Recipes › Lebanese
Lebanese cuisine
Every Lebanese dish we have, with the recipe for each — 40 of them, each one written for this site rather than adapted from anybody else's.
By protein
- Chicken (3)
- Beef (1)
- Lamb (12)
- Fish (1)
- Egg (3)
- Vegetarian (20)
- Vegetables (13)
- Desserts (8)
- Pastes, sauces and basics (4)
By region
- Middle Eastern recipes (159)
- Mediterranean recipes (750)
Every Lebanese dish
- Aish as-Saraya, sourced from Lebanon. There is no egg and no butter in it at all — the body is breadcrumbs soaked in caramel syrup. vegetarian.
- Baba Ghanoush, sourced from Lebanon. Charred whole over a bare flame until the skin blisters black, then bound smooth with tahini. vegan.
- Baharat, sourced from Lebanon. Allspice leads it, and the whole spices are toasted and ground together rather than blended from jars. vegan.
- Barazek, sourced from Lebanon. Sesame on one face and pistachios on the other, put on by pressing each side into its own tray before baking. Egg, vegetarian.
- Batata Harra, sourced from Lebanon. The garlic and coriander go in off the heat, after the potatoes are already crisp. vegan.
- Falafel, sourced from Lebanon. The chickpeas are soaked raw and never cooked before grinding, which is the one rule that cannot be broken. vegan.
- Fatayer, sourced from Lebanon. Folded into a three-cornered pyramid and sealed on three seams, so it is closed where the open pie is not. vegan.
- Fatteh, sourced from Lebanon. Three layers built in the dish and never stirred together, so each spoonful goes down through all of them. vegetarian.
- Fattoush, sourced from Lebanon. The bread is fried and goes in at the last second, so it is still crisp when it reaches the table. Lamb.
- Hrisseh, sourced from Lebanon. Cooked until it pours from the spoon like thick cream, with no grain left whole. Chicken, Lamb.
- Kibbeh, sourced from Lebanon. Shaped into a pointed torpedo between wet palms and deep-fried, so the shell goes crisp and the filling stays loose. Lamb.
- Kibbeh Nayyeh, sourced from Lebanon. Pounded with ice rather than water and never allowed out of the cold, because it is eaten raw. Lamb.
- Knafeh, sourced from Lebanon. Filled with cheese and eaten hot the moment it leaves the tin, so the cheese pulls into threads.
- Kousa Mahshi, sourced from Lebanon. The rice goes in raw and half-fills the shell, because it doubles as it cooks in the tomato. Lamb.
- Layali Lubnan, sourced from Lebanon. Two distinct layers that must not merge — a set semolina pudding, chilled firm, and only then the cream. vegetarian.
- Ma'amoul, sourced from Lebanon. Each one is pressed into a carved wooden mould and knocked out, which is what prints the pattern and what sets the size. vegetarian.
- Makanek, sourced from Lebanon. Fried whole and then the pan deglazed with pomegranate molasses, so the glaze is made in their own fat. Beef, Lamb.
- Makdous, sourced from Lebanon. Boiled first, then salted and left upside down overnight to drain, because any water left in them will spoil the jar. vegan.
- Malfouf Salad, sourced from Lebanon. The cabbage is shredded hair-fine and salted so it softens without ever being cooked. vegan.
- Manakish, sourced from Lebanon. The za'atar is slaked with oil into a spreadable paste first, never scattered on dry. vegan.
- Maqluba, sourced from Lebanon. The whole pot is inverted onto a platter and lifted away, so what was the bottom arrives as the top. Lamb.
- Mfarakeh, sourced from Lebanon. The egg is broken up through the crisp potatoes rather than set around them, which is what the name means. Egg, vegetarian.
- Msabbaha, sourced from Lebanon. The chickpeas are left whole and warm, swimming in the tahini rather than mashed into it. vegetarian.
- Muhallebi, sourced from Lebanon. Set with starch alone and flavoured with nothing but blossom water, so any fault in it has nowhere to hide. vegetarian.
- Mujaddara, sourced from Lebanon. The onions are fried until they are almost burnt, and half of them go in while half stay on top. vegetarian.
- Mulukhiyah, sourced from Lebanon. It is never allowed to boil once the leaves are in, or it turns to slime. Chicken.
- Qatayef, sourced from Lebanon. Cooked on one side only, so the uncooked upper face is tacky enough to seal itself without egg or water. vegetarian.
- Raheb, sourced from Lebanon. No tahini goes in at all, and the aubergine is torn into pieces rather than mashed — it is a salad, not a dip. vegan.
- Sayadieh, sourced from Lebanon. The rice is cooked in the fish's own stock, darkened almost to coffee-brown with deeply fried onions. Fish.
- Sfiha, sourced from Lebanon. The dough is pinched up at four corners into a small open square, so the meat sits in a boat rather than on a disc. Lamb.
- Sfouf, sourced from Lebanon. It is not soaked in syrup, which is what separates it from the semolina cakes that are. vegetarian.
- Shanklish, sourced from Lebanon. The curd balls are left to grow a mould, then washed, dried and rolled in za'atar — the mould is the method, not a mistake. vegetarian.
- Shawarma, sourced from Lebanon. Pressed into a loaf tin and roasted as a block, then shaved — which is the honest way to do it without a vertical spit. Lamb.
- Sheikh al-Mahshi, sourced from Lebanon. The filling is meat and pine nuts with no rice in it at all, and it finishes in a yoghurt sauce. Lamb, Egg.
- Shish Taouk, sourced from Lebanon. Served with toum, a garlic sauce emulsified with oil like a mayonnaise but with no egg in it at all. Chicken.
- Stuffed Dates, sourced from Lebanon. Savoury, not sweet — the dates are filled with spiced lamb and herbs and served over rice. Lamb.
- Stuffed Mallow, sourced from Lebanon. The leaves go into boiling water for seconds only, because mallow is far more fragile than a vine leaf. Lamb.
- Tabbouleh, sourced from Lebanon. A parsley salad with bulgur in it, not a bulgur salad with parsley on top — the proportion is the dish. vegan.
- Tahini, sourced from Lebanon. The seeds are ground while still warm from the pan, which is the only way they release their own oil. vegan.
- Za'atar, sourced from Lebanon. The sumac is nearly a third of the blend, which is what makes the Lebanese version sour rather than merely herbal. vegan.