🧀 Cheese manakish (akkawi)

Name: Cheese manakish (akkawi)
Total time: 120 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Lebanon · Levant
Ingredients: 300 g bread flour; 5 g instant yeast; 5 g salt; 1 tsp sugar; 180 ml warm water; 2 tbsp olive oil; 200 g akkawi cheese, soaked to remove salt and grated; 100 g mozzarella, grated; 1 tsp nigella seeds

Origin: Lebanon · Levant

526kcal

per serving · 180 g

292kcal

per 100 g

22 gProtein12 g / 100 g

22 gFat12 g / 100 g

61 gCarbs34 g / 100 g

Cheese manakish is a round Levantine flatbread topped with salty white akkawi cheese, often mixed with a stretchier cheese such as mozzarella, sprinkled with nigella seeds and baked until the cheese bubbles and browns. The base is soft and chewy with a crisp edge, and the topping is salty and stringy. It is a classic breakfast, folded in half and eaten hot from the bakery oven.

Diets

✓

Vegetarianno meat or fish in a typical recipe

✓

No pork

Not veganbecause of: akkawi cheese, mozzarella

Contains glutenbecause of: dough

Contains dairybecause of: akkawi cheese, mozzarella

Not keto34 g carbs per 100 g

Allergens

Contains (in a typical recipe):

⚠ Gluten ⚠ Milk

What it is made of

doughakkawi cheesemozzarellanigella seedsolive oil

Recipe

4 servings120 min

Ingredients

300 g bread flour
5 g instant yeast
5 g salt
1 tsp sugar
180 ml warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
200 g akkawi cheese, soaked to remove salt and grated
100 g mozzarella, grated
1 tsp nigella seeds

Method

Mix flour, yeast, salt, sugar, water and 1 tbsp oil into a soft dough; knead 8 minutes and let rise 1 hour.
Soak the akkawi in water for 1–2 hours, changing the water, then drain and grate.
Divide the dough into 4 balls and stretch each into a thin round.
Brush with the remaining oil, top with both cheeses and sprinkle with nigella seeds.
Bake on a very hot tray at 250 °C for 7–9 minutes until the cheese bubbles and the edges brown.

How to make it lighter

Use more akkawi and less mozzarella, or spread the cheese thinner — the cheese layer carries most of the calories.
Skip the extra oil brushed on the dough; 1 tbsp olive oil ≈ 120 kcal.
Eat it with tomato, cucumber and mint to make one manousheh feel like a full meal.

History

Manakish are a traditional bakery breakfast across Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan, where neighbourhood ovens bake them to order each morning. Akkawi cheese is named after the city of Acre (Akka), and the cheese-topped version sits alongside za'atar manakish as one of the most popular choices.

Count it in one photo

Point your camera at the table — Me Nutrition recognises Cheese manakish (akkawi) and every other dish, with calories and macros for each. Ate only half? Slide it.

Download on the App Store

Similar dishes

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 →