Meat may play an integral role in many Middle Eastern cuisines but that doesn’t mean that plant-based dishes should play second fiddle. In fact, when it comes to vegetarian dishes, the Middle East offers some of the world’s best. Flavoured with tantalising spices and often packed with healthy grains, Middle Eastern plant-based dishes are showstoppers and often the star of many feasts in the region. We dare say that a Middle Eastern vegetarian dish has just as much flavour and is just as filling as many meat dishes.
And back home at our restaurant, we’ve featured some of these famous vegetarian dishes on our menu – and added our little spin to them. In fact, it’s entirely possible for you to go all vegetarian at Sezar and walk away happy, satisfied and wanting to come back for seconds. Here’s how:
Start off with our hommus. Every meal at Sezar begins when a plate of chickpea hommus is placed right in front of you. We make it fresh in our kitchen every single day, drizzling a bit of brown butter in the mix for extra flavour. Serve this addictive and finger licking dip with crispy lavash – and a glass of Yan Yan, our Armenian-style lager.
We also offer tempura zucchini flowers, a popular dish that’s often enjoyed with a glass of dry white such as a Friends of Punch Semillon from the Yarra Valley (available by the glass at Sezar). Filled with a unique mixture of cheese & herb and accompanied with tomato jam, it’s a dish that’s made meat-eaters ask for more (we’re not kidding).
Moving onto our “michag” (medium-sized dishes), you’ll discover a couple of tasty options that will fill you up for a solo lunch or a warm-up to a larger dinner feast. Our grain salad is a popular one-diner meal that’s bursting with nutrients and so full of flavour; we add labne for texture, sprouts and shoots to keep things healthy, and some cherries for the right amount of sweetness.
Did you know that all our sides are vegetarian? Yes, that’s right. You can go light with our baby gem lettuce with radish, lemon and herbs or you can go all out with our triple-cooked potatoes served with Aleppo pepper, garlic and thyme. Naturally, we have a couple of options in between such as our fried cauliflower with grapes, almond and tahini as well as our mujadarra with spiced lentils and blackened onions. And if we had to choose just one? Sorry, we can’t. All four are equally tasty – you just have to order them all to compare!