Iconic street food in Lebanon, you’re unlikely to visit the country without eating a za’atar manoushé. If you go past a bakery as doughy discs on wooden trays are shovelled into a gas fired oven, it’s hard to walk on without stopping. The aroma of the flat bread painted with za’atar mix and extra virgin olive oil is unforgettable. As is the taste. Since they’re hard to come by where we live, we’ve learnt how to make our own za’atar manoushé. And if we can do it, anyone can! 

Just as pizza making is straightforward, so is a making a manoushé. Practice helps, and it’s a good weekend activity. With some extra virgin olive oil for a bit of elasticity, we like to roll the dough thin so that it cooks quickly in the oven. The oven has to be hot to crisp up the flat bread, so keep an eye on the colour of the topping and catch it before it goes too dark. We’ve missed it on numerous occasions!

Manoushé, منقوشة, means painted, coloured or dappled in Arabic. Once you’ve rolled the pastry out, firmly stipple the dough with your fingers. This will help prevent the dough from inflating (and losing the delicious mixture) once in the oven. Then comes the painting bit. One of those silicon pastry brushes is ideal for this, as you can wash it easily afterwards, but the back of a spoon (Michelangelo would have approved!) will do too. With a bowl of za’atar mix blended with extra virgin olive oil to hand, paint the dough, not too close to the edge to minimise the inevitable leakage in the oven. 

makes 8 flatbreads