Jordanian mansaf — lamb over rice and flatbread with jameed yogurt sauce and toasted nuts.

Mansaf: How to Cook Jordan's National Dish

Mansaf is more than Jordan's national dish — it's how the country marks weddings, holidays, and welcome. Tender lamb is cooked in a tangy sauce of jameed (dried fermented yogurt), spooned over rice and thin shrak bread, and scattered with toasted nuts. We ship from Amman, so this is a dish close to home for us, and one worth making properly.

What makes mansaf, mansaf

The soul of the dish is jameed — hard, dried yogurt that's soaked and dissolved into a sharp, savoury sauce unlike anything else. The spicing is warm and restrained so the jameed and lamb stay in front. Getting the sauce smooth, and not letting it split, is the whole skill.

Ingredients (serves 5–6)

  • 1.5 kg lamb on the bone, cut into pieces
  • 2–3 pieces jameed (or 500 g jameed paste), soaked overnight
  • 2–3 tbsp mansaf spice blend
  • 1 onion
  • 3 cups rice, cooked
  • 2 large shrak or markook flatbreads
  • ½ cup toasted almonds and pine nuts
  • Ghee, salt to taste

Method

  1. Soak the jameed overnight, then blend with its water until smooth and lump-free. Strain.
  2. Simmer the lamb with the onion, 1–2 tbsp mansaf spice, and salt until tender, skimming the broth.
  3. Add the jameed liquid to the pot. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring in one direction continuously — this stops it splitting — and cook 20–30 minutes until glossy.
  4. Line a large platter with the flatbread, moisten with a little sauce, then spread the rice over it.
  5. Arrange the lamb on top, ladle over plenty of the jameed sauce, and finish with toasted nuts. Serve the extra sauce alongside.

Tips

  • Stir the jameed sauce constantly and in one direction as it heats — this is the classic trick to keep it from curdling.
  • Keep the spicing gentle. Mansaf should taste of lamb and jameed first; the blend is there to round, not dominate.
  • Serve hot and communal — mansaf is traditionally shared from one platter.

The blend that rounds it out

A good mansaf spice blend gives the broth its warm, savoury backbone without fighting the jameed. Freshly blended spices make a noticeable difference in a dish this simple.

👉 Shop MELevant Mansaf Spice Blend

Explore the wider family in our guide to Middle Eastern spice blends.

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