Lebanese Cuisine

Located on the glistening coast of the Mediterranean Sea and at the heart of the Middle East, Lebanon is famous for its unique culture, especially when it comes to food. Its origins can be traced back thousands of years to eras of Roman, Greek, Persian, Byzantine, Arab, Egyptian, and Phoenician rule. Lebanese food makes use of an abundance of ingredients all sourced within its small borders. You’ll find whole grains, fruits, vegetables, fresh fish and seafood. There’s also a copious amount of garlic, olive oil and lemon seasoning.

In summary, it’s exquisitely delicious and something you must try! So, that’s why we’ve put together this food box so you and all your family and friends can enjoy the delights of Lebanese food. Here at the Spice Pioneer we take our job incredibly seriously, working hard to source the world’s finest herbs and spices just for you. We believe that high quality means better taste and we only use premium ingredients to make our spice mixes.

At our headquarters on the Wirral, the spice mixes found in this Lebanese cuisine box are all roasted and blended by hand in small batches to ensure our high standard is met. Then, these powerful and aromatic spices are expertly measured into small pots.The results will create a mouth-watering three course meal for four people that captures the authentic flavours of Lebanon. All you need to do is add these spices as you cook, following the provided recipes. It’s that easy!

Inside this Lebanese cuisine box you will find the spice mixes and accompanying recipes to make baked kibbeh with onions, pine nuts and tahini, as well as a bulgur and chicken salad with zahtar and mint. There’s also a toasted bread salad with sumac and for desert, a village rice pudding with cinnamon and aniseed.

Kibbeh is a very popular Lebanese food and throughout the middle east you’ll find that it's considered a national dish. The word ‘kibbeh’ comes from the classical Arab word ‘kabbah’ that means ‘ball’. Often, many types of kibbeh are shaped into balls or patties. However, a popular way of serving in Lebanon is to serve it as a mixture with bulgur, as a platter.

So that’s what you’ll be doing in our recipe. It starts by pounding minced lamb with onions and our delicious shawarma - a mix of allspice, black peppercorns, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, coriander seeds, nutmeg and mace. This is then all kneaded together with dried bulgur and baked in the oven before more onions and pine nuts are added. It’s delicious and tastes even better when served with the two accompanying salads!

We love our bulgur and chicken salad with zahtar and mint because it’s so easy to make. We think our pomegranate molasses and sumac brings a lot to the toasted bread salad too.

And, of course, that desert. We picked out the village rice pudding because of how sweet and flavoursome it tastes with our anise seed and cinnamon. It’s the perfect dish to round things off.

With each Lebanese cuisine box you’ll also receive a shopping list (we told you this was easy), a postcard and a specially curated music playlist that will bring Lebanon right to your kitchen. Astamtae!