Levantine recipes
10 viral Levantine dishes — clear, structured, and quick to cook.
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Shakshuka — Eggs Poached in Spiced Tomato
Eggs gently poached in a simmering sauce of tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic, cumin, and paprika, finished with herbs and crumbled feta. A North African and Levantine breakfast that's become the world's favorite one-pan brunch.
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Falafel — Crispy Chickpea Fritters
Shatteringly crisp outside, herby and green within: falafel made the right way, from soaked (never cooked) dried chickpeas blitzed with garlic, herbs, and spice, then fried. The Levantine street-food icon, naturally vegan.
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Hummus — Silky Chickpea & Tahini Dip
The Levant's beloved dip done right: chickpeas cooked until falling-apart soft, blended with a generous amount of good tahini, lemon, and garlic into something impossibly silky. Pooled with olive oil and eaten warm with bread.
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Chicken Shawarma — Levantine Spiced Roast
The Levant's great spit-roast, made at home: chicken thighs marinated in yogurt, lemon, garlic and a warm spice blend of cumin, coriander, paprika and cinnamon, then roasted and crisped and sliced thin. Tucked into warm flatbread with garlicky toum, pickles and tahini sauce — fast street food with deep flavour.
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Baba Ganoush — Smoky Eggplant Dip
The smoky sibling of hummus: whole eggplants charred over an open flame until the flesh collapses and tastes of smoke, then mashed with tahini, lemon, garlic and good olive oil. Silky, smoky and tangy, it's a mezze cornerstone scooped up with warm pita. The whole dish lives or dies on properly charring the eggplant.
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Manakish — Levantine Za'atar Flatbread
The breakfast of the Levant: a soft round of dough spread with a fragrant paste of za'atar and olive oil and baked until the base is crisp and the edges puff. Sold from bakeries from Beirut to Amman at dawn, manakish (singular man'oushe) is eaten folded and warm — with cheese, fresh tomato and mint, or simply on its own with a glass of tea.
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Maqluba — Levantine Upside-Down Rice
The showstopper of Palestinian and Levantine tables: layers of meat, fried vegetables and spiced rice cooked in one pot, then dramatically flipped upside-down onto a platter so it stands like a cake. 'Maqluba' literally means 'upside-down', and the moment of the flip — revealing golden aubergine and cauliflower crowning the rice — is the whole point. Served with cool yogurt and a chopped salad.
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Mansaf — Jordanian Lamb in Fermented Yogurt Sauce
The national dish of Jordan and the centrepiece of Bedouin hospitality: tender lamb slow-cooked in a tangy sauce of jameed — hard, dried fermented yogurt — then served over flatbread and spiced rice, drenched in the warm yogurt sauce and showered with toasted almonds and pine nuts. Mansaf is a communal feast, eaten from a vast shared platter, and the unmistakable sharp-savoury tang of jameed is what sets it apart from every other lamb-and-rice dish.
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Kibbeh — Levantine Bulgur & Meat Croquettes
Often called the national dish of the Levant, kibbeh is a labour of love: a fine paste of bulgur wheat and lean meat (with onion and warm spices) shaped into torpedo-like shells, stuffed with a savoury filling of spiced minced meat, toasted pine nuts and onion, and deep-fried until deeply golden and crisp. Inside, the spiced filling stays juicy. From Syria and Lebanon to Iraq, kibbeh appears in dozens of forms — fried, baked in trays, even raw — but the stuffed fried torpedo is the showpiece, the centrepiece of celebrations and the pride of every home cook.
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Kunafa — Middle Eastern Cheese & Syrup Pastry
The queen of Levantine desserts: a layer of melting, mild white cheese sandwiched between shredded or semolina kataifi pastry, baked or fried in butter until deep gold and crisp, then drenched in fragrant orange-blossom or rose syrup and showered with crushed pistachios. The famous Nabulsi style (knafeh Nabulsiyeh) is served in glowing orange slabs, warm so the cheese stretches in long pulls. Sweet, salty, crunchy and gooey all at once, kunafa is celebration food across Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and beyond — best eaten hot, fresh and shared.
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