Palestine
Palestinian cooking runs on olive oil, sumac and slow-cooked rice — from the sumac-and-onion national dish to a flipped pot of spiced rice and the famous cheese pastry of Nablus. Here are twenty of its most-loved dishes.
Dagga Ghazawiya
Gaza’s smashed tomato-dill-chili salad, pounded to a rough salsa in an unglazed clay bowl and flooded with olive oil.
Falafel
The Levant’s crackling herb-flecked chickpea fritters — soaked dried chickpeas, never cooked, never canned — fried and tucked into bread with tahini.
Fatayer Sabanekh
Triangle pies of soft dough sealed around a tangy sumac-lemon spinach filling — the freezer currency of every Palestinian household.
Ka’ak al-Quds
Jerusalem’s oblong sesame bread rings — a thick crust of seeds over a soft, faintly sweet crumb, sold from wooden carts at the Old City gates.
Musakhan
The national dish of Palestine — roasted sumac chicken over taboon bread smothered in olive-oil-caramelized onions and toasted pine nuts, eaten with the hands.
Maqluba
‘Upside-down’ — a layered pot of spiced rice, chicken and fried or roasted vegetables, flipped onto a tray at the table to reveal a layered dome.
Maftoul
Palestinian hand-rolled couscous — larger and nuttier than the North African kind — served under a warming chicken, chickpea and onion stew.
Rummaniyeh
Lentils and eggplant simmered sour with pomegranate, thickened and finished with fried garlic — the coastal dish that became a Gaza signature, eaten at room temperature with bread.
Sumaghiyyeh
Gaza’s Eid stew — beef, chard and chickpeas in a sumac-dark broth thickened with flour and red tahini, perfumed with a pounded dill-seed and chili paste.
Qidreh
Hebron’s great garlic-and-lamb rice — chickpeas, whole cloves by the handful, and broth-cooked basmati, named for the blackened pot it bakes in.
Kofta bil Tahini
Kofta and potatoes baked under a tangy, garlicky tahini sauce that dominates the tray — the other great kofta bake of the Levant.
Sayadiyeh
The fisherman’s rice of the Palestinian coast — white fish over basmati stained deep gold with slow-darkened onions, cumin and turmeric, under toasted nuts.
Mloukhiyeh
Silky jute-mallow stew in chicken broth, hit with sizzling garlic and eaten over rice with an unapologetic amount of lemon.
Djaj Mahshi
Whole chickens stuffed with hashweh — cinnamon-spiced rice, ground meat and pine nuts — and roasted to deep gold; the dish that welcomes new mothers and first iftars.
Knafeh Nabulsiyeh
The crown jewel of Palestinian sweets, from Nablus — salty white cheese in crispy shredded phyllo, baked and drenched in blossom-scented syrup, topped with pistachios.
Mujaddara
The humble, ancient Levantine staple of lentils and rice crowned with deeply caramelized onions — vegan, frugal and beloved. Shared across the Levant.
Msabbaha
Hummus’s warm, chunky cousin — whole and lightly mashed chickpeas ‘swimming’ in a lemony tahini-garlic sauce, finished with cumin, parsley and pine nuts. A classic Palestinian breakfast.
Qatayef
Ramadan’s stuffed pancakes — yeasted rounds cooked on one side only, pinched around cinnamon walnuts or sweet cheese, fried golden and dunked in syrup.
Harisseh
The semolina-coconut syrup cake of Palestinian sweet shops — tahini-greased pan, almond on every diamond, soaked hot with cold lemon syrup.
Qamar el-Deen
The apricot-leather drink of iftar tables — sheets of Damascus-region apricot paste melted into a cold, thick nectar.
Middle Eastern home cooking, organized by country. Your family’s version is the one that counts.