🫘 Msabaha
Msabaha is a warm Levantine dish of whole cooked chickpeas in a loose tahini and lemon sauce with garlic and cumin, finished with olive oil and parsley. It is chunky and creamy at the same time, like a rustic, unblended hummus. It is served warm, often for breakfast, as part of a mezze spread.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 500 g cooked chickpeas, with 100 ml of their cooking liquid
- 4 tbsp tahini
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt
- Chopped parsley
Method
- Warm the chickpeas in their cooking liquid for 5 minutes.
- Mix the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt with a few spoons of warm liquid into a pourable sauce.
- Drain the chickpeas, keeping a little liquid, and lightly mash a third of them.
- Fold the chickpeas into the tahini sauce.
- Spread on plates, sprinkle with cumin, drizzle with olive oil and scatter with parsley.
How to make it lighter
- Tahini is calorie-dense: 1 tbsp ≈ 90 kcal, so measure it and thin the sauce with lemon and water.
- Keep the olive oil drizzle small — 1 tbsp oil ≈ 120 kcal.
- Pair it with sliced tomatoes, cucumber and onion to make a smaller portion more filling.
History
Msabaha is closely related to hummus and is eaten across Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan today, especially in hummus shops at breakfast time.
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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 →