“There’s an incredible generosity to Noor’s cooking, capturing the spirit of so many cooks across the Middle East: bold gestures, big flavours, whole universes of food around a single table. Noor is also a unique talent; her cooking reflects the essence of home comfort, plus an unmatched innovative palate.” – Yotam Ottolenghi

In Lugma, Noor offers over 100 recipes as an ode to the food she grew up eating – traditional flavours and modern dishes from Bahrain, the surrounding Middle East, and beyond.

Lugma in Arabic means a bite. For Noor, as a chef and co-author of two Ottolenghi Test Kitchen cookbooks, her career has been centred around taking bites of food and analysing them to create the perfect dish. Raised in Bahrain and now based in London, Noor takes you on a culinary journey to celebrate her own food culture. Her recipes are inspired by the foods of her upbringing: the elaborate rice dishes and black limes of the Gulf, an abundance of herbs and sour flavours from Iran, liberal spice and chilli heat from India and the vibrant foods of the Levant – to create a unique collection of traditional and re-imagined dishes from the Middle East.

From Spring Time Fattoush and Stuffed Baby Aubergines to Slow-cooked Fenugreek Lamb with Pickled Chillies and Pistachio Cake with Labneh, these beautiful and inspirational recipes are full of love and warmth to be recreated in your own kitchen.

Flexible, flavour-packed dishes that all lend a little something ‘extra’ to your next meal.

It’s harissa butter on a roasted mushroom, then tossed with steamed veg or stuffed into a baked potato. It’s tamarind dressing on turmeric fried eggs, then drizzled over a steak the next day. Rounded off with a chapter on the ‘one basics’ of desserts for you to perfect and then adapt with your favourite flavour combinations, such as a basic mousse transformed into coffee mousse with tahini fudge.

This is cooking it forward, Ottolenghi style, filling your cupboards with adaptable homemade ingredients to add some oomph to every mealtime.

Praise for Ottolenghi Test Kitchen Shelf Love:

‘I absolutely love this book!’ – Nigella Lawson

‘You could cook out of this for years and never eat a dull meal.’ – Diana Henry, Telegraph

‘In this guide to making the most of what you have, it’s inspiration that shines, rather than fancy ingredients.’ – Observer Books of the Year