly dressed cucumber salad for another healthy, balanced Mediterranean meal. My deepest gratitude to Melissa Clark and David Lebovitz for introducing me to this Mediterranean dish long before I moved to the Mediterranean.

Want to upgrade to a paid subscription so you don’t miss out on anything? Everything you’ll want to know to master the Mediterranean diet including exclusive weekly meal plans and recipes, how-to-guides and behind the scenes are all here waiting for you to spend a few Mediterranean minutes with me.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: The nutritional information provided in Mediterranean Minutes is intended for general guidance only and is not a substitute for personalized medical or dietary advice. Individual needs vary. Please consult a qualified health professional before making significant changes to your diet.

Read more

It started with one bag of farro from the Mercado Central in Alicante a few years ago.

I’d been reading about ancient grains — the ones that had been feeding civilizations for thousands of years before white flour showed up and took over — and I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

So I grabbed the farro, brought it home, loved it, and went back for more. Freekeh next. Then teff. Then millet, sorghum, amaranth. Then three kinds of quinoa, because why not? Then buckwheat — raw and toasted, because again, why not?

The result? I published a very popular YouTube video all about the fundamentals of grains (just click if you want to watch it) and how they fit into a Mediterranean diet and gave up an entire drawer in my little Mediterranean kitchen to stockpile an embarrassing assortment.

If you follow me on social, you may have already seen it. Every container labeled, every ancient grain I’ve tested lined up and accounted for. George has learned to just walk past that drawer without comment.

But honestly, it serves a purpose. When they’re right in front of me, it makes it a lot easier to grab-and-go.

And here’s what I’ve learned from 2 years of playing with all of them: these grains aren’t health food novelties. They’re not complicated. And once you get to know them, they’re genuinely delicious — each one with its own personality, its own flavor, its own story.

Today I want to tell you about the one that surprised me most.

Buckwheat.

what makes it work

Here’s what I didn’t know about buckwheat: it’s not wheat. Not even close. It’s actually the seed of a flowering plant — a relative of rhubarb and sorrel — and it’s been cultivated for over 8,000 years across Russia, Eastern Europe, and Japan - where it is ground and shaped into one of my favorite “pastas”, soba noodles.

The name is misleading, the plant is fascinating, and the flavor is unlike anything else in that drawer of mine.

What makes buckwheat worth knowing for anyone following a Mediterranean-style diet is the full package it delivers.

It’s one of the very few plant foods that contains all nine essential amino acids, making it a complete protein by plant standards — something most grains simply can’t claim.

It’s also rich in rutin and quercetin, two anti-inflammatory flavonoids that don’t get nearly enough attention, and a solid source of magnesium, manganese, and copper, all important for heart health and bone density.

And because it has a lower glycemic index than conventional wheat, rice, or pasta, it releases energy more slowly and evenly — no spike, no crash. Oh, and it’s naturally gluten-free, which makes it genuinely helpful for anyone navigating that particular challenge.

what to do with it

I keep two versions on hand. Raw buckwheat groats are pale, mild, and gently nutty — wonderful for porridge or ground into flour for blinis or crepes. Toasted buckwheat, called kasha, is a completely different animal: darker, earthier, more robust, with a flavor assertive enough to hold its own against bold ingredients like feta, artichokes, and good olive oil.

That’s the version I’ve been cooking with this spring, and it’s what you’ll find in today’s recipe.

how it fits in today’s menu

Today’s menu builds the ancient grains theme from morning to night — starting with overnight oats at breakfast as a familiar, approachable entry point, and arriving at lunch with the main event: a Buckwheat, Artichoke & Feta Salad with toasted almonds, fresh mint, and a whisper of Aleppo chile, alongside a lemon-herb chicken fillet and a simple sautéed vegetable side. Little rye crackers for the afternoon snack. Dinner keeps things light and seasonal — baked sea bass, roasted baby potatoes, a crisp green salad.

As always, you’ll find a few extra treats in the PDF besides the meal plan I promised you (mostly because I just can’t help myself). When I can, I’ll reach into the archive so that you don’t have to go hunting around.

If you’re already a paid subscriber then you know these little extras show up almost every week as a small bonus to show my appreciation for your support. If you haven’t yet had the chance to join us, what are you waiting for?

Subscribe now

But right now, it’s time to pull up a chair, grab a glass or cup, and join me in my Mediterranean kitchen while we work our way from one flavor-packed meal to another!

Read more