Bulgur ‘risotto’ and tahini rice pudding: Anissa Helou’s Lebanese recipes

Bread is the main staple of Lebanese cooking; grains and legumes follow, and nearly every meal includes one or the other. Bulgur wheat is the preferred grain, especially in rural communities, where households traditionally grew, harvested, parboiled and dried their own wheat before sending it to the mill.

From Deir Intar comes a green bulgur “risotto” (mafrükeh), in which bulgur is cooked with greens and tomato sauce. Spring onions and herbs give the dish a fresh lift; it is served like tabbouleh—cooked rather than raw—and traditionally scooped up with raw cabbage leaves or, when in season, fresh vine leaves.

Müffata’a, a tahini rice pudding from Beirut with a Sunni provenance, offers a very different flavour. Short-grain rice is simmered in turmeric water, then combined with tahini, sugar and pine nuts and cooked until the oil from the tahini rises and the pudding is very thick.

Lebanon, Beirut, Deir Intar

bulgur, tahini, rice pudding, anissa helou, mafrükeh, müffata’a, lebanese cooking, tabbouleh, turmeric, pine nuts