Great recipes from the Mediterranean: make these quick and easy dishes, inspired by the world's healthiest diet - Healthy Food in a Flash

Natural Health, April, 2003 by Jack Bishop

CHEFS AND DOCTORS ALIKE praise the Mediterranean diet, and rightly so. The food of Spain, southern France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and northern Africa is appealing on several counts. Potent herbs, spices, garlic, capers, and olives give the dishes of this region intense flavor. Ingredients like fresh vegetables, whole grains, legumes, lean poultry, and seafood make them healthy. And the common element that unites the cuisines is olive oil, an unrefined oil that abounds in flavor and heart-friendly monounsaturated fat.

For busy cooks, the downside to traditional Mediterranean cooking is time. Dishes like authentic Moroccan stews and slow-simmering Italian soups can seem out of reach. But they don't have to be. The following recipes take the bold flavors of the Mediterranean and add some ingenious shortcuts to save time.