Ana Sortun, executive chef of Oleana in Cambridge, Massachusetts, brings to life the inherently plant-centric cooking of the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, and she attributes her profoundly delicious results to the rich flavors imparted by spices from that region. Also a cookbook author, in her restaurant she highlights locally grown ingredients from her husband’s farm.

Ana Sortun is the executive chef and co-owner at Oleana Restaurant and Sofra Bakery, as well as co-owner of Sarma Restaurant. Cited as one of the country’s “best creative fusion practitioners,” Seattle-born Ana Sortun graduated from La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine de Paris before opening Moncef Medeb’s Aigo Bistro in Concord, Massachusetts, in the early 1990s. Ana opened Oleana in 2001, immediately drawing raves for dishes that The New York Times described as “rustic-traditional and deeply inventive.” Her cookbook, Spice was published in 2006 and has become a bestseller.
Ana and business partner Executive Pastry Chef Maura Kilpatrick opened Sofra Bakery & Café in Cambridge (2008), which offers a unique style of foods and baked goods influenced mostly by the countries of Turkey, Lebanon, and Greece. In the autumn of 2013, Ana partnered with her long-time Chef de Cuisine, Cassie Piuma, in opening Sarma restaurant and bar in Somerville, which features an entire menu of Meze, or ‘small plates.’ In 2014, Siena Farms and Chef Sortun collaborated on a Kids’ Share - a weekly CSA box-share of vegetables, activities and kitchen gear designed to inspire kids to enjoy cooking healthy foods. Ana was a semi-finalist ‘Outstanding Chef’ for the 2016 James Beard Awards. Most recently, Ana and Maura’s first collaborative cookbook, Soframiz, Vibrant Middle Eastern Recipes from Sofra Bakery & Café was published on October 11, 2016.

Cacik

30 minutes cook/prep

Ingredients
1 bunch of scallions, roughly chopped
1 cup (225 g) of steamed or blanched spinach, squeezed dry and roughly chopped
1 cup (150 g) of shelled peas, blanched
2 tbsps chopped fresh dill
½ cup (12.5 g) roughly chopped curly parsley
2 tbsps of finely chopped mint
4 tbsps of extra virgin olive oil
3 cups (750 g) thick Greek-style yogurt
3 cloves finely chopped garlic
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Cacik

Instructions
In a small mixing bowl stir the garlic and the lemon juice until combined. Let stand for 10 minutes. Stir in the yogurt and season well with salt and pepper. Stir in all the vegetables. Combine the yogurt with the greens and re-season.

Her approach
Because our vegetables are so good and so fresh, during the season (grown from my husband’s farm, Siena Farms) they play an essential role on our menu. Learning more about vegetables and how to prepare them and embellish them with spices just as you would a piece of protein is a skill that one achieves by working in our kitchens.  In the Mediterranean vegetables are consumed a lot before eating a protein.  You can fill up on vegetable dishes (meze), be satiated and not even realize that it happened without animal protein.: What plant is the most versatile to cook with?
I consider most vegetables (not herbs, wheats, grains, legumes or fruits) to be the most versatile. By adding spices, you can achieve great richness without making them heavy and by cooking them in different ways (grilling, sautéing and roasting) you can achieve different textures.: If you could cook dinner for anyone from history, what would you make, for who and why?
I think I would like to cook for Athena. It would be fun to cook for Princess Diana, knowing how much Prince Charles loves his plants and how much she must have appreciated his garden.