Our cookbook of the week is
Lugma
by Bahrain-born, London-based cook, author and recipe developer Noor Murad.
Jump to the recipes:
‘cheese and olives’
(halloumi with spicy olives and walnuts),
springtime fattoush
and
coffee, cardamom and chipotle-rubbed lamb chops
.
Noor Murad
is used to straddling two worlds. Growing up in Bahrain, an island country in the Persian Gulf, with an Arab dad and British mom, machboos and saloonat dajaj were as likely to be on her family’s table as bolognese and mushroom risotto.
Her mother, a self-taught cook, found far-ranging inspiration in recipes by authors such as
Anissa Helou
and
Madhur Jaffrey
. “My curiosity about cooking was more than just the food of Bahrain. It was everything,” says Murad. “I was always curious about other cuisines because I knew mine so well.”
In her cookbook debut, Lugma (Quadrille, 2025), Murad features more than 100 recipes from Bahrain and its neighbouring countries “with a slightly Westernized take, thanks to my English roots.” Writing the book in London, England, gave her the distance she needed to reconnect with her upbringing.
“Being away from home helps pull out the stories even more because you have a lot more time to reflect when there’s some distance between you and all these nostalgic memories. Being able to sit down and write, it comes out of you. And sometimes there are all these suppressed memories, and then all of a sudden, (you put) pen to paper, and everything appears.”
Murad started working in kitchens at 16, as a summer job in hotel banquets. After studying at the Culinary Institute of America and working in restaurants in New York and Bahrain, in 2016, she moved to London for a job at
Ottolenghi Spitalfields
. Murad went on to co-author two cookbooks with Yotam Ottolenghi —
Shelf Love
(2021) and
Extra Good Things
(2022) — and ran the
Ottolenghi Test Kitchen
until April 2023, when she left and started writing Lugma.
After being part of the Ottolenghi empire, Murad sees Lugma as “a reflection of me and my cooking, and a chance to find my feet in the food world and use my voice in my own personal way.”
Although Murad’s palate was well-versed in the food of the Gulf, it wasn’t something she sought to make. “It wasn’t until I started working at Ottolenghi in London that I noticed this gap in Middle Eastern food. I was like, ‘OK, there’s a lot of hummus, a lot of falafel, a lot of shakshuka — all the hits. But there’s not much of my food from my part of the Middle East.’”
She adds that more voices need to be added to the conversation about the Middle East and its people, history and heritage. “It’s such a rich region — very colourful and very diverse. And I think the more we can talk about this and invite these conversations, the better. And what better way to do it than through food? It’s the most universal language we can all understand and speak.”
Writing Lugma, Murad dove deep into her memories, reflecting on and recreating dishes she didn’t necessarily have recipes for. She says that in Bahrain, many aren’t written down but relayed by demonstration — and every house has its way of doing things. “It was a lot of relying on my palate, tastes and memories to bring things back to life.”
Murad has always seen herself as having one foot in the East and the other in the West. As a chef, she naturally likes to experiment with different foods. With each of Lugma’s recipes, she asked herself, “Does this fit? Should I change it? Should I tweak it? Should I keep it more traditional?” The answer wasn’t always easy.
“It really made me question, ‘What are the recipes I want to put into this book?’ And also, ‘What do I want to say, and what do I want to showcase?’ So I tried to balance traditional and reimagined dishes and then really hone into what it means to be a child of two cultures.”
Lugma means “a bite” or “a mouthful” in Arabic. Murad often thought of her grandfather while writing the book. He was skilled at eating with his hands, creating the perfect mouthful of rice, meat and chili sauce between his fingers. “That’s kind of what inspired the book,” says Murad. “I love eating with my hands, and I think that making someone a bite of something is a way of showing them that you love them.”
Murad didn’t set out to write a Bahraini book, but as time passed, she realized how much the island had shaped her palate and made her who she was. At the heart of Lugma is the generosity of hospitality in her Bahraini home, just 50 kilometres long (the same size as Singapore), with a fascinating food culture.
“I wanted to show how this small but mighty island pulls from so many different influences. Through history, it was a seaport and centre of trade. Because it was so small, it almost created its own identity by pulling on other identities. So this fusion of Arabic, Persian, Indian flavours all rolled into one is so unique. That’s what I wanted to shout about from my corner of the Middle East.”
‘CHEESE AND OLIVES’: HALLOUMI WITH SPICY OLIVES AND WALNUTS
Serves:
4
For the salsa:
4 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp coriander seeds, roughly crushed using a pestle and mortar
1 tsp Aleppo chili flakes
70 g (2 1/2 oz) jarred red (bell) peppers, very finely chopped
1 tbsp rose harissa
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp maple syrup
50 g (1 3/4 oz) walnuts, well toasted and roughly chopped into 1-cm (1/2-in) pieces
70 g (2 1/2 oz) pitted Nocellara (Castelvetrano) olives, roughly chopped
5 g (1/8 oz) mint leaves, roughly chopped
10 g (1/4 oz) parsley leaves, roughly chopped
2 tsp pomegranate molasses
For the halloumi:
2 x 225 g (8 oz) blocks of halloumi, drained
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp maple syrup
Step 1
Make the salsa by adding the oil and garlic to a small frying pan and placing it over a medium heat. Cook until beginning to bubble and smell fragrant, about 1 1/2 minutes, then add the coriander seeds and chili and cook for about 30 seconds more. Stir in the peppers, harissa, vinegar and maple syrup and cook for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool to room temperature, then transfer to a large bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mix to combine.
