• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to footer navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

RecipeTin Eats

Fast Prep, Big Flavours

Small book

My cookbook "Dinner" now available!

  • My RecipeTin
  • My cookbook!
  • Recipes
  • Recipes By Category
    • Mains
      • Chicken
        • Chicken mince
      • Beef Recipes
        • Ground Beef (Mince)
      • Pork
      • Lamb
      • Turkey
      • Shrimp / Prawns
      • Salmon
      • Fish
      • Salad Meals
    • Quick and Easy
    • Soups
    • One Pot
    • Stews
    • Slow Cooker
    • Sides
      • All
      • Vegetables
      • Show Off Salads
      • Rice (all)
      • Fried rice recipes
      • Rice (plain)
      • Potato
    • Pasta
      • All
      • Pasta bakes
      • Pasta salads
    • Sweet
      • Cakes
      • Cheesecakes
      • Cupcakes & Muffins
      • Cookies
      • Puddings & Cosy Desserts
      • Bite Size
      • Pies
      • Slices & Bars
      • Frosting & Icing
      • Ice cream
    • Cuisine
      • Asian
        • All
        • Stir fries
        • Noodles
        • Soups
        • Chinese
        • Japanese
        • Korean
        • Thai
        • Vietnamese
      • French
      • Greek
      • Indian
      • Italian
      • Mediterranean
      • Mexican
      • Middle Eastern
      • South American
    • Dietary
      • Gluten Free
      • Low Calorie
      • Vegetarian
    • Other Categories
      • BBQ
      • Breakfast
      • Burgers
      • Cocktails
      • Party Foods
      • Rice Recipes
      • Roasts
      • Sandwiches & Sliders
  • Collections
  • About
    • Me
    • RecipeTin Meals
    • Free Recipe Books
    • Contact
    • Food Bloggers Central
    • Nitty Gritty
      • Policy: Use of Recipes & Images
      • Privacy & Disclosure
Home Collections Australia Day!

Arabian Feast

By:Nagi
Published:11 Dec '14Updated:17 Apr '19
85 Comments

An Arabian Feast – 7 dishes prepared in just 1 hour. Stress free, crowd pleasing, exotic, super cost efficient and make ahead. Oh, and incidentally gluten free. I can’t think of a single reason why you shouldn’t try this menu for the next time you have a party!

Table filled with dishes for an Arabian Feast / Middle Eastern Menu, with dishes including Chicken Shawarma, lamb kaftas, hummus, chickpea salad.

“An Arabian Feast – 7 dishes, 1 hour of preparation, cost efficient, easy and make ahead. My favourite menu for feeding a crowd!”

This menu will be very familiar to my friends because it is my “go to” spread when I’m entertaining 12+ people. I recently single handedly prepared this for 50 people (though this did take more than 1 hour as I had to make 4x the quantity of each dish!). I started writing all the reasons why I love this menu and it started to get really lengthy so I thought it would be more efficient to just list the high points:

  • Fast and easy – it takes 1 hour to prepare 3 starters, 2 meat dishes, 2 salads + 1 sauce which can be prepared the day before. Then all that’s required to be done is to grill the meat just before serving (or you can even grill ahead, the meat stays really moist);

  • Prepare ahead – other than grilling the meat, everything can be made ahead by a day (or more in most cases);

  • Everyday Ingredients & Cost efficient – all the ingredients are everyday ingredients you can get at any supermarket. Plus there are common ingredients across all the dishes. This menu will feed 8 people very generously (12 people if you increase the lamb/chicken by 50%) and costs around A$40 – $45 (~ US$30 – $35) which I think is great value for a feast like this;

  • Pantry Essentials – I think you’ll be surprised how many of the spices and herbs you already have in your pantry. Though Middle Eastern food is often thought of as quite “exotic”, the most common spices are things like cumin, coriander and paprika which are used in many cuisines including Mexican, Spanish and Asian cuisine;

  • Unique and exotic – I think this is quite a unique menu. It’s quite modern too. