Arabic & Levantine Pantry Guide
Manakish (Manaqish / Manousheh): Levantine Flatbreads Topped with Zaatar, Cheese & Muhammara
Manakish (singular: manousheh) are the signature hot breakfast flatbreads of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan. Soft rounds of yeast dough are dimpled with the fingertips, spread generously with zaatar and olive oil, melting akkawi cheese or spiced muhammara, and baked in a blazing stone oven or on a domed saj.
Why It Is Called 'Manousheh': The Baker's Fingertip Dimples
Walk down any street in Beirut, Damascus, Amman or Jerusalem at dawn and the warm scent of toasted sesame, wild thyme and baking bread leads straight to the neighbourhood 'furn' (bakery). The Arabic word 'manousheh' (plural: 'manakish') comes from the root verb 'to dimple' or 'to stamp': before spreading the topping, the baker presses their fingertips across the stretched round of dough, creating little wells that stop the flatbread from puffing into a pita balloon and hold the pools of olive oil and zaatar in place.
Favourite Toppings: Zaatar, Akkawi Cheese, Muhammara and Kishk
The undisputed icon is 'manousheh zaatar', spread edge-to-edge with a glossy paste of bakery zaatar (wild thyme, sumac and toasted sesame) mixed with extra-virgin olive oil. Close behind is 'manousheh jibneh' topped with desalted white akkawi cheese, stretchy kashkaval and black nigella seeds – or the beloved 'nuss b-nuss' ('half-and-half') combining zaatar on one side and cheese on the other. In Syria, red pepper and walnut 'muhammara' manakish are a staple, while Lebanese mountain bakeries are famed for savoury 'kishk' manakish with onions and tomatoes.
Folded Warm with Fresh Mint, Tomatoes, Olives and Labneh
Fresh from the oven, a hot manousheh is either sliced on a communal breakfast platter or folded in half like a warm wrap around sprigs of fresh spearmint, sliced ripe tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, pitted olives and a generous swipe of cool, tangy labneh. It is always served alongside hot black tea with mint or frothy salted ayran.
