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23 stories for“levantine baking”

Layered bulgur and meat with a savory spiced filling, baked until golden. This show-stopping Lebanese dish is easier than it looks.

Jul 25, 2024

Recipes

Sfiha Baalbakiya: The Small Open Meat Pies of the Beqaa

Baalbek makes its meat pies small, square and open, with the corners folded up to hold the juices. The technique is older than most of the recipes claiming to improve on it.

Jul 24, 2026

Recipes

Manakish: The Za'atar Flatbread That Starts the Day

Dough pressed flat with the fingertips, spread with za'atar loosened in olive oil, baked hot and fast. The Levantine breakfast that a whole region eats standing up.

Aug 13, 2026

Recipes

Kibbeh Without Bulgur: The Potato and Rice Version Levantine Kitchens Already Make

Kibbeh is defined by bulgur, which is cracked wheat, so the gluten-free version has to be rebuilt rather than substituted. The good news is that the rebuild already exists in the region's own repertoire.

Aug 11, 2026

Recipes

Samke Harra: Lebanese Fish Under Chilli, Citrus and Coriander

The name means spicy fish and undersells it. A tahini and coriander sauce sharpened with chilli and lemon does most of the work, and the fish only has to be fresh.

Aug 1, 2026

Recipes

Middle Eastern Desserts, and the Syrup Rule That Governs All of Them

Knafeh, baklava, luqaimat, basbousa. Nearly all of them are pastry plus sugar syrup, and there is one rule about temperature that decides whether yours is crisp or soggy.

Aug 14, 2026

Recipes

Fattet Hummus: Crisp Bread, Warm Chickpeas, Garlic Yoghurt

A Levantine assembly built on stale bread, designed so that every spoonful catches something crunchy and something soft. Timing is the only difficult part, and it is unforgiving.

Aug 2, 2026

Recipes

Vegan Baklava Works, Because the Butter Was Never the Hard Part

Most filo is already vegan. Swap clarified butter for a blend of coconut oil and olive oil, use sugar syrup instead of honey, and the result is genuinely crisp rather than merely acceptable.

Aug 14, 2026

Recipes

Cheese Manakish, and the Salt Problem Nobody Warns You About

Akkawi is brined hard enough to be inedible straight from the packet. Soak it, and you get the stretchy, mild, faintly squeaky cheese bread that half the Levant eats for breakfast.

Aug 13, 2026

Recipes

Musakhan: Palestinian Sumac Chicken on Bread That Drinks the Oil

Roast chicken over onions cooked in an amount of olive oil that feels wrong until you taste it, with sumac doing the work salt cannot. A dish built around the olive harvest.

Jul 29, 2026

Recipes

Gigantes Plaki: The Greek Baked Beans That Make a Case for Dried Beans Over Tinned Every Time

Giant runner beans from the lakes of northern Greece, soaked overnight, simmered until tender and then baked slowly in tomato, onion, dill and a great deal of olive oil. A vegan main, a meze, and the best argument for the dried bean aisle.

Sep 6, 2026

Recipes

Baklava: Forty Sheets of Filo and One Rule About Temperature

Layered filo, clarified butter, crushed nuts and syrup. It is not a difficult dessert, it is a patient one, and the single thing that decides crisp or soggy happens in the last thirty seconds.

Aug 13, 2026

Recipes

Middle Eastern Aubergine Dishes, and the Two Ways to Cook It

Almost every great aubergine dish in the region depends on one of two techniques: burning it whole over flame, or frying it until it collapses. Choosing wrongly is why yours is rubbery.

Aug 14, 2026

Recipes

Chickpea Socca as a Pizza Base: Two Ingredients, No Flour Blend

Most gluten-free pizza bases are elaborate reconstructions of wheat. Socca is not pretending to be anything. Chickpea flour and water, rested and baked hot, gives you a crisp, sturdy base in half an hour.

Aug 11, 2026

Recipes

Cumin, Chilli and Mushrooms on Flatbread, or What the Silk Road Actually Tasted Like

Cumin lamb from Xi'an and Levantine flatbread are not a modern mash up. They sit at opposite ends of a road that carried the same spices and the same bread technology for a thousand years.

Sep 4, 2026

Travel

Plant-Based Dining Across the Smaller Gulf: Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman

A vegan bakery in Janabiyah, a Four Seasons tasting menu backed by a Saudi prince, and Muscat's coconut-bowl breakfast spot: the region's quieter vegan scene.

May 27, 2026

Travel

Where to Eat Vegan in Saudi Arabia: Riyadh and Jeddah

Cold-pressed juice bars, Armenian-Lebanese plant plates, and a vegan bakery in Ar Rawdah: how Riyadh and Jeddah are building a real vegan dining map.

Oct 2, 2025

Recipes

Za'atar Is a Herb, a Blend and an Argument About Land

The same word means a wild hillside herb and the sesame-and-sumac mixture made from it. Knowing which one a recipe means is the difference between a good jar and a disappointing one.

Aug 13, 2026

Recipes

Middle Eastern Lamb Dishes, and Which Cut Each One Needs

Mansaf, kabsa, shuwa, kibbeh, kofta. The recipes differ less than the butchery does, and using the wrong cut is why home versions come out dry or greasy.

Aug 14, 2026

Recipes

The Manakish Dough, and Why Yours Comes Out Like a Cracker

A soft, oil-enriched bread dough that stays tender under a hot oven. The hydration and the resting matter more than the recipe, and both are where home versions go wrong.

Aug 13, 2026

Recipes

Panzanella Is a Salad Built to Use Up Stale Bread, and the Tomatoes Came Later

The Tuscan bread salad predates the tomato in Italian kitchens; the original was bread, onion, oil and vinegar. The version everyone now makes adds ripe tomatoes and cucumber, and the argument is whether to soak the bread or toast it. Both, done right.

Sep 6, 2026

Recipes

Spanakopita Done Properly: Squeeze the Spinach, Buy Real Feta, and Stop Being Afraid of Filo

The Greek spinach and feta pie fails for two reasons: wet spinach and cheap cheese. Fix both and the filo takes care of itself. A full-tray recipe with dill, spring onions and a properly crisp top, plus the rules for handling the pastry.

Sep 6, 2026

Recipes

İmam Bayıldı: The Turkish Aubergine Dish Named for a Man Who Fainted, and the Olive Oil That Explains Why

Whole aubergines split, stuffed with slow-cooked onion, garlic and tomato, and braised in olive oil until collapsing. Served at room temperature, entirely vegan, and one of the great dishes of the Ottoman kitchen. The legend, the method, and the oil.

Sep 6, 2026