Easy and very delicious, man’oushe is a traditional Lebanese breakfast of flatbread topped with za’atar (thyme, sumac, salt and sesame seeds). It’s often served folded into three and filled with chopped tomato, onion and olives.
I made these from a half batch of our pizza base recipe, rolling the dough into four thin small circles, and topping them with a mixture of olive oil and za’atar (which I purchased at the markets from the spice stall). They were then baked in a hot oven to golden brown. There’s a great video clip here of man’oushe being made (although I suspect it might be regionally encoded).
Small Man ate three of these in one sitting, so it’s definitely something we’ll make again!
Edit: a recipe for za’atar for those who can’t buy it premixed. This comes from Spice Notes by Ian Hemphill, owner of Herbie’s Spices:
- 3 tsp dried thyme leaves, crushed but not powdered in a pestle and mortar
- 1 tsp sumac
- ½ tsp toasted sesame seeds
- ¼ tsp salt
Blend all the above together and mix with olive oil before spreading.
Yum I love these. Surprisingly nice for breakfast too. I remember arriving early one morning in Melbourne, scouting around for some breakfast to eat before my work day started. I wandered into this fab middle eastern shop and they convinced me to try this for breakfast (I was looking for something very plain and gluten free – didn’t quite meet those criteria!). It was really delicious. Their bread was soft and crispy at the same time – hard to describe, but really nice with the tomatoes and olives. They made one fresh in the oven for me, and they were really lovely and friendly, so it was extra special.
I hadn’t thought of making them myself…hmmm…I actually have some pizza dough brewing at the moment too…
Oh yum! They look delicious. I think they would go down very well here.
They look really good Celia. I keep coming across more and more recipes using za’atar but have no idea where to get sumac from – guess I could try our 1 asian shop in town – I think they sell some middle eastern ingredients. Have you had sumac on it’s own? Just wondering what sort of flavour it had?
Choclette, Sumac is very tart and sour on its own. You can buy za atar mixes on line at places like Bristol Sweet Mart, maybe your local shop has something on those lines. Barts Herbs and Spices do crushed Sumac in jars, Waitrose stocks it. Hope this helps.
Oh and I love these breads Celia! You are inspiring to make some very soon. Got to get my baking hat back on :)
Spice Girl, I just picked up a giant bag of za’atar from Harkola – remind me to spot you some when I see you next!
Brydie, it has a really unique flavour. Small Man loves it, but Big Boy doesn’t like sumac in anything…sigh. :)
Choclette, thank you – very easy to make. Hopefully you can find the mixes at one of the places Jo suggested.
And Jo, dear, swings and roundabouts, I just made your owl rolls! :D
My goodness they look amazing, Celia.
I can just imagine the smells coming from your kitchen.
So sourdough manou’she here I come.
I got my sumac from out Asian store Choclette, after trawling all the shops for it.
& yes the video works well here in my house. Tell me!
The lady’s breads are yeasted aren’t they, not flat breads?
Gill, they don’t actually give a recipe, so I just made mine from our standard pizza dough! The couple of recipes I found through google were yeasted, though.
Celia,
these look delicious.
Will admit I bought a batch from our local Lebanese bake house for Patrick’s 21st birthday party. They were a great success with all the guests and very good value at $1.50 each!!
Diana
those look great! i’ve never had za’tar, i’m definetely going to look it up. thanks for something new!
Celia, a photo of you at last, Roz
It does not disappoint…. Roz
Hehe…thanks Roz. :)