Do’s and Don’ts of Lebanese Cooking and Eating

1. Pita bread is served with every meal in Lebanon. Pita bread is served at every single meal, and comes in three sizes: large (for sandwiches), medium (for dips or as a utensil), and cocktail-size. Pita bread in Lebanon is very thin, less than one-sixteenth inch thin. When ready to serve a meal, use kitchen scissors to cut each piece of bread into four triangles, put them back in the plastic bag, tie and fold the bag, and place it on the table to pass around at the next meal. The unused bread can be stored in the back of the refrigerator without risk of drying out.

Bread is used as a utensil at the Lebanese table; you can forget forks or spoons—just don’t forget the fresh bread! Pita bread freezes well and can be thawed at the last minute. The bread will warm up gently to room temperature while you set the table and prepare salad.

Leftover pita bread is cut into croutons, fried in oil, and drained; most people nowadays prefer it toasted in the oven at 300 degrees F until golden brown. Fried pita-bread croutons are sprinkled on salads (fattoush), as a crunchy layer on all the casseroles (fatteh), as a binding ingredient for veggie side dishes (treedeh), or fried with grilled fish. Toasted pita croutons will keep for a couple of weeks in a tightly closed container in a cupboard.

2. Lemons are used daily. Press fresh lemon juice and keep it in an ice-cube tray in the freezer. Do the same with orange juice or other citrus juice used in cooking tarator sauce (the Lebanese equivalent of mayonnaise) or pudding. Whenever needed, an ice cube of lemon juice can be retrieved easily enough. Lemon juice is used daily in just about everything: salad dressing, sprinkled over soups or stews, when making tarator sauces, and in making mezze items. If time allows, the lemon rind can be grated (first, then press the juice) and stored in a small bag in the freezer with a tablespoon of olive oil, to throw in a soup or stew at the last minute for a boost of flavor.

3. Keep onions on hand. Chop them and sauté them in oil until golden and store in freezer bags with the oil for each dish you are planning to make for the next couple of weeks. Almost every dish requires onions sautéed in olive oil until soft or golden, therefore, having the equivalent of three bags will amply take care of the weekly meals.

4. Use fresh garlic cloves. There is a huge difference in flavor (and nutritional benefits) between fresh and old garlic, so I’d recommend local or at least domestic garlic as opposed to imported. Peel a few garlic cloves; if there is a green shoot, remove it and discard it (the garlic is old). Keep the peeled cloves in a closed jar in the fridge to use when needed.

I also like to keep a garlic mortar handy to make garlic paste, which can go into salad dressing, stews, soups, yogurt cheese dips, side dishes, or anything you have cooking on your stove.

5. Fresh herbs are best. Cilantro and parsley are “blessed” in the Lebanese mindset. Cilantro gives flavor to veggies, stews, and soups. Parsley is the main component of tabbouleh salad and is sprinkled on just about everything else. When possible, use Lebanese parsley, which is delicate, flat-leaved, and silky. So-called Italian parsley is too thick, so I’d recommend organic Italian parsley as a substitute. Wash, dry one or two bunches of each, and keep in a sealed container covered with a kitchen towel.

Toss in cilantro pesto at the last minute to add flavor or use it to liven up chicken wings, shrimp, fish, or other chicken dishes. Try it on cubed potatoes, carrots, or taro (or any veggie for that matter). Use it for soups, stews, bean stews, lentils, and in mulukhieh. To save time, make a dozen portions of cilantro pesto and freeze them in an ice-cube tray or in small freezer bags.

6. Keep extra-virgin olive oil in a cruet, always on the table. I’d recommend one imported from Lebanon with a Fair Trade emblem on the bottle. Lebanese farmers drink a sip of the olive oil to make sure it is fit for consumption. If the taste is bitter or too peppery, it is probably bad. Believed to give you superhuman strength and immunity, olive oil is added to yogurt cheese (labneh) in the morning, salad or baked potato, soup or stews, on zaatar spice mix—in short, at every meal every single day of a Lebanese person’s life. Olive oil has a mythical aura in the Lebanese folk mindset, as a proverb says, “Drink your olive oil and break through the wall” (kol zeit w-entah el-heyt).

