Lavash: The bread that launched 1,000 meals, plus salads, stews, and other recipes from Armenia

by Kate Leahy, Ara Zada, John Lee (Photographer)

With growing interest in fermentation and the medical benefits of a Mediterranean diet, Armenian food offers a new take on healthful deliciousness. It combines the best flavors and techniques of Mediterranean and central European cuisines into fresh and satisfying dishes, served with plenty of pickles, sides, and the soft, ubiquitous bread known as lavash. An ode to Armenian food and culture, Lavash is part cookbook, part travelogue, and part lookbook of tempting food and revealing atmospheric photography. More than 60 recipes—arranged by course—cover authentic breads and everything you eat with them, from soups and salads to mains and sweets. For both armchair travelers and home cooks, here's a book as enticing in the reading as its recipes are to the palate.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction, Cooking, Culinary, Food and Drink

248 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 29, 2019

About the author

Kate Leahy grew up in California and learned how to cook and bake in restaurants throughout the country. Her first book, A16 Food and Wine, received the IACP Cookbook of the Year award and the Julia Child First book award. Her most recent book, Lavash, with co-authors Ara Zada and John Lee, celebrates Armenia's favorite flatbread. She lives in San Francisco

Reviews

[Honest Mabel]

okay okay

I am going to borrow this again from the library. I haven’t delved into Armenian food that much but I am very intrigued. Certain wording throws me but it’s a book I am definitely borrowing again

[Jenn]

A really magnificent cookbook giving background on Armenian recipes and how/why they devoloped over time based on history, political changes, climate, and cultural influences. There are recipes for all levels of cooking/baking experience and quite a few sides, mains, and desserts that will work for vegetarians. You can tell the authors fell in love with the country and it's people while researching the cuisine. Highly recommended not just for the historical highlights and photographs but also for the accessibility of the recipes and notes for when/if the authors had to slightly alter a traditional ingredient or way of serving based on what might be available to those loving outside the region.

[Connie]

Just what a cookbook of this type should be. The recipes are based on recent, in-person research in Armenia. Thoughtful consideration is given to how one might prepare the recipes with commonly found ingredients and tools in the US (since that is the audience), with substitutions and explanations as relevant. And a concise account of the region's history, as it has impacted food and cooking, is woven throughout, giving the book a narrative feeling, although it is, of course, a book primarily intended to instruct on food preparation. Of course a great cookbook has to have lovely photos, and this one does.

[Jessica]

Great historical Authentic Armenian Recipes

WOW, I am so proud to purchase this Armenian historical cookbook. Very well done put together. I was so happy to see recipes, that I have been grown up with and lost the trail of finding the recipes. I only wish, it had more pictures for every recipe made. We are visual beings and love to see what we are cooking before hand. And if there was pictures, they were incredibly small. Otherwise, a great traditional Armenian Cookbook. Thank you :) xx

[Richard]

Great history and story. Recipes have clear instructions, nice pictures and a healthy mix, some I could make on my first try, and some that I would never be able to make in a thousand years.

[George Donigian]

Marvelous stories and photos of Armenia. Fine recipes. An excellent cookbook!

[Widad Mouna]

Disappointed, many wrong information and a clear intention to erase and deny the Arab and Turkish influence in the Armenian cuisine.

When a recipe has an Arabic name just mention the Arab origin. No need to invent stories… Lahmajun is in Arabic (لحم بعجين) which means meat and dough. Matnakash is an Arabic word too (متنقش) and it means Engraved. Murabba (مربى) is also 100% an Arabic word, same for Halva, which means sweet in Arabic.

Chikufta is Turkish (çığ köfte) and it means raw kofta.

There is no shame in mentioning facts as they are, there is no shame when a country has a rich cuisine due to its history.

Conclusion : don’t write a book about a region you’re not from or didn’t do much research about it.

[Kate]

Made the urfa kebab. The recipes aren't really the point, though--I enjoyed the background on Armenian history and stories and photos from the country.

[S Roberta]

more than just breads

[Beth E]

This cookbook was very interesting! Lavash itself looks very tricky to make in a home kitchen, but I might want to try some of the other recipes.

[Brendan]

This is a really nice cookbook that has some little stories with each recipe on the cultural background of the dish. I recommend perusing it while listening to System of a Down.

[Scott Andrews]

Wonderful book. Add it to any cookbook collection and you will be happier for it.

Update:
I did a face-plant on the lavash recipe- after 30 years of baking.

Should I have put the dough through a pasta roller to gt to lasagna sheet thinness? It turned out like good Naan.

I may need a lot more play time with the book to figure out what is going on.

[Margery Osborne]

this was an interesting read culturally but honestly there were no recipes that i wanted to make. where i live i can easily get excellent lavash though so thats probably why. Leahy and her partner give an excellent interview about the book on Good Food.