What do lebanese eat

Check out this infographic comparing the Mediterranean Diet to the Lebanese diet. Greek food has several staples that Lebanese food does not, like spanakopita. Some similarities between the 2 countries are baklava and gyros however we Lebanese refer to it shawarma.

In general, Lebanese cuisine is not spicy, in terms of heat from hot peppers, however they are used on occasion. In my opinion, there is no lack of flavor! In fact, there are quite a few vegetarian and vegan options in Middle Eastern cuisine. It is delicious! There are many ways to prepare this Lebanese Vegan recipe.

Other Lebanese vegan and Lebanese vegetarian options are falafel , hummus , baba ghanoush, manakish , fattoush , tabbouleh and cucumber yogurt salad as well. Kibbeh is a Lebanese traditional food of lean ground lamb or beef, processed together with bulgar, onions and spices and either served raw, baked or fried. Of course Lebanese food is completely delicious!!

Now, go cook yourself one the the recipes I linked in this article, or go find a Middle Eastern restaurant and try something new! Oh, yum!

I remember my dad taking pinches of raw meatloaf while my mom was cooking — his family preferred the kibbe raw. The one thing not on this list that I still make occasionally is Yabada Dwali grape leaves. I have a whole cadre of people who save the new grape leaves for me each spring. So good! Thanks Suz! We def ate it raw as kids as well!

My dad loves grape leaves but I never had them much growing up, because my mom did not like them. I live in an area with many Lebanese people so I have several grocers that carry these items regularly.

I have tried several of these dishes. Drain thoroughly. Mix tomatoes, mint, parsley, onions, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper in a separate bowl.

Add the drained wheat and mix well. Add more lemon juice and olive oil, if needed. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Serve in a bowl, or on a bed of lettuce leaves, with pita bread cut into triangles. Place cracked wheat in a large mixing bowl and cover with the cold water. Let stand 5 minutes, and then drain. Press on grains to remove water. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Process in batches in a food processor fitted with the chopping blade or a blender.

Butter a 9xinch baking pan. Spread the mixture into the pan, smoothing the top with wet hands. Cut into 2-inch squares. It is traditional to cut the kibbeh into a diamond pattern. Pour melted butter over the top. Bake for 50 minutes. Serve with pita bread.

Easy Lebanese Baklava. Unroll one can of dough into an ungreased 9xinch baking pan. Bake for 5 minutes and remove from the oven. In a large bowl, combine nuts, sugar, and cinnamon. Sprinkle the mixture over baked crust.

Unroll the second crescent roll dough and spread over top. With a sharp knife tip, score top dough to form a diamond pattern. In a small saucepan, combine honey, butter or margarine, and lemon juice, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour half of the honey mixture evenly over top of dough.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Drizzle remaining honey mixture over top of the hot baklava. Cool completely and cut into diamond-shaped pieces. Makes 18 to 24 pastries. Ahweh Arabic Coffee. Procedure Using a saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to a boil. Add the coffee with ground cardamom if desired and stir well.

Bring to a boil. When the foam rises to the top, remove the saucepan from the heat to let the foam subside for about 1 minute. Return the pot to the heat and bring to a boil again. Traditionally, the coffee is brought to a boil at least three times. Serve with a few drops of orange blossom water, if desired. Separate the egg yolk from the egg white, and discard the yolk.

Beat the egg white and water in a bowl. Add the nuts and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, and salt and mix well. Add the sugar mixture to the nut mixture.

Spread on foil-covered pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Stir and bake another 15 minutes. Ingredients 1 cup sugar 1 cup oil or butter 2 eggs 3 cups flour, or enough to make dough firm 1 cup milk 1 Tablespoon mahlab, pounded until fine or substitute with ground cinnamon 3 teaspoons baking powder. Procedure Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and let chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Cut into circles and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Makes about 36 cookies. Lebanese Fresh Fruit Salad. Procedure Remove melon from rind and dice. Cut pineapple into chunks. Peel and section the oranges, removing all the white membrane. Cut the orange slices into chunks. Toss together in a bowl. Much like Jordan, bread was a dominant player in everyday food of the Lebanese. It immediately caught my eye the first day I was walking around Beirut when a bicycle vendor was parked by a big traffic circle with stacks of something that looked like handbags hanging from hooks.

Sesame covered bread that was puffed up and shaped like a handbag. Fermented chickpeas are used as a leavening agent. The first morning in Beirut my host mom ordered manoushe for breakfast; it was my first of many manoushe that month, but I enjoyed every one of them!

This delicious morning meal was my go to choice! Lebne is a tangy yogurt cream cheese that you can spread on anything! Once again, the manoushe was best if it was warm out of the oven coupled with a fresh squeezed glass of orange juice for breakfast. For those with a breakfast sweet tooth, then you can opt for knafeh. I quickly learned that the Lebanese knafeh was vastly different than the Jordanian knaffe. Imagine a piece of cheesecake, dipped in honey and then put between two sesame seed hamburger buns.

I tried the Lebanese knafeh one morning and it was certainly a treat. Even my American sweet tooth felt this was quite a lot of sugar for breakfast! Beans are also a big staple in Lebanese food. Foul pronounced fool , a bean dip, was a favorite as well as hummus. This was my first time eating fateh and it was a pleasant surprise to by tastebuds. It was one of the few foods in Lebanon you actually ate with a spoon and not with bread. Instead, the bread was actually at the bottom of the bowl and then covered with yogurt, melted butter, garbanzo beans, and roasted nuts on top; served slightly warm.

The buttery warm taste was delicious. I think not. They tend to use spices that we only reserve for special occasion meals of desserts in their everyday meals. I especially was fond of the kebbeh spiced meatballs. Every time I bit into one it reminded me of American Thanksgiving! In general, the Lebanese snacked a lot with little small plates called mezze of these famous dishes that everyone shared around the table. A typical Mezze may consist of salads such as the Tabouleh and Fattoush, together with dip such as Hummus, Baba ghanoush or Moutabal, Kebbeh and finally stuffed grape leaves.

Lebanon was full of sticky sweet pastry shops, especially in Tripoli. As I walked around the souks in Tripoli I was offered plenty of samples of these sweet, nutty concoctions. I was also offered cakes which had hints of rosewater in it giving it this unique taste that I immediately fell in love with.

While in Taaynayel I had the opportunity to try a special dessert calle Meghli. Meghli is a Middle Eastern rice pudding made with rice flour and flavored with cinnamon, aniseed and caraway. Mezze may be as simple as raw or pickled vegetables, hummus, moutabbal and bread, or it may become an entire meal consisting of grilled marinated seafood, skewered meats, a variety of cooked and raw salads and an arrangement of desserts eaten in successive waves.

Lebanese flat bread khobez or pita is a staple to every Lebanese meal and can be used in place of a fork. The essential ingredient in all of this is that the array food is shared by all the guests at the table. In the UK and the West in general the culture is very individualised where each person has their own starter and their own main course. The two styles don't fit well together and it can get very disjointed if one guest wants to eat individually while the others want to eat traditionally and share.

When do you serve the individual's starter and main course if the rest of the group are only having a dozen-or-so mezze for their whole meal? And how do you manage this when everybody else in the restaurant is ordering lots of mezze?