13 Middle Eastern Recipes to Add to Your Cooking Rotation

Comforting dishes full of punchy flavors, earthy spices, vibrant herbs, and layered textures.

Published November 20, 2024

Overhead view of Qidreh with a side plate of yogurt — Serious Eats / Mai Kakish

There's no shortage of flavors in Middle Eastern cuisine. While each region has its signature ingredients, such as Persian kashk, and its own culinary traditions, there are also genres of dishes that span across many national cuisines—from rice vermicelli to hummus in countries like Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Egypt, to name a few. We've rounded up 13 Middle Eastern recipes showcasing foods that are both uniquely regional and ubiquitous across multiple countries, offering wonderfully delicious meals to make at home, share with others, and get a taste of the region's rich culinary diversity.

Hummus Fatteh (Hummus With Crisp Pita, Fried Meat, and Pine Nuts)
Serious Eats / Mai Kakish
Chickpeas and pita—when combined with creamy tahini, tender pieces of fried meat, toasted pine nuts, and pomegranate seeds—are transformed into a satisfying celebratory meal that belies its humble origins.
Hummus Fatteh (Hummus With Crisp Pita, Fried Meat, and Pine Nuts)
Khoresh-é-Bādemjan (Persian Meat and Eggplant Stew)
Serious Eats / Nader Mehravari
This hearty, aromatic stew is Persian comfort food at its finest. Long, gentle cooking yields melt-in-your-mouth tender meat. Eggplant is first pan-fried to impart caramelized notes, then added midway through the braising to produce a luscious, silky texture.
Khoresh-é-Bādemjan (Persian Meat and Eggplant Stew)
Qidreh (Palestinian Bone-In Lamb With Spiced Rice)
Serious Eats / Mai Kakish
This dish of tender bone-in lamb nestled in fragrant spiced rice studded with chickpeas and finished with toasted slivered almonds is a hallmark of the Palestinian city of Hebron, eaten during Ramadan and other special occasions such as weddings and funerals.
Qidreh (Palestinian Bone-In Lamb With Spiced Rice)
Kookoo-Sabzi (Persian Herb Egg Bake)
Serious Eats / Nader Mehravari
Kookoos encompass a large and popular class of Persian egg-centric dishes, and this version is brimming with chopped fresh herbs like parsley, cilantro, dill, and leeks. Similar to a tortilla española, it's flipped halfway through cooking to ensure a delicate crust on both sides—and it can be enjoyed hot or cold, as a main course, side dish, snack, or even as a sandwich.
Kookoo-Sabzi (Persian Herb Egg Bake)
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Koshari (Egyptian Lentils, Rice, and Pasta)
Serious Eats / Kevin White
This iconic Egyptian street food of fluffy vermicelli, rice, tender black lentils, and soft elbow pasta is bursting with tart and savory flavors and contrasting textures—the type of comfort food those living outside of Egypt long for. Despite its long list of ingredients, it's fairly simple to make. Pre-soaking the rice and lentils speeds up the cooking time and results in tender, fluffy grains.
Koshari (Egyptian Lentils, Rice, and Pasta)
Kashk-o-Bādemjān (Persian Braised Eggplant With Kashk)
Serious Eats / Nader Mehravari
The combination of silky twice-cooked eggplant and dairy-rich, tangy fermented kashk is what makes this iconic Persian dish a popular restaurant appetizer and favorite home side dish. It's served warm, drizzled with butter infused with garlic and dried mint, and topped with fried shallots, with plenty of pita or lavash for dipping.
Kashk-o-Bādemjān (Persian Braised Eggplant With Kashk)
Yalanchi Sarma (Armenian Rice Stuffed Grape Leaves)
Serious Eats / Two Bites
These grape leaves—stuffed with lemon-scented soft rice filling akin to risotto and studded with pine nuts and dried currants—are essential to the Armenian mezze table. Unlike meat and rice versions that typically cooked in a thicker tomato-enriched broth and served as a main course, these are usually served as a room-temperature appetizer.
Yalanchi Sarma (Armenian Rice Stuffed Grape Leaves)
Ka'ak al Quds (Jerusalem Sesame Bread)
Serious Eats / Mai Kakish
A ubiquitous part of Jerusalem's history and culture, this distinctive bread has a thin crusty exterior blanketed with sesame seeds and a sweet, light, airy interior, with an oblong shape that ensures a very high crust-to-interior ratio.
Ka'ak al Quds (Jerusalem Sesame Bread)
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Hummus B'Tahini (Hummus With Tahini)
Serious Eats / Mai Kakish
Hummus is arguably the most popular and ubiquitous iteration of chickpeas across the Middle East. This foolproof version comes together in 10 minutes—no food processor required. Just use an immersion blender to blitz drained and well-rinsed canned or jarred chickpeas with tahini, fresh lemon juice, salt, and a bit of water until smooth, then serve with a healthy drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. We advise leaving out the garlic, which imparts a strong and unpleasant aroma the longer it sits in the hummus.
Hummus B'Tahini (Hummus With Tahini)
Homemade Labaneh (Labneh)
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Thick, creamy, tangy, and lightly salted, we guarantee this homemade version of labneh will taste infinitely better than any store-bought one. With a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of za'atar, it's ready to scoop up with pita or your flatbread of choice.
Homemade Labaneh (Labneh)
Egyptian Bissara (Split Fava Bean Dip)
Serious Eats / Greg Dupree
The crowing glory of this creamy, vibrantly green dip of blended split fava beans, cilantro, parsley, mint, and dill are the golden fried shallots, which are well worth taking the time to get just right. Seasoning the dip with shallot-infused oil also lends it a unique depth of flavor.
Egyptian Bissara (Split Fava Bean Dip)
Sholeh-Zard (Persian Saffron Rice Pudding
Serious Eats / Nader Mehravari
What makes this rice pudding a standout is its incredibly smooth and creamy texture—the grains of rice are barely visible—remarkably achieved without the use of milk, cream, egg, flour, or other thickeners or emulsifiers. Also, the saffron-rosewater flavor is well-balanced and nuanced.
Sholeh-Zard (Persian Saffron Rice Pudding
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Kanafeh (Middle Eastern Cheese and Phyllo Dessert)
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
Kanafeh is a fantastic study in contrasts—creamy filling and salty cheese bound in crispy shredded fillo, and drenched in sweet syrup, then showered with pistachio. Requiring no special equipment or challenging techniques, this decadent showstopper is the ideal dessert for non-pastry people.
Kanafeh (Middle Eastern Cheese and Phyllo Dessert)

13 Middle Eastern Recipes to Add to Your Cooking Rotation

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