Lebanese Cuisine - Dishes and Ingredients

Dishes and Ingredients

• Ackawi – white cheese salty or not depending on choice. Usually used in Manaeesh (Lebanese-style pies)
• Baba ghanouj – char-grilled aubergine (eggplant), tahina, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic puree—served as a dip.
• Baklava – a dessert of layered filo pastry filled with nuts and steeped in Attar syrup (orange or rose water and sugar) or honey, usually cut in a triangular or diamond shape that originates in Lebanon.
• Roasted nuts – a mix of more than 20 kinds and flavors of kernels, mostly dry roasted.
• Balila – known as cumin chickpeas.
• Barout del batata – spicy lamb served with potatoes
• Batata harra – literally "spicy potatoes".
• Chich Taouk – grilled chicken marinated with garlic lemon and various oriental spices (cinnamon, cumin..)
• Daoud Bacha – meatballs with tomato sauce
• Djaj Mechwi – grilled chicken with peas
• Fattoush – 'peasant' salad of toasted pita bread, cucumbers, tomatoes, chickweed, and mint.
• Falafel – small deep-fried patties made of highly-spiced ground chickpeas.
• Fried cauliflower
• Fried eggplant
• Fuul (vicia faba) slow cooked mash of brown beans and red lentils dressed with lemon, olive oil and cumin.
• Halva – sesame paste sweet, usually made in a slab and studded with fruit and nuts.
• Hummus – dip or spread made of blended chickpeas, sesame tahini, lemon juice, and garlic, and typically eaten with pita bread.
• Kunafi – either shoelace pastry dessert stuffed with sweet white cheese, nuts and syrup, or more commonly the version with semolina pastry served on a sesame seed bun with sweet sugar syrup (very popular for breakfast) made with " angel hair" butter and pistachios or nuts. Generally these can be found in sweet shops, as well as bigger bakeries.
• Kibbeh – the national dish, mainly stuffed, can be made in different forms including fried, uncooked, and cooked with yogurt.
• Kibbeh nayyeh – raw kibbeh eaten like steak tartar.
• Kafta – fingers, stars or a flat cake of minced meat and spices that can be baked or charcoal-grilled on skewers.
• Kousa Mahshi – stuffed zucchini, many varieties are used.
• Kubideh – served with pivaz (a mix of minced parsley, onions, ground cumin and sumac).
• Labneh – strained yogurt, spreadable and garnished with good olive oil and sea salt.
• Znood Es-sett – filo pastry cigars with various fillings.
• Lahm bil ajĩn – a pastry covered with minced meat, onions, and nuts.
• Ma'amoul – cake made from semolina with date, pistachio or walnut filled cookies shaped in a wooden mould called a tabi made specially for Christian (traditionally Eastern) and Muslim holidays (such as Ramadan).
• Mfaraket Koussa – spicy zucchini
• Makdous – stuffed eggplant in olive oil.
• Manaeesh – Mini pizzas (usually folded) that are made in any number of local bakeries or Furns, traditionally garnished with cheese, Za'atar, spicy diced tomatoes, kashk in its Lebanese version, or minced meat and onions. Some bakeries allow you to bring your own toppings and build your own or buy the ones they sell there. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Lebanese style pies)
• Mujaddara (imjaddarra) – cooked lentils together with wheat or rice, garnished with onions that have been sauteed in vegetable oil.
• Mulukhiyah – A stew with mallow leaves, chicken, beef, and in the Lebanese fashion, topped with raw chopped onions, and vinegar over rice. It sometimes has toasted pita chips under the rice.
• Mutabbel – made from eggplant.
• Pastirma – Tender cooked meat, usually served with vegetables.
• Qawarma – chopped lamb, salted and kept in the grease of the animal
• Samkeh Harra – grilled fish that has been marinated with chili, citrus, and cilantro
• Shanklish – aged cheese balls
• Shawarma – marinated meat (either chicken or lamb) that is skewered on big rods and cooked slowly, then shaved and placed in a 10 inch pita roll with pickles, tomatoes, and other tangy condiments.
• Shish taouk – grilled chicken skewers that utilize only white meat, marinated in olive oil, lemon, parsley, and sumac.
• Siyyadiyeh – delicately spiced fish served on a bed of rice. Fish cooked in saffron and served on rice with onions, sumac, and a tahini sauce (the most important part of the dish) originated in the southern areas of Lebanon.
• Tabbouleh – diced parsley salad with burghul, tomato and mint.
• Tahini – sesame paste
• Toum – garlic sauce
• Wara' Enab – stuffed grape leaves
• Za'atar – dried thyme, sesame seeds and sumac that can differ from region to region and from family to family. Most are made in house, but can be bought at Lebanese larders.
• Lebanese Spice Blend – a mixture of equal parts of allspice, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, fenugreek, nutmeg and ginger. It is commonly used to flavor many Lebanese dishes.