Name: The Palestinian upside-down triumph of rice (Maqluba)
Yield: Serves 6–8
Cuisine: Jordanian
Ingredients: 2 onions, sliced; ½ cup (125 ml) olive oil; 1 small cauliflower (about 600–800 g/1 lb 5 oz–1 lb 12 oz), split into florets; ½ teaspoon ground cumin; 2½ cups (500 g) basmati rice; 2 tablespoons tomato paste (concentrated purée); 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) carrots, cut into thick matchsticks; 4 teaspoons salt; 100 g (3½ oz) peeled and boiled (or roasted) chestnuts; 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon or Lebanese seven-spice (baharat); 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; ½ of a whole nutmeg, grated

Preparation info

Serves
6–8

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Pomegranates & Artichokes

By Saghar Setareh

Published 2023

About

There are many rice and pilaf recipes in the Levant, most with a selection of warm spices, often with a range of fried vegetables, and almost always with a kind of meat — with chicken or lamb being the most frequent choices.

Maqluba, which literally translates as ‘upside down’, is a Palestinian specialty, loved and cooked all over the Arab world. Of the three rice moulds in this book — the other two being the Iranian tahchin, and the