Lebanese Food Quiz

A smooth chickpea and tahini dip, finished with olive oil.

Variants of chickpea-and-tahini dips are claimed across much of the Levant and beyond.

Smoky roasted eggplant blended with tahini into a creamy dip.

Charring the eggplant directly over a flame is key to its distinctive smoky flavor.

A parsley-forward salad with a touch of bulgur, lemon, and tomato.

Authentic tabbouleh uses parsley as the main bulk ingredient, with only a small amount of bulgur.

A tangy salad tossed with crisp toasted or fried pita pieces.

Sumac, a tart reddish spice, gives fattoush much of its distinctive tang.

Herb-flecked chickpea fritters, crisp outside and soft within.

Falafel's exact origins are contested, with several countries across the region claiming it.

A bulgur-and-meat shell, fried or baked around a spiced filling.

Kibbeh is often considered one of the most labor-intensive dishes in Lebanese home cooking.

A flatbread baked with a fragrant topping of za'atar and olive oil.

Za'atar is both the name of the spice blend and the wild thyme plant it's traditionally made from.

Thick strained yogurt, often eaten drizzled with olive oil.

Straining yogurt through cloth removes whey, concentrating it into a tangy, spreadable cheese-like dip.

Marinated meat stacked and slow-roasted on a vertical spit.

Shawarma and döner kebab share a common Ottoman-era vertical-spit cooking lineage.

Spiced ground meat skewers, grilled until lightly charred.

Kafta is often mixed with grated onion and parsley before being shaped onto skewers.

Garlicky marinated chicken cubes grilled on skewers.

A yogurt-based marinade helps keep the chicken tender even after high-heat grilling.

Lentils and rice topped generously with deeply caramelized onions.

It's an old, humble dish often associated with religious fasting traditions in the region.

A layered rice and vegetable dish, dramatically flipped before serving.

Its name literally means 'upside-down,' describing how the pot is flipped onto a serving platter.

Crisp bread layered with chickpeas, yogurt, and toasted pine nuts.

The bread layer is added just before serving so it stays partly crisp under the warm topping.

Hollowed zucchini stuffed with rice and meat, then gently simmered.

A special corer tool is traditionally used to hollow the zucchini without splitting it.

Slow-simmered fava beans mashed lightly with lemon and olive oil.

It's a popular breakfast dish across much of the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa.

Shredded pastry baked over melted cheese and soaked in syrup.

The cheese used is typically a low-salt variety that doesn't overpower the dessert's sweetness.

Buttery molded cookies filled with dates, pistachios, or walnuts.

Carved wooden molds are traditionally used to press decorative patterns into each cookie.

An anise-flavored spirit that clouds white when mixed with water.

Arak is traditionally distilled from grapes, distinguishing it from grain-based anise spirits elsewhere.

A fiercely garlicky whipped sauce, light and almost mayonnaise-like.

Toum is made with no egg at all — its body comes purely from emulsifying garlic, oil, and lemon.

Stuffed grape leaves filled with rice and herbs.

The name literally means 'grape leaves' in Arabic.