Levantine halal recipes

Levantine cooking comes from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. Its kitchens run on chickpeas, bulgur and freekeh, olive oil, lemon, strained yogurt and za'atar, the herb, sumac and sesame mix that goes on bread, eggs and chicken alike.

Our Levantine recipes start with the dishes made for guests. Mansaf is Jordan's lamb cooked in a sauce of jameed, a dried yogurt, and served over rice. Makloubeh layers rice, vegetables and meat in one pot and turns it upside down onto the platter. Sayadieh sets white fish on rice browned with caramelised onions, and moghrabieh is a pearl couscous stew with chicken and chickpeas. Bamya and fasulye are the everyday stews, okra with lamb and white beans in tomato.

Beside them sit quicker plates built around protein: one-pan za'atar chicken with bulgur, a fattoush chicken plate, labneh and chicken roll-ups, freekeh bowls with salmon or beef. For something sweet there is knafeh, cheese pastry in syrup, and muhallebi, a milk pudding scented with rosewater.

Each recipe gives its calories, protein, carbs, fat and fibre per serving, worked out from its ingredients. How we work out our numbers