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Region

Palestine

فلسطين

01Overview

Rice is not grown in Palestine. It has always arrived by trade, historically from Egypt, and later as Egyptian short/medium grain and imported long-grain. Even so, it became the grain of celebration. A Palestinian cookbook quoted in reference sources calls rice "unquestionably the basic ingredient in ceremonial dishes": mansaf and qidreh are expected at weddings, funerals, baptisms and circumcisions. Everyday rural cooking was built on wheat. The fellahin (village farmers) grew, threshed and processed it themselves, eating bulgur and freekeh (green wheat, roasted in the field). Dishes such as mujaddara and even maqluba were often made with bulgur or freekeh before rice took over in the 20th century. Displacement after 1948 accelerated the shift, as families cut off from their fields came to depend on purchased staples.

Three broad culinary registers shape Palestinian rice:

  1. Madani (urban) cooking of Jerusalem (al-Quds), Nablus, Yafa and Haifa: refined spiced rices, rice stuffings (hashweh) with pine nuts and almonds, stuffed vegetables (mahshi).
  2. Fellahi (village) cooking of the hill country (Ramallah, Jabal Nablus, Jenin, al-Khalil): grain-and-pulse dishes, yogurt and jameed, wood-fired ovens (taboun).
  3. Coastal and southern cooking, Yafa and above all Gaza: fish rices (sayadieh), dill, green and red chillies, lemon. It is "more herby, spicy, peppery, lemony" than the neighbours' food, in the words of The Gaza Kitchen.

Rice dishes shared with the rest of Bilad al-Sham are documented on the region pages that lead on them: mansaf (Jordan), sayadieh and mujaddara (Lebanon), ouzi and rice puddings (Syria).

02Cultural Sub-Regions

Sub-region Rice personality Key towns
al-Quds / Jerusalem Urban maqluba (sometimes with vermicelli & chickpeas), hashweh, the Saladin maqluba legend Jerusalem, Bethlehem
Jabal Nablus Maqluba with cauliflower and, in season, 'akkoub (gundelia); refined madani stuffings Nablus, Tulkarm, Jenin
al-Khalil / Hebron hills Qidreh (rice and lamb baked in copper pots in bakery ovens), rice with yogurt, kousa bi-laban, Hebron mansaf Hebron, Halhul, Bani Na'im
Ramallah & fellahi villages Wheat-first cooking: freekeh, bulgur, musakhan; rice for feasts Ramallah, al-Bireh, villages of Bani Zeid
Yafa & the coast / Gaza Fish rices (sayadieh), spicy Gaza maqluba, Gaza qidreh in clay urns with chickpeas & garlic Yafa (Jaffa), Gaza City, Khan Yunis, Rafah
al-Jalil / Galilee Village wheat traditions (green-wheat roasting), stuffed vegetables, Christian festive rices Nazareth, Akka, Galilee villages

03Recipes in this Region

Recipe Texture Zone
Maqluba Seco All Palestine (also Jordan, Syria)
Qidreh Seco al-Khalil / Hebron, Gaza
Ruz bi-Djaj with Hashweh ⚠️ Seco Jerusalem and urban centres
Mahshi Kousa & Batinjan Meloso All Palestine; kousa bi-laban in Hebron

⚠️ = thin town-level documentation; see the file's confidence note.

Rice dishes from Palestine

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 · dryServing tray

Mansaf

Jordan's national feast: lamb in dried-yogurt (jameed) sauce over rice and thin bread

منسف

Mansaf is lamb (or, in older and Bedouin tradition, camel or goat) cooked in jameed, a sauce of reconstituted dried, salted, fermented yogurt.

Jordan · Palestine
Seco · dryServing tray

Maqluba

Upside-down rice with chicken or lamb, fried eggplant and cauliflower

مقلوبة

Maqluba is layered. Chicken or lamb poached in a spiced broth goes at the bottom, then deep-fried vegetables (eggplant, cauliflower, potato, tomato, sometimes carrots), then soaked rice.

Palestine · 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 · dryStew pot

Qidreh

Hebron rice and lamb baked in a sealed pot in the baker's oven

قدرة (al-Qidra al-Khaliliyya)

Palestine
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 · dryServing tray

Ruz bi-Djaj ma'a Hashweh

Festive chicken on spiced rice with minced meat, pine nuts and almonds

رز بالدجاج مع الحشوة

Palestine · Jordan · Syria
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