Step 2
Preheat the oven to 180C convection (200C/400F).
Step 3
Halve each of the halloumi blocks lengthways (so they are the same shape, but thinner now) to give you four rectangular pieces. Pat them well dry. Use a small sharp knife to make a crisscross pattern across one side of each piece, with incisions about 1.5-cm (5/8-in) deep.
Step 4
Heat the oil in a medium frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the halloumi pieces and fry until nicely golden on both sides, about 4-5 minutes in total. Transfer to a small tray, crisscross side up, and pour over the excess oil left in the pan, followed by the maple syrup. Bake for 7 minutes, or until really nicely softened through the centre.
Step 5
Transfer to a plate, pouring over any juices left in the tray, then spoon over the salsa. Serve right away, while the halloumi is still warm.
SPRINGTIME FATTOUSH
Serves:
2-4, as a side
150 g (5 1/2 oz) red round radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced into rounds
2 celery sticks, trimmed, stringy bits peeled, then thinly sliced at a slight angle (120 g/4 1/4 oz)
150 g (5 1/2 oz) fresh or frozen fava beans, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes, skins removed (100 g/3 1/2 oz)
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced into half-moons (50 g/1 3/4 oz)
90 g (3 1/4 oz) pomegranate seeds (about 1/2 large pomegranate)
10 g (1/4 oz) mint leaves, roughly torn
10 g (1/4 oz) parsley leaves, picked
1 tbsp olive oil, plus an extra 2 tsp to serve
2 tsp lemon juice
3/4 tsp sumac, plus an extra 1/2 tsp to serve
2 tsp pomegranate molasses
For the fried pita:
500 mL (2 cups) vegetable oil, for deep frying
2 Lebanese pitas, opened up, then cut into 2.5-3-cm (1-1 1/4-in) cubes (see note)
Fine sea salt
Step 1
First, fry the pitas. Line a tray with paper towels. Add the vegetable oil to a small, high-sided saucepan and place it over a medium-high heat. Test the oil is hot enough by dropping in a cube of pita — it should start to sizzle but not brown immediately. Working in two batches, fry the pita cubes for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently with a slotted spoon, until golden. Transfer to the lined tray and sprinkle with a little salt. Repeat with the second batch. Set aside to cool and crisp up completely (save the oil for another use).
Step 2
In a large mixing bowl, combine the radishes, celery, fava beans, onion, pomegranate and herbs.
Step 3
In a small bowl, whisk together the tablespoon of olive oil, the lemon juice, 3/4 teaspoon of sumac and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Step 4
Just before serving, pour the dressing over the radish mixture and season with another 1/4 teaspoon salt. Toss everything together, then transfer to a shallow bowl and pile as much of the pita in the centre as you like, serving any extra in a bowl alongside. Sprinkle over the extra sumac, then drizzle with the pomegranate molasses and extra oil.
Note:
Feel free to bake the pita here instead of frying, if you prefer — just make sure you open the pita pockets up first, for thin, crisp pieces. If you can’t find Lebanese pitas (khobez Lebnani), which are thin and flat, then flour tortillas will work just as well.
COFFEE, CARDAMOM AND CHIPOTLE-RUBBED LAMB CHOPS
Serves:
4
Marinating time:
1-3 hours
8 lamb cutlets
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lemon
4 spring onions (scallions), trimmed and sliced lengthways in half (60 g/2 1/4 oz)
1 green chili, left whole
Fine sea salt
For the rub:
1 tbsp finely ground coffee beans
Seeds from 15 cardamom pods, finely crushed
1 tsp cumin seeds, finely crushed using a pestle and mortar
5 g (1/8 oz) dried chipotle, stem and seeds removed, finely crushed, or 1 1/4 tsp chipotle chili flakes
3/4 tsp paprika
1 tsp soft light brown sugar
For the sumac onions:
1/2 red onion (75 g/2 1/2 oz), finely sliced
2 tsp sumac
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Step 1
Combine all the ingredients for the rub in a medium bowl. Pat the lamb well dry on paper towels and season all over with 3/4 teaspoon salt. Coat well with the rub, then leave to marinate at room temperature for 1 hour, or refrigerated for up to 3 hours (but not much longer).
Step 2
Make the onions by placing all the ingredients in a bowl with a pinch of salt and using your fingers to massage everything together. Set aside to pickle gently while the lamb is marinating (you can do this hours ahead).
Step 3
If you’ve refrigerated the lamb, be sure to bring it back up to room temperature before cooking. When ready, place a large cast-iron sauté pan over a medium-high heat. Toss the lamb with the oil. Once the pan is hot, cook the cutlets for 2-3 minutes on each side, for medium-rare. Adjust the cook time if you prefer your cutlets more or less well done (or if they’re smaller or larger in size). Arrange them on a serving plate and pour over all but a couple teaspoons of the fat left in the pan, then squeeze over the 1/2 lemon.
Step 4
Return the pan to a medium-high heat with the spring onions, chili and a tiny pinch of salt and cook for about 3 minutes, flipping over as necessary, until softened and lightly browned. Pile the spring onions onto one side of the serving plate with the whole green chili alongside. Top the cutlets with the sumac onions and serve right away.
Recipes and images excerpted with permission from
Lugma
by Noor Murad, published by Quadrille. Photography by Matt Russell.
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