Somali halal recipes

Somali cooking reflects centuries of trade across the Indian Ocean: Arab, Indian, Yemeni and Italian influences meet East African staples. Rice and pasta are eaten as often as flatbread, banana is served on the side of rice, and xawaash, a warm spice blend of cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon and black pepper, seasons almost everything.

Our Somali recipes include bariis iskukaris, spiced rice with lamb and carrot cooked with xawaash and served with banana alongside, as it is at home. Canjeero, the spongy fermented flatbread, is eaten for breakfast, here with spiced liver, which makes it a strong source of B12 and iron. Muufo is a cornmeal flatbread served with stew, and maraq is a meat and vegetable broth often on the table in Ramadan.

Sambusa, the Somali samosa filled with spiced meat, is the snack that opens many fasts. For suhoor there is a beef suqaar bowl, strips of beef seared with pepper and onion and folded through brown rice, and a savoury lentil porridge that costs little to make.

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