Arayes

Golden stuffed pitas with spiced meat and a delicious tahini accompaniment.

Dear reader.

This week, I’m sharing with you a brilliant recipe thought to be Lebanese in origin. Arayes is essentially pitas stuffed with a spiced meat mixture, then fried until golden.

Yes, it is precisely as delicious as it sounds – and more!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Vidar ☀️

Though it’s been part of Levantine food culture for a long time, arayes hasn’t been among the most famous of dishes from the region. Like many others, I picked it up from Israelis, who have truly adopted this dish. First in the northern parts, before spreading to the rest of the country and the Jewish diaspora across the world. In fact, virtually every Israeli cookbook author in my shelf offers up a recipe, but almost none of the Levantine cuisine ones. Unfortunately, while Israeli enthusiasm has brought the dish fame, it’s also erased much of its history in the process.

According to Claudia Roden, however, arayes is historically most closely linked to Lebanese cuisine. Upon inspecting the ingredient list, this seems fairly obvious. Pita bread, warming spices, tahini sauce. It doesn’t get much more quintessentially Levantine than this.

In her seminal book The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, first published in 1968, Roden writes that Lebanese restaurants used to serve wedges of arayes as a starter, but it also works well as a meal in its own right if served in bigger portions. In modern times, arayes is often talked about as a street food.

The dish itself is a simple as it is genious. Pita, stuffed with a spiced minced meat mixture, which is then fried, grilled or baked. Delicious!

There are two distinctly different ways of making arayes. One does as Claudia Roden, frying the meat first before stuffing it in the pitas, which are then fried again. The other adds raw meat mixture to the pitas. This means you need to fry the pitas a little longer to ensure the meat is completely cooked through. Personally, I prefer this latter method. Not only is it easier, but I also find the end result is juicier, and I don’t miss the caramelisation of fried meat in the final dish.

Tahini tarator is an excellent accompaniment to arayes. Recipe is included below.

A few tips for making arayes

To avoid the pita falling apart when stuffing, I like to reheat it for a few seconds in the microwave or on a hot pan. This makes it easier to work with. That said, it doesn’t matter that much if it cracks up in places. Just try to patch it up as well as you can. The meat should hold everything together anyway.

I like to flatten the meat to roughly half the size of the pita before stuffing. Any larger than this, and I find it’s difficult to get into the pita without either breaking up. I then flatten it as well as I can with my fingers before pressing it in the pan with a large pot. Any large, flat surface will do for this.

Pressing down the arayes during cooking.

I’ve used beef for this recipe, but feel free to use lamb or a mixture if you prefer.

Afiyet olsun!

Dinner | Turkish-inspired | 2–3 servings

Ingredients

4 pita breads
olive oil, for brushing the breads
fresh salad and vegetables, as desired

Meat filling

1 medium onion, quartered
2 garlic cloves
15 g (a generous handful) flat-leaf parsley (without thick stems)
400 g minced beef, or lamb (or a mixture)
1½ tsp Lebanese 7-spice, or ground allspice and a pinch of ground cinnamon
1 tsp pul biber (Aleppo pepper)
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Tahini tarator

100 ml (120 g) tahini (scant ½ cup)
3 Tbsp (45 g) lemon juice
c. 100 ml water (scant ½ cup)
1 garlic clove, finely mashed with a little salt
¼ tsp ground cumin
2–3 Tbsp finely chopped leaves of flat-leaf parsley (optional)
salt

How I make it (quick version)

1. Make the tahini tarator by mixing all ingredients.

2. Blend onion, garlic and parsley finely. Mix with minced meat and spices. Shape into rough, flat burgers.

3. Fill pita with meat mixture, flatten, then brush with olive oil. Fry until golden on both sides.

4. Cut into pieces. Serve with tahini tarator and salad.

How I make it

1. To make the tahini tarator, combine the tahini and lemon juice. Once thickened, add enough water until you have a consistency slightly thicker than double cream. Add garlic and cumin, then season to taste with salt. Top with flat-leaf parsley (traditional for tahini tarator, but optional for this recipe).

2. Add the onion, garlic and flat-leaf parsley to a food processor and chop until finely minced. Alternatively, chop very finely by hand. Add to a bowl together with the remaining ingredients for the meat filling. Mix until well combined. Divide into four equal parts and press into rough flat "burgers" approximately half the size of the pitas.

3. Make a slit in the side of each pita bread. Fill with the meat mixture, using your fingers to distribute the mixture evenly throughout the bread. Flatten the filled bread with a saucepan or similar. It's essential for the bread to be quite flat, otherwise, it'll take a long time to cook through. Brush the outside with olive oil. Repeat with the remaining pitas.

4. Heat a thick-bottomed frying pan over medium/low heat. Place as many arayes as you can fit (usually one or two, depending on the size of your pan). Press them gently down with a saucepan. Fry until golden on both sides and the meat is thoroughly cooked, 3–4 minutes per side. Repeat until you've cooked all of your arayes. If you like, keep warm in a 70°C (170°F) oven while preparing later batches.

5. Cut each arayes into two or more pieces, depending on whether you serve them as a main course or as a snack or meze. Serve immediately with tahini tarator and salad/vegetables.

Serving suggestion

Serve them in quarters or sixths as a snack or hot meze alongside a few other dishes, or as a whole piece as a main course. You’ll need 1–1½ arayes per person if serving as a main dish (big eaters will want two). In either case, offer up plenty of fresh salad and cut vegetables alongside. I like mild green salad leaves and a couple of seasonal vegetables. Tomato and cucumber (as pictured) in summer, carrot and turnips or beetroots in winter.

Notes

The recipe was developed using European measurements. US measurements and How I make it (quick version) have been added with the assistance of ChatGPT, but edited for quality and accuracy by me.