Winter, for me, is a feeling before it is a season. The heater on. Rain on the roof. Nowhere I need to be. I am old school about this — my favourite place in winter is in front of the wood fire, and I am not sorry about it.
We roast chestnuts on the heater. We wrap potatoes in foil with olive oil and salt and put them in the coals for a late night snack. And from the kitchen, always, there is something simmering. A stew. A soup. Something slow and warm and deeply, deeply Lebanese.
Growing up, winter meant stews. Mama would cook them throughout the cooler months — always served with vermicelli rice, always enough for everyone to go back for more. A pot of soup on a cold night with a thick piece of crusty bread was, and still is, one of the most satisfying meals I know.
Here are the seven dishes I come back to every winter. Some are childhood classics. One is a warm drink Mama made that I can still taste from memory. All of them will make your house smell like somewhere you want to be.
🍲 The stews — always with vermicelli rice
In Lebanese homes, stews and vermicelli rice are inseparable. The rice is always there — nutty, golden, the perfect base for whatever is simmering on the stove.
These are the stews we grew up eating and the ones I still make now when the cold settles in.
1. Kafta Stew
Spiced kafta meatballs simmered in a rich tomato sauce, finished with a toasted garlic and coriander drizzle that lifts the whole dish. On the table in 45 minutes. Stews were a constant in our home growing up — this kafta version is one of the most requested in my kitchen now. Serve it over vermicelli rice and let the sauce do what it does best.
2. Bazella wu Ruz — Lamb and Pea Stew
→ Bazella wu Ruz — Lamb and Pea Stew
Lamb, peas, potato and tomato simmered slowly together — humble ingredients that become something deeply comforting once the pot has done its work. This is what Lebanese comfort food looks like. It is the kind of dish that tastes like it has been cooking all day, even when it hasn’t. Served with vermicelli rice, always.
🫘 The one that works at any hour
3. Foul Mudammas with Beef
Slow-cooked fava beans with spiced beef — warm, earthy and filling in a way that sticks with you. Foul is one of those Lebanese dishes that belongs to every time of day and every season, but in winter it earns its place on the table in a different way. It is humble food in the very best sense of the word — the kind of thing that costs almost nothing to make and gives everything back. Serve it with warm bread and a drizzle of olive oil for breakfast, or alongside rice for dinner. Either way, it always delivers.
🔥 From the oven — hearty, hands-off, winter done right
These two go into the oven and largely look after themselves. The kind of cooking that suits a winter day when you want to stay warm and not stand over the stove.
4. Oven-Braised Lamb Shanks
Lamb shanks are a Lebanese winter staple — made in so many different ways across so many different homes, and every version is the right one. This one is slow-braised until the meat falls away from the bone without any encouragement. The braising liquid reduces into something almost sauce-like, rich and deeply flavoured. Serve it over rice with toasted pine nuts. This is what winter smells like.
5. Pomegranate Glazed Chicken
Chicken thighs roasted in a pomegranate molasses glaze — sweet, tangy and deeply savoury all at once. The pomegranate caramelises in the oven and the result is a dish that looks and tastes like you put in far more effort than you did. This is my hearty winter oven dish — the one I make when I want something that feels celebratory without being complicated. The smell when it comes out of the oven is something else entirely.
🥣 The soup — sometimes it is all you need
There are winter nights when soup is not a starter. It is the whole dinner. A deep bowl, a thick piece of crusty bread on the side, and nothing else required. This is one of those soups.
6. Chicken and Rice Soup with Coriander
→ Chicken and Rice Soup with Coriander
A generous pot of chicken and rice in a coriander-scented broth — warming and restorative in the way that only a proper homemade soup can be. Sometimes in winter it is just soup. With crusty bread, sitting somewhere warm. That is enough. More than enough. This is the soup I make for that night.
☕ And something warm to end the night
Winter in our home is never just about the food on the table. It is the whole ritual of it — the heater, the rain, the late night warmth. And at the end of the night, we must make sahlab.
7. Sahlab — Warm Lebanese Milk Drink
A warm, silky milk drink thickened with cornflour, scented with rose water and dusted with cinnamon and crushed pistachio. My Mama made this during winter with the heater on, always served in the traditional Arabic tea cups. I can still remember the feeling of wrapping my hands around one. It is not a dessert and it is not quite a drink — it is something in between, and it is one of the most quietly comforting things a Lebanese kitchen makes. Five minutes. Four ingredients. Worth every one of them.
🥔 Bonus: the late night winter snack that never gets old
This one is not a recipe so much as a ritual. Potatoes wrapped tightly in foil with a drizzle of olive oil and a generous pinch of salt, placed inside the wood fire heater and left to cook in the coals. By late in the evening they are soft all the way through, the skin crisp where it touched the heat. We do the chestnuts the same way — straight onto the heater, turned until they char and the insides go soft and sweet.
When we do baked potatoes, I have three ways I love to serve them. The first is the most Lebanese — simply dressed with lemon, olive oil, salt, cumin and fresh parsley. Very Arab, very good, and honestly my personal favourite. This is the one we make straight from the heater. The second is a bolognaise-style version with melted cheese on top — and this is where having a stash in the freezer comes in handy. If you want to know exactly what to freeze and how, this freezer guide covers everything — from portioning meat to freezing sauces ready to go. The third is Mediterranean — a dollop of thick yogurt, black olives, a drizzle of olive oil and fresh chives.
Lebanese winter — a whole way of being at home
Lebanese food was made for winter. The stews that simmer all afternoon. The soups that are a whole meal. The drinks that warm you from the inside. The ritual of being together in a warm kitchen when it is cold outside.
These seven dishes are my winter. I hope some of them become yours.
Cooking any of these this winter? Tag me on Instagram @roubasfoodjourney — especially if you are brave enough to try the heater potatoes.
