Lebanese · Desserts

Meghli

A dark spiced rice pudding made to celebrate a birth, soaked in caraway, anise and cinnamon and buried under soaked nuts. Served cold, and not sweet in the way you expect.

1 hr prep and cooking plus 8 hr soaking the nuts plus time for chilling until cold, which the recipe does not time at least 9 hr start to finish Serves 8 servings Easy
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Meghli

Photograph credit: meghli by celinecelines · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Flickr · this resized copy is shared under the same licence

What Goes With It

  • Arabic coffee
  • Sweet tea
  • Fresh dates

How to Cook Meghli

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  1. Soak the walnuts, almonds and pine nuts in cold water in separate bowls for at least 480 minutes, or overnight.

  2. Whisk the ground rice, sugar and all the spices with 500 ml of the water until completely smooth and lump-free.

  3. Stir in the remaining litre of water and bring to the boil over medium heat, whisking continuously.

  4. Once it boils, lower the heat and cook 45 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until it is thick, glossy and very dark brown.

  5. Pour into small glasses or bowls and leave to cool to room temperature, then chill until cold and set.

  6. Drain the soaked nuts and pat them dry.

  7. Cover the surface of each glass thickly with coconut, then pile the soaked nuts on top and serve cold.

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Notes From the Method

A full 45 minutes of simmering. Undercooked spices taste raw.

Soak the nuts, do not toast them. Soft and milky is the point.

Whisk continuously as it comes to the boil or it catches.

Storing and Reheating

Refrigerated for 4 days; add the nuts and coconut only when serving. Do not freeze.

Questions and Answers

How long does Meghli take to make?

15 minutes of preparation and 45 minutes of cooking, plus 8 hours of soaking the nuts, so allow 9 hours from start to finish. The method also needs time for chilling until cold, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 8.

The Numbers per Serving

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

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Compiled by Turab

Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.

First published ; last changed .