7. Simplify your spice rack. Traditional Lebanese cooking uses these main spices easily found in your grocery store: cinnamon, allspice (Jamaican pepper), black pepper, white pepper, and nutmeg. There is no need to stock your pantry with a plethora of spices unless you are planning a specific pastry or dish. In Lebanese cuisine, cinnamon is used for savory cooking, and rarely for sweet baking.

8. Incorporate olives into every meal. Olives are called the “sheikh of the table” (sheikh el-sofrah) for a reason, as they are served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At breakfast, olives are served with yogurt cheese, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, and fresh mint leaves. At lunch, the meal will start with one nestled in a tiny piece of pita bread, just to open the appetite. At dinner, they accompany a sliver of hard cheese, like a kashkaval or halloumi, with a side of green beans in tomato stew (loobyeh bel-zeit), for a light and frugal dinner. As the saying goes, “Bread and olives is the best life can offer” (khobz wzeitoon, ahsan maykoon). Lebanese folks have always believed that frugal living off the earth’s bounty, in this case, the olive trees and the wheat fields (bulgur), are sufficient for one’s good health and happiness.

9. Tahini is another very important flavoring in the Lebanese kitchen. Consumed daily, tahini provides 20 percent of the calcium requirement in the Lebanese diet. I’d highly recommend a good Lebanese brand, and that you keep one in the cupboard at all times. Tahini is the main component of tarator sauce, hummus (in all its variations), and tuna tagen or kibbeh. Tarator is made in a jiffy with lemon juice and garlic paste, and can dress any cooked seasonal veggie with a pleasant result (potato, green beans, chard, beets, cauliflower, and eggplant).

10. Yogurt and labneh. Yogurt is essential in a Lebanese kitchen. Labneh, which is yogurt cheese, can be made overnight by simply draining the yogurt and adding salt. Yogurt is uncooked for salad or served as a side dish with bulgur pilafs or kebabs, or as a simple meal with plain rice to help cure a tummy ache. Yogurt is cooked as a soup or a stew. It is one of the layers in many casseroles, or is made into a sauce with meat chunks or kibbeh balls. It can be made with either cow’s or goat’s milk. Goat yogurt is considered finer, more stable to cook with, and much healthier. Ideally, a small dairy farm would supply the yogurt, which could be perpetually remade at home. Making yogurt is easy and does not require a special tool, machine, or skill.

11. Legumes. Legumes (chickpeas, white beans, yellow fava beans, lentils) can be bought canned, rinsed, and reheated in fresh water, or bought dried, soaked overnight, cooked until soft, and stored in freezer bags with one cup of cooking water in one-meal servings. Grab a bag from the freezer when needed and make hummus on the spur of the moment or add to a stew.

12. Meats and poultry. Cook ground meat ahead of time with onions and spices. Earmark each bag for one meal. Freeze and grab it later when needed to stuff kibbeh or veggies, or for rice and spiced meat.

13. Lamb confit. If you are cooking with lamb, store all the residual lamb fat and lamb bits in the freezer in small bags, tightly sealed. Use it to fry eggs sunny-side-up (beyd bel-awarma) in the morning. Simply melt the lamb fat in a skillet over medium heat, slide the eggs into the pan, and fry until the whites are set. Season to taste and serve with pita bread. Another use for lamb fat: Add it to the kibbeh stuffing instead of meat; this is the method used in the rural areas to make do when meat is scarce. A tiny bit of lamb fat can replace lamb confit. Lamb confit was made every fall to stock up the larder. It was kept in jars to use throughout the year to flavor stews, soups, kibbeh, or fried eggs. This is an easy and practical alternative.

14. Nuts are essential. Stock up on pine nuts, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, and sesame seeds. Store them in the fridge or freezer. Boil the almonds or pistachios in separate pans for a couple of minutes, drain on paper towels, and peel when they have cooled, then airdry and store. Sesame seeds can be dry-roasted in a skillet over gentle heat for about thirty minutes until golden, then cooled and stored. All nuts should be kept in small freezer bags. When nuts are used in a recipe, always fry the peeled nuts in a bit of butter or oil until caramel-colored.