Libyan cuisine is the cooking traditions, practices, foods and dishes associated with the country of Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

. The cuisine derives much from the culinary traditions of the Mediterranean and North Africa

North African cuisine

North Africa, the northernmost part of Africa along the Mediterranean Sea includes the nations of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia...

, with an Italian

Italian cuisine

Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...

 influence, a legacy from the days when Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

 was an Italian colony. One of the most popular Libyan dishes is a thick highly-spiced soup, known simply as Sharba Libiya, or Libyan soup. Sharba Libiya contains many of the ingredients of many other Libyan dishes, including onion

Onion

The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...

s, tomato

Tomato

The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...

es, lamb (or chicken

Chicken (food)

Chicken is the most common type of poultry in the world, and is prepared as food in a wide variety of ways, varying by region and culture.- History :...

), chilies, cayenne pepper

Cayenne pepper

The cayenne pepper—also known as the Guinea spice,cow-horn pepper, aleva, bird pepper,or, especially in its powdered form, red pepper—is a red, hot chili pepper used to flavor dishes and for medicinal purposes. Named for the city of Cayenne in French Guiana, it is a cultivar of Capsicum annuum...

, saffron

Saffron

Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Crocus is a genus in the family Iridaceae. Each saffron crocus grows to and bears up to four flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas, which are each the distal end of a carpel...

, chickpea

Chickpea

The chickpea is a legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae...

s, mint

MiNT

MiNT is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST and its successors. Together with the free system components fVDI , XaAES , and TeraDesk , MiNT provides a free TOS compatible replacement OS that is capable of multitasking.MiNT was originally released by Eric Smith as...

, cilantro and parsley

Parsley

Parsley is a species of Petroselinum in the family Apiaceae, native to the central Mediterranean region , naturalized elsewhere in Europe, and widely cultivated as an herb, a spice and a vegetable.- Description :Garden parsley is a bright green hairless biennial herbaceous plant in temperate...

. Pork

Pork

Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....

 consumption is forbidden in accordance with Sharia

Sharia

Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...

, religious laws of Islam. Tripoli

Tripoli

Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...

 is Libya's capital, and the cuisine here is particularly influenced by Italian cuisine. Pasta

Pasta

Pasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, now of worldwide renown. It takes the form of unleavened dough, made in Italy, mostly of durum wheat , water and sometimes eggs. Pasta comes in a variety of different shapes that serve for both decoration and to act as a carrier for the...

 is common, and many seafood

Seafood

Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...

 dishes are available. Southern Libya cuisine is more traditionally Arab. Common fruits and vegetables include figs

Common fig

The Common fig is a deciduous tree growing to heights of up to 6 m in the genus Ficus from the family Moraceae known as Common fig tree. It is a temperate species native to the Middle East.-Description:...

, dates, orange

Orange (fruit)

An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....

s, apricot

Apricot

The apricot, Prunus armeniaca, is a species of Prunus, classified with the plum in the subgenus Prunus. The native range is somewhat uncertain due to its extensive prehistoric cultivation.- Description :...

s and olive

Olive

The olive , Olea europaea), is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin as well as northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea.Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the...

s.

Common foods and dishes

Bazin

Bazeen

Bazeen is a starchy Libyan food. The main ingredient is barley flour; this is sometimes mixed with wheat flour. Bazeen is typically served with a tomato sauce, eggs, potatoes and mutton....

 is a common Libyan food made with barley

Barley

Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...

 flour and a little plain flour, which is then formed into a rounded, smooth dome placed in the middle of the dish. The sauce around the dough is made by frying chopped onions with lamb meat, adding turmeric, salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper, fenugreek, sweet paprika, and tomato paste. Potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

es may also be added, egg

Egg (food)

Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

s are boiled and arranged around the dish, and the dish is often served with lemon and fresh or pickled chillies known as amsayar. Batatan mubatana (filled potato) is another popular dish in Libyan cuisine that consists of fried potato pieces filled with spiced minced meat and covered with egg and breadcrumbs.

Additional common foods and dishes include:

• Asida
  Asida
  Asida is an Arab dish made up of a cooked wheat flour lump of dough, sometimes with added butter or honey. Similar to gruel or porridge, it is eaten in many Arab and North African countries. It is usually eaten by hand, without the use of utensils...
  
   is an Arab dish made up of a cooked wheat flour lump of dough, sometimes with added butter or honey.
• Bureek, turnovers
  Turnover (food)
  A turnover is a kind of pastry made by placing a filling on a piece of dough, folding the dough over, and sealing it. Turnovers can be sweet or savory and are often made as a sort of portable meal or dessert, similar to a sandwich....
  
