Vegan Lebanese Mezze

 Lebanon has so many incredible and varied dishes to offer, and I wanted to find a way to experiment with as many Lebanese recipes as possible. So I created a vegan Lebanese mezze, by finding some traditional Lebanese recipes and creating vegan alternatives. It was super fun and I'm looking forward to exploring more ways of making  dishes from around the world vegan friendly!

I started by making a vegan version of Lebanon's national dish, kibbeh. Kibbeh is traditionally a kind of meatball created with spiced ground meat, bulgur wheat and nuts. To make a vegan version, I replaced the ground meat in the bulgur shell with sweet potato, but kept the traditional spices (Lebanese seven spices!) the same. For the filling, I used chopped onion, minced mushrooms and walnuts, of course adding plenty of Lebanese spices too! These kibbeh were cooked in the air-fryer, and taste lovely served with tahini or hummus.

Another traditional Lebanese dish is tabbouleh, and this was easy to include in my mezze, because the dish is already vegan! Tabbouleh is made of chopped fresh vegetables and herbs (parsley, mint, tomatoes, and spring onion) which are then added to bulgur wheat, and served in an olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper dressing. 

 I also made Lebanese flatbread, manakish. This was also fairly simple as it's another dish that tends to be naturally vegan. The dough is spread with zaatar (a spice blend of  sesame, sumac and thyme) and olive oil, and then baked until crispy. Manakish is often served or topped with cheese or ground meat, but I served mine with some dips and fresh tomatoes instead. 

Since I wanted to make a couple Lebanese dips, I also decided to make another typically vegan snack; pita chips! These were amazing, and I made the pita bread from scratch which led me to discover that homemade pita bread is so much better than store-bought, it's so fluffy and definitely worth it! After pan-frying the pita dough, I cut up the cooked pita breads and tossed them in an olive oil, flaky salt and zaatar mixture. Then I baked the chips until they were golden and crispy- and so addictive. They taste incredible alongside homemade hummus and muhammara. 

 My absolute favourite part of this mezze was the muhammara- which is a roasted red pepper dip made from walnuts, garlic, breadcrumbs, pomegranate molasses and seasoning (chilli flakes, sumac, salt and pepper). It's so creamy and flavoursome and super simple to make. I also made homemade hummus, the Lebanese way- without any olive oil and with plenty of tahini. 

To complete the mezze I had to include something sweet, so I decided to make maamoul, a Lebanese stuffed biscuit. It's low in sugar but still so sweet and flavoursome due to the addition of orange blossom water. I used vegan milk and butter in these maamoul, and stuffed them with a sweet pistachio filling. Maamoul is made using a maamoul mold, which made them turn out so delicate and pretty. 

 And that was my full vegan Lebanese mezze! I'm super excited to keep exploring the world through vegan cooking, so what country should I do next? :)