This week is a little different — and a lot more special.
Eid Al Adha begins this week, and for those of us who celebrate, it is one of the most meaningful times of the year. So instead of our regular weekly plan, I wanted to give you something that truly reflects this occasion — a collection of dishes that belong on an Eid table, with recipes for every day of the celebration and enough sweetness to last the whole four days.
A little about Eid Al Adha
Eid Al Adha — the Festival of Sacrifice — is one of the two most important celebrations in the Islamic calendar. It falls on the 10th day of Dhul Hijjah, the final month of the Islamic lunar year, and is celebrated over four days. It commemorates the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God — and God’s mercy in providing a ram in his place. During Eid Al Adha, families who are able to will sacrifice an animal — most often a lamb — and share the meat with family, neighbours, and those in need. It is a time of gratitude, generosity, prayer and gathering. For us, food is at the very heart of it.
Eid means the table is always full. It means the smell of mamoul being baked the night before. It means a platter of ouzi in the centre of the room with everyone reaching in. It means cookie tins passed around between visits, baklawa fingers offered with coffee, and rice dishes that feed twenty people and still somehow run out. This week’s plan is built around all of that.
Whether you celebrate or not, I hope these recipes find their way into your kitchen and bring something a little celebratory to your table. Every recipe is linked below.
Eid Mubarak to all who celebrate. 🤍
This Week’s Eid Table
The Showstopper: Ouzi — Stuffed Lamb with Rice
This is the dish that defines Eid Al Adha in so many family. Lamb stuffed with fragrant spiced rice and chickpeas, sewn closed, and roasted in the oven for six full hours until the meat is falling off the bone and the rice beneath has soaked up every drop of flavour from the lamb. We have always made ouzi in the wood-fired oven outside — but over the years so many of you asked how to make it at home, in a regular kitchen, that I finally worked out a way. This is it. Start it the morning of your gathering, trust the process, and put it in the centre of the table. It will do everything else on its own.
👉 Get the Ouzi — Stuffed Lamb with Rice recipe
The Feast: Lebanese Chicken and Rice (Ruz Ajaj)
On the days when the table needs to be generous without a whole lamb in the oven, this is what I make. A whole chicken simmered low and slow in a deep fragrant stock with cinnamon, cloves and cardamom until the meat is tender and the broth is golden. The rice is built on that stock — basmati with spiced lamb mince — and served with chunky shredded chicken piled on top and a crown of toasted pine nuts and almonds. It looks opulent. It is deeply comforting. And it is made for a room full of people reaching in.
👉 Get the Lebanese Chicken and Rice recipe
The Classic: Baked Lamb Kibbeh (Kibbeh-bel-Sanieh)
No Eid spread is complete without kibbeh. This baked version — kibbeh bel sanieh — is the one I reach for when I want something that feels truly Lebanese and truly celebratory without spending the entire day in the kitchen. A layer of spiced bulgur and lamb pressed into a tray, a filling of fragrant lamb mince with pine nuts and a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, then another layer on top, scored into diamonds and drizzled with olive oil. It is crunchy at the edges, juicy in the middle, and absolutely the first thing to disappear from the table. Make it and freeze it, make it the day before and bake it on the day, or bake it ahead and reheat — kibbeh is wonderfully forgiving that way.
👉 Get the Baked Lamb Kibbeh recipe
The Cookie Tin: Ghraybeh
Eid is not Eid without a cookie tin. And this is the one my aunty always had waiting when we arrived at her house in Lebanon — a big tray of ghraybeh, pale and perfectly shaped, each one pressed with a slivered pistachio. Three ingredients, ten minutes in the oven, and the result is something that genuinely melts in your mouth. They keep for two weeks in an airtight container, so make a big batch early in the week and keep the tin on the table for the full four days. Every visitor will reach for one.
👉 Get the Ghraybeh Cookies recipe
The Memory: Walnut Stuffed Mamoul
This is my mum’s recipe — and making it takes me straight back to the nights leading up to Eid, when we would stay up until the early hours filling and shaping mamoul, complaining about the quantity, and my mum quietly counting the nine of us. Buttery semolina dough rested overnight, filled with spiced ground walnuts and shaped in the traditional wooden moulds — each one dusted with icing sugar once it cools. This is the recipe I will always make for Eid, without exception. It is the taste of celebration, the taste of my childhood, and the taste of every gathering that has ever mattered.
The Sweetness: Cashew Baklawa Fingers
This one came from my cousin’s kitchen — and the moment she showed me how to make them, I understood why they never last long at her table. Crisp layers of buttered filo rolled around finely ground cashews, baked until deep golden, then finished with a pour of cool rosewater sugar syrup and a dusting of ground pistachio. They freeze beautifully before baking — so make a double batch this week, freeze half, and you’ll have Eid baklawa on hand for the days ahead without doing any extra work.
👉 Get the Cashew Baklawa Fingers recipe
A table full of love, memory and flavour — Eid is celebrated differently across the world — different dishes, different sweets, different traditions. This is the Lebanese table.
To everyone celebrating, Eid Mubarak. May your table be full, your home be loud with the people you love, and your cookie tin never empty. 🌙🤍
And to those who don’t celebrate — I hope these recipes give you a reason to gather too. Every single one of them is worth making.
