Bahraini Recipes

Bahrain is a small island nation, and its cooking reflects centuries as a pearl-diving and trading hub in the Gulf. Rice and fish are the foundation, along with dates, wheat and spices that arrived with merchants from India, Persia and East Africa. Machboos, a spiced rice cooked with meat or fish and dried lime, is the everyday centerpiece, and muhammar, a sweet rice, is served with fried fish. Breakfast brings balaleet, sweet vermicelli topped with a savory omelet, and chebab pancakes scented with saffron and cardamom. Wheat dishes such as harees appear in Ramadan, when families also make luqaimat dumplings in syrup. Bahraini halwa, a glossy starch and sugar sweet flavored with saffron and nuts, is the island's best-known confection and is offered to guests with Arabic coffee. Dried limes, cardamom, saffron, rose water and turmeric flavor most dishes, and meals are shared from large communal platters on the floor or the table.

Staple ingredients

• rice
• fish and shrimp
• dates
• dried limes (loomi)
• saffron and cardamom
• turmeric
• rose water
• wheat

• Breakfast 2
• Main Dishes 4
• Desserts 2

Breakfast

• Balaleet (Sweet Saffron Vermicelli with Savory Omelet)BH35 minEasy
• Chebab (Gulf Saffron and Cardamom Pancakes)BH40 minEasy

Main Dishes

• Harees (Bahraini Wheat and Lamb Porridge)BH4 h 20 minMedium
• Machboos (Bahraini Spiced Chicken and Rice)BH1 h 55 minMedium
• Muhammar (Bahraini Sweet Rice with Fried Fish)BH1 h 10 minMedium
• Mumawwash (Bahraini Rice with Mung Beans and Fried Onions)BH1 h 45 minEasy

Desserts

• Luqaimat (Crisp Fried Dumplings in Date Syrup)BH35 minMedium
• Bahraini Halwa (Saffron and Cardamom Sweet with Nuts)BH1 h 10 minChallenging