Lunch

Crisp fried patties — chickpea in the Levant, fava in Egypt, beloved everywhere.

3 versions

The parsley salad that starts every Levantine gathering.

2 versions

The bread salad of Ramadan tables — crunchy, tangy, impossible to stop eating.

2 versions

Lentils, rice or burghul, and a mountain of caramelized onions — humble food that outshines feasts.

3 versions

The jute-leaf stew that divides the region: chopped or whole leaf, soup or stew?

3 versions

Egypt's beloved street feast: rice, lentils, pasta, chickpeas, spicy tomato sauce, and crispy onions.

1 version

The spinning spit, tamed for the home kitchen — chicken or beef, wrapped and pressed.

3 versions

Minced meat, onion, and parsley — grilled on skewers or baked with potatoes and tahini.

3 versions

Okra stew with lamb in rich tomato — a lunch that smells like home across the region.

2 versions

Yemen's bubbling lunchtime stew crowned with whipped fenugreek foam.

1 version

Open-faced meat pies — Baalbek's tiny masterpieces and every child's favorite tray.

2 versions

Flat green beans stewed slow in olive oil, tomato, and garlic — summer in a pot.

1 version

Egypt's everyday chopped salad — tomato, cucumber, and onion sharpened with lime and cumin.

1 version

Fava beans puréed with herbs and garlic — a thick dip in Egypt, a steaming soup in Morocco.

2 versions

White beans and meat in tomato broth — the weekday stew that never lets anyone down.

2 versions

Peas and carrots with meat in tomato broth over rice — the first tabkha every kid learns to love.

1 version

Silky stewed spinach with meat and a bright lemon finish — iron-rich, grandmother-approved.

2 versions

Gaza's lentil and eggplant stew soured with pomegranate — humble, vegan, unforgettable.

1 version

Eggplant cooked down with tomato — vegetarian and chilled in Beirut, meaty and bubbling in Cairo.

2 versions

Lamb simmered in warm cooked yogurt over rice — Syria's white-gold comfort dish.

1 version

Yemen's shredded-lamb stew, served volcanic in stone under a cap of fenugreek foam.

1 version

Tunisia's chickpea bowl over torn bread, fired with harissa and crowned with an egg.

1 version

Zucchini and eggs scrambled soft with sweet onion — what the pulp from stuffing day becomes.

1 version