  
• Couscous
  Couscous
  Couscous is a Berber dish of semolina traditionally served with a meat or vegetable stew spooned over it. Couscous is a staple food throughout Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.-Etymology:...
  
  , a North African dish of semolina
  Semolina
  Semolina is the coarse, purified wheat middlings of durum wheat used in making pasta, and also used for breakfast cereals and puddings. Semolina is also used to designate coarse middlings from other varieties of wheat, and from other grains such as rice and corn.-Name:The term semolina derives from...
  
  
• Bread
  Bread
  Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
  
  s
• Harissa
  Harissa
  Harissa is a Tunisian hot chili sauce commonly eaten in North Africa whose main ingredients are piri piri , serrano peppers and other hot chili peppers and spices such as garlic paste, coriander, red chili powder, caraway as well as some vegetable or olive oil...
  
   is hot chili sauce commonly eaten in North Africa
  North Africa
  North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
  
  . Main ingredients include bird's eye chili peppers, serrano pepper
  Serrano pepper
  The serrano pepper is a type of chili pepper that originated in the mountainous regions of the Mexican states of Puebla and Hidalgo. The name of the pepper is a reference to the mountains of these regions....
  
  s and other hot chillis
  Chili pepper
  Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...
  
   and spices such as garlic paste, coriander
  Coriander
  Coriander is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae. Coriander is native to southern Europe and North Africa to southwestern Asia. It is a soft, hairless plant growing to tall. The leaves are variable in shape, broadly lobed at the base of the plant, and slender and feathery higher on the...
  
  , red chili powder, caraway
  Caraway
  Caraway also known as meridian fennel, or Persian cumin is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe and Northern Africa....
  
   and olive oil
  Olive oil
  Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
  
  .
• Hassaa, a gravy
  Gravy
  Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces and gravy is often thicker than in Britain...
  
  
• Magrood, Date-filled cookie
  Cookie
  In the United States and Canada, a cookie is a small, flat, baked treat, usually containing fat, flour, eggs and sugar. In most English-speaking countries outside North America, the most common word for this is biscuit; in many regions both terms are used, while in others the two words have...
  
  s and Ghreyba, butter cookies
• Mhalbiya, a rice pudding
• Mutton , meat of an adult sheep
• Rub is a thick dark brown, very sweet syrup extracted from dates or carob that is used widely in Libya, usually with Asida
• Shakshouka
  Shakshouka
  Shakshouka is a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, onions, often spiced with cumin. It is believed to have Algerian and Tunisian origins.-Etymology:...
  
   is prepared using aged mutton or lamb jerky
  Jerky
  Jerky can refer to:*Jerky, a type of dried meat*The Jerky Boys, a prank phone call performance groupSee also*Jerk...
  
   as the meat base of the meal, and is considered a traditional breakfast meal.
• Sherba, lamb and vegetable soup with mint and tomato paste
• Tajeen, spiced lamb with a tomato and paprika sauce
• Usban
  Usban
  Usban Several varieties of usban exist throughout Libya, and the herbs and spices used can vary but typically include cayenne pepper, black pepper, turmeric and cinnamon, as well as dried mint, parsley and dill. This is added to spring onion, tomato, vegetable oil and rice. The sheep's intestines...
  
  , a traditional Libyan sausage
  Sausage
  A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...
  
  

Beverages

All alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

ic drinks have been banned in Libya since 1969, in accordance with Sharia, religious laws of Islam. However, consuming alcohol is comparatively common, especially a locally produced distilled spirit called boha, which is often sold on the black market. The exact composition and strength of boha varies from maker to maker, and even from batch to batch, but it is often distilled from strawberries or raw sugar. It is commonly consumed diluted with soft drinks, especially bitter Kas which can disguise its sometimes unpleasant taste, and reduce the smell of alcohol on the drinker's breath.

Libyan tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

 is a thick beverage served in a small glass, often accompanied by peanut

Peanut

The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...

s. Regular American/British coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 is available and in Libya is known as "Nescafé" (a misnomer). Soft drinks and bottled water

Bottled water

Bottled water is drinking water packaged in plastic or glass water bottles. Bottled water may be carbonated or not...

are also consumed. Mint tea is also a popular drink.

External links

• "Libyan Cuisine from Wikia recipes wiki. Accessed June 2011.