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Region

Lebanon

لبنان

01Overview

Lebanon grows little rice, yet rice is at the centre of its table. It is the everyday base under the yakhneh stews, cooked with toasted vermicelli; the celebration platter of chicken, spiced minced meat and toasted nuts; the stuffing rolled in vine leaves; and, on the coast, the brown onion-and-fish rice of the fishermen. Alongside rice runs an older grain tradition of bulgur (cracked wheat), which in the South still replaces rice in mujaddara. Lebanese cooking is organised around home kitchens and village producers, a heritage championed by the farmers' market Souk el Tayeb (founded in Beirut in 2004 by Kamal Mouzawak) and its kitchen Tawlet, where village cooks serve their regional food, and recorded by cookbook authors such as Anissa Helou, whose 2026 book Lebanon travels village by village.

02Cultural Sub-Regions

Sub-region	Rice personality	Key towns
Beirut	Home and festive rices: riz a djej, riz bi sh'ariyyeh under stews	Beirut
Tripoli & the North	Coastal sayadieh, dark onion and cumin	Tripoli (Trablous), Batroun
Mount Lebanon	Vine-leaf rolls, festive chicken rice	Zgharta, Jbeil, Chouf villages
Saida (Sidon) & the South	Fishermen's sayadieh; mujaddara janoubiyeh with bulgur	Saida, Sour (Tyre), Nabatieh
Bekaa & Zahle	Vineyards (vine leaves), legumes, bulgur	Zahle, Baalbek

03Recipes in this Region

Recipe	Texture	Zone
Sayadieh ⚠️	Seco	Coast: Tripoli, Beirut, Saida, Sour
Mujaddara / Mudardara	Seco	Everywhere; bulgur version in the South
Riz a Djej ⚠️	Seco	Everywhere (festive)
Riz bi Sh'ariyyeh	Seco	Everywhere (daily)
Warak Enab ⚠️	Meloso	Mountains & Bekaa (vine country)
Fasoulia w Riz ⚠️	Caldoso	Everywhere (weekday stew)

⚠️ = low online documentation; see the file's confidence note.

04Reference Links

Rice dishes from Lebanon

Caldoso · brothyCopper pot

Fasoulia w Riz

White bean and lamb stew in tomato sauce, served over vermicelli rice

فاصوليا ورز

The Spanish structural parallel is the bean-and-pork winter pot rices such as arròs amb fesols i naps and arroz y habichuelas. The Lebanese table, however, keeps the stew and the rice separate until the plate.

Lebanon

Meloso · creamyCopper pot

Mahshi Kousa wa Batinjan

Zucchini and eggplants stuffed with rice and meat, simmered in tomato

محشي كوسا وباذنجان

Palestine · Lebanon · Jordan · Syria

Seco · dryCopper pot

Mujaddara

Rice (or bulgur) with lentils, topped with crisp fried onions

مجدرة (Mudardara / مدردرة)

Mujaddara is the region's most famous rice-and-lentil dish and the archetypal food of the poor and of fast days. It needs nothing but lentils, a grain, onions and oil.

Lebanon · Palestine · Syria · Jordan

Seco · dryServing tray

Ouzi

Spiced rice with minced meat, peas and nuts baked inside filo pastry

أوزي

Ouzi is Damascus's celebration rice. Basmati or short-grain rice is cooked with minced lamb or beef, peas (often with carrots), whole spices and the Levantine seven-spice mix (baharat).

Syria · Jordan · Lebanon

Seco · dryServing tray

Riz a Djej

Festive spiced rice with minced meat, shredded chicken and toasted nuts

رز ع دجاج

The hashweh (literally "stuffing") is the same spiced meat-and-rice mixture used to stuff chickens, lamb and vegetables. Riz a djej is in effect the stuffing served as a dish in its own right.

Lebanon

Seco · dryCopper pot

Riz bi Foul (Rice with Fava Beans)

Spring rice pilaf with fresh fava beans, dill and lamb

رز بفول

In spring, when fresh green fava beans (foul akhdar) arrive in the markets, Levantine kitchens cook them into rice.

Syria · Lebanon

Meloso · creamyCopper pot

Riz bi Haleeb (Rice Pudding)

Levantine rice pudding with mastic and orange-blossom water (dessert)

رز بحليب

Aleppo adds a celebrated layered version, roz bi-haleeb mbattan ("lined" rice-milk pudding). A creamy rice-and-milk base is chilled and then topped with a set orange-juice layer.

Syria · Lebanon · Palestine

Seco · dryCopper pot

Riz bi Sh'ariyyeh

Everyday rice with toasted vermicelli, served under stews

رز بشعيرية

Its Spanish cousin is the toasted-grain logic of the arrossejat, where rice is browned in oil before the broth, and of the fideuà, where noodles are toasted before cooking.

Lebanon

Seco · dryServing tray

Sayadieh

Fishermen's rice cooked in fish stock with deep-brown onions, fish on top

صيادية

Structurally it is the Levantine cousin of the Alicante arroz a banda and the Santa Pola caldero.

Lebanon · Palestine · Syria · Jordan

Seco · dryCopper pot

Shakriyeh with Vermicelli Rice

Lamb cooked in hot yogurt sauce, served with vermicelli rice

شاكرية مع رز بشعيرية

Shakriyeh is lamb (or beef, or chicken) simmered with whole spices and then finished in hot cooked yogurt.

Syria · Lebanon · Palestine

Meloso · creamyCopper pot

Warak Enab

Vine leaves stuffed with rice, herbs and lemon (or with meat over lamb chops)

ورق عنب

Rolling vine leaves around rice is a shared craft of the eastern Mediterranean, done when the leaves are young and tender in late spring and preserved in brine for the rest of the year.

Lebanon · Syria · Palestine