Libya

🇱🇾Libya

Lagbi

Sap tapped from a date palm and drunk the same day, sweet and cloudy, turning alcoholic within hours if left.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Abrak

Abrak

Vine or cabbage leaves rolled around rice, minced meat and herbs and simmered tightly packed in a lemon and tomato broth.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Asida

Asida

Plain wheat flour beaten into boiling water into a smooth mound and served with a well of date syrup, honey and melted butter.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Fasoulia

Fasoulia

White beans stewed slowly in tomato with garlic, bzar and often tripe or lamb until the sauce goes thick and rust-coloured.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Ghreyba

Ghreyba

A short biscuit of flour, ghee and sugar that collapses to powder in the mouth, sometimes topped with an almond.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Kaek

Kaek

Ring-shaped biscuits flavoured with aniseed or sesame, dry enough to keep for weeks and made to be dunked in tea.

🇪🇬Egypt

Libyan Mahshi

Mahshi

Peppers, courgettes, aubergines and onions hollowed and packed with spiced rice and minced lamb, then baked in tomato sauce.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Mahshi Sandwich

Sandwich tuna

A Libyan stuffed-vegetable sandwich identity: seasoned mahshi filling packed into a soft roll with herbs and chilli.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Rishta

Rishta

Sheets of fresh pasta cut into short strips and cooked in a tomato and chickpea broth with preserved lamb.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Sharmoula

Sharmoula

A Libyan cold relish of pounded tomato, garlic, vinegar, oil, and chilli served with grilled fish.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Shorba

Shorba libiya

A tomato and lamb soup thickened with orzo or crushed pasta, heavy with mint and tomato paste and finished with lemon.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Tea

Shahi

Tea boiled down repeatedly over a small stove until it is almost syrup, poured from a height into small glasses and topped with a spoon of roasted peanuts or almonds.

🇩🇿Algeria

Loubia

A Moroccan white bean stew simmered with tomato, garlic, paprika, and cumin.

🇱🇾Libya

Macarona Mbukhka

Macarona mboukhka

Pasta steamed over a pot in a couscoussier rather than boiled, then folded through a spiced onion and chickpea sauce.

🇱🇾Libya

Mafruka

Semolina cooked with butter and syrup and pressed around a filling of dates or nuts, then cut into small pieces.

🇲🇦Kairouan, Morocco

Makrout

مقروض

Semolina pastry wrapped around date paste, fried or baked, and finished with honey; named forms are shared across the Maghreb.

🇱🇾Libya

Mathroda

A Libyan pasta dish of small hand-rolled pasta pieces simmered in a spiced tomato sauce.

🇹🇳Tunisia

Mhalbiya

محلبية

Rice-flour pudding perfumed with geranium or rose water, set in small dishes and scattered with pistachio.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Molokhia

ملوخية

Jute mallow leaves cooked into a green stew with chicken or lamb, served over rice with vinegar, onion and toasted bread.

🇱🇾Libya

Mubattan Kusha

A Libyan stuffed potato dish: potato halves filled with spiced meat and baked until tender.

🇩🇿Algeria

Osbane

عصبان

Osbane is a stuffed sausage of casing, rice, offal, herbs, and spices made in Algerian, Tunisian, and Libyan kitchens.

🇱🇾Libya

Rice with Sour Milk

Rozz bel-leben

Short-grain rice cooked in fermented milk until creamy and savoury, served with butter or olive oil poured over the top.

🇱🇾Libya

Rub

Dates or carob boiled down to a near-black syrup used on asida, bread and in sweets.

🇱🇾Libya

Sand Bread

Khobz mallah

Unleavened dough buried in hot sand and embers in the desert and dug out, brushed off and eaten.

🇱🇾Libya

Sfinz

A wet, stretchy yeast dough pulled thin and fried into a ragged disc, eaten hot with honey, sugar or an egg cracked onto it.

🇪🇬Egypt

Shakshuka

شكشوكة

Eggs poached in a simmering tomato, pepper, onion, garlic, and chilli sauce, with regional names and seasonings across North Africa.

🇱🇾Libya

Sharba Libiya Bil Dajaj

A Libyan chicken soup, rich with tomato, chickpeas, and warming spices, served with lemon.

🇱🇾Libya

Shwaya

Lamb or mutton cut into cubes and ribs and grilled over open coals, salted and dusted with bzar and nothing else.

🇱🇾Libya

Stuffed Potato

Batata mubattana

Two slices of potato sandwiched around spiced minced meat, dipped in egg and breadcrumb and fried.

🇪🇬Egypt

Ta'ameya (Egyptian Falafel)

طعمية

Egyptian fava-bean falafel made from soaked beans, herbs, coriander and cumin, shaped into green fritters and fried for breakfast.

🇱🇾Libya

Tabahij

Al-tabahij

Fish layered with sliced potato, tomato and onion and baked in oil until the top layer browns and the fish steams underneath.

🇱🇾Libya

Tajin Sfinari Bil Zaytun

A Libyan spinach tagine baked with olives, eggs, and spices until set like a savory pudding.

🇱🇾Libya

Tannour Bread

Khobz tannour

Rounds of dough slapped onto the wall of a clay oven fired with olive wood and peeled off blistered a few minutes later.

🇱🇾Libya

Tershi

Pumpkin or turnip boiled soft and mashed with garlic, caraway, harissa and lemon into a sharp orange dip.

🇩🇿Algeria

Zalabia

زلابية

Small coils or balls of fermented batter fried until crisp, then soaked in syrup or dusted with sugar at Egyptian sweet shops.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Za’atar

زعتر

A Levantine blend of dried thyme or oregano, sumac, toasted sesame and salt, used on flatbreads, with labneh and as a table seasoning.