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What does Mediterranean cuisine consist of?
By Eloísa Carmona - 2020-07-06T20:58:23Z
Just as Mexican cuisine is full of snacks, chili, and plenty of tortillas, Mediterranean cuisine also has many characteristic ingredients from the region.
Mainly, we could mention bread, olive oil, and wine as its pillars. As its name describes, this food is typical of the Mediterranean basin, especially in southern Europe and northern Africa.
What is Mediterranean food?
Since Mediterranean food is cooked practically throughout the European territory where the olive tree grows, it encompasses a variety of cultures.
Among Mediterranean cuisines, we have Italian, Spanish, or Greek, and they share not only preparations with bread, olive oil, and wine, but also common dishes of meat with vegetables and tomatoes, or salted cured fish.
The pillars of Mediterranean food are also translated as wheat (the bread), olives, and grapes, and they are the recurring elements in all countries with this unique gastronomy, but they adapt with other ingredients like fruits, vegetables, and spices typical of each area.
In Italy, for example, wheat stands out in its pizzas and pastas, always accompanied by good wines; in Spain, bread with tomato is a classic; Morocco is famous for its couscous, made with wheat semolina, vegetables, and chickpeas, all with a myriad of regional vegetables and other fruits and vegetables included.
Of course, the coast makes the consumption of fish and seafood abundant; rice plays an important role; vegetables and legumes are a constant in salads and the most common fruits are citrus, such as oranges, lemons, or mandarins.
The meats most commonly used in Mediterranean cuisine are lamb and pork, the latter especially in cured meats like ham. Finally, to season their meals, the most popular spices are thyme, oregano, basil, pepper, mint; vinegar is also used.
It is worth mentioning that Mediterranean cuisine is something completely different from the Mediterranean diet, whose main characteristics are to reduce the consumption of meats and carbohydrates, and to increase that of vegetables and monounsaturated fats.
Now that you know a little about the cuisine of the Mediterranean basin, you might want to practice a bit of culinary tourism and try everything the region has to offer your palate, or if you're curious, see what Arab cuisine has for you.
Mainly, we could mention bread, olive oil, and wine as its pillars. As its name describes, this food is typical of the Mediterranean basin, especially in southern Europe and northern Africa.
What is Mediterranean food?
Since Mediterranean food is cooked practically throughout the European territory where the olive tree grows, it encompasses a variety of cultures.
Among Mediterranean cuisines, we have Italian, Spanish, or Greek, and they share not only preparations with bread, olive oil, and wine, but also common dishes of meat with vegetables and tomatoes, or salted cured fish.
The pillars of Mediterranean food are also translated as wheat (the bread), olives, and grapes, and they are the recurring elements in all countries with this unique gastronomy, but they adapt with other ingredients like fruits, vegetables, and spices typical of each area.
In Italy, for example, wheat stands out in its pizzas and pastas, always accompanied by good wines; in Spain, bread with tomato is a classic; Morocco is famous for its couscous, made with wheat semolina, vegetables, and chickpeas, all with a myriad of regional vegetables and other fruits and vegetables included.
Of course, the coast makes the consumption of fish and seafood abundant; rice plays an important role; vegetables and legumes are a constant in salads and the most common fruits are citrus, such as oranges, lemons, or mandarins.
The meats most commonly used in Mediterranean cuisine are lamb and pork, the latter especially in cured meats like ham. Finally, to season their meals, the most popular spices are thyme, oregano, basil, pepper, mint; vinegar is also used.
It is worth mentioning that Mediterranean cuisine is something completely different from the Mediterranean diet, whose main characteristics are to reduce the consumption of meats and carbohydrates, and to increase that of vegetables and monounsaturated fats.
Now that you know a little about the cuisine of the Mediterranean basin, you might want to practice a bit of culinary tourism and try everything the region has to offer your palate, or if you're curious, see what Arab cuisine has for you.
