🍝 Balaleet
Balaleet is a Gulf breakfast of thin vermicelli cooked with sugar and perfumed with cardamom, saffron and rosewater, served under a thin, savoury omelette. The noodles are soft and fragrant, and the egg on top balances their sweetness. It is popular for weekend breakfasts, Eid mornings and during Ramadan.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 250 g thin vermicelli
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 80 g sugar
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- A pinch of saffron soaked in 2 tbsp warm water
- 1 tbsp rosewater
- 400 ml water
- 3 eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt
Method
- Toast the vermicelli in 1 tbsp oil until lightly golden.
- Add the water and cook until absorbed and the noodles are soft.
- Stir in the sugar, cardamom, saffron water and rosewater; cover and keep warm on low heat.
- Cook the eggs in the remaining oil as a thin omelette.
- Serve the vermicelli topped with the omelette.
How to make it lighter
- Cut the sugar to 40–50 g; the saffron and rosewater still carry the flavour.
- Add an extra egg white to the omelette for more protein in the same portion.
- Toast the vermicelli in one tablespoon of oil (about 120 kcal) rather than more.
History
Balaleet is a traditional dish of the Emirates and the wider Gulf, including Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman, where it remains a classic festive breakfast.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →