Lebanese Cuisine

If one Arab cuisine gets described as healthy, it is the Lebanese. The reason is simple: the proportion of vegetables and pulses far exceeds the proportion of meat, and most of the cooking is boiling and grilling rather than frying.

Olive oil and lemon

These two appear in almost every dish and are what give Lebanese food its lightness. The classic Lebanese dressing is olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic — no cream, no mayonnaise, no sugar.

Tabbouleh is not a bulgur salad

The most common misunderstanding about Lebanese food is tabbouleh. The original is built on parsley — two cups of finely chopped parsley to two tablespoons of bulgur. Versions that are mostly bulgur with a little parsley are not Lebanese tabbouleh.

Mezze and manakish

Lebanese mezze follows the same idea as Syrian but lighter: hummus, mutabbal, tabbouleh, fattoush, vine leaves in oil, labneh. Manakish is Lebanon's breakfast — thin dough with za'atar, cheese or meat, baked in a stone oven early in the morning.

Sumac

Sumac is the clearest Lebanese signature: a dry acidity scattered at the end over salads and grills. Without it, fattoush is just an ordinary salad.