Jordan
Jordan’s table is anchored by mansaf — lamb in tangy fermented yogurt over rice — alongside the flipped rice pot, sumac chicken, and the country’s beloved fried tomatoes. Several of these are shared across the Levant. Here are twenty.
Rashoof
Northern Jordan’s winter pot — lentils simmered in warm jameed, mansaf’s fermented yogurt, under crisp fried onions and sizzled dried mint.
Shorbet Adas
The plain, proud red lentil soup that opens every Jordanian Ramadan table — cumin, a squeeze of lemon, and green olives on the side.
Mansaf
Jordan’s national dish and the ultimate gesture of Bedouin hospitality — lamb simmered in a tangy fermented-yogurt (jameed) sauce, served over yellow rice and thin shrak bread.
Maqluba
A layered one-pot of spiced meat, fried vegetables (eggplant essential) and rice, cooked then dramatically flipped upside-down onto a platter.
Musakhan
Roasted chicken smothered in heavily sumac-spiced, olive-oil-braised onions over taboon bread with toasted pine nuts — Palestinian in origin and eaten throughout Jordan.
Galayet Bandora
A humble, beloved everyday dish of fresh tomatoes pan-fried in olive oil with garlic and chili, stewed until jammy and scooped up with warm pita.
Burghul Bandora
Coarse bulgur simmered in a tomato-onion base until plump and red — the frugal village pilaf eaten with a bowl of cold yogurt.
Fasolia Khadra
Green beans and beef stewed soft in tomato with warm allspice — the weeknight yakhni that always lands on a bed of vermicelli rice.
Kufta bi Bandora
Kofta and baby potatoes baked in a mint-scented tomato sauce edged with pomegranate molasses — the everyday tray, over vermicelli rice.
Warak Dawali w Kousa
The Friday pot — meat-and-rice grape leaves rolled tight, stuffed kousa and eggplant around the edge, lamb chops underneath, all flipped steaming onto one platter.
Malfouf Mahshi
Cigar-thin cabbage rolls simmered in a lemony, garlicky, mint-scented broth — the winter counterpart to grape leaves, flipped out and eaten with yogurt.
Makmoura
Irbid’s buried pie — hand-stretched dough layered with mountains of slow-melted onion, olive oil and spiced chicken, sealed, baked low, and cut like cake.
Hashweh
‘Stuffing’ rice promoted to the main event — cinnamon-baharat beef and basmati under a shower of ghee-fried pine nuts and almonds.
Beef Shawarma
The red-meat shawarma — thin strips in a warm-spiced yogurt-lemon marinade, blasted hot, rolled with tahini sauce, pickles and onion.
Mujaddara
A frugal, ancient and deeply comforting vegan staple of lentils and rice perfumed with cumin and crowned with crispy caramelized onions. Shared across the Levant.
Knafeh
The Levant’s most famous dessert — crispy shredded phyllo over a stretchy sweet-cheese filling, baked golden, drenched in rosewater syrup and showered with pistachios. A national favorite in Jordan.
Awameh
‘The floaters’ — crisp-shelled, syrup-hearted fried dough balls, piped straight into the oil and dunked hot into cold attir.
Warbat bil Ashta
Ramadan’s cream triangles — layers of butter-soaked phyllo folded over thick ashta, baked golden and drenched in rose syrup under a flurry of pistachio.
Muhallabiyeh
The gentlest dessert in the repertoire — a chilled rose-water milk pudding, silky and barely sweet, wearing a green cap of ground pistachio.
Shai bil Maramiyyeh
Sage tea — the after-meal pour of Jordan and Palestine, amber-red in small glasses, sweet and medicinal in exactly the right proportions.
Middle Eastern home cooking, organized by country. Your family’s version is the one that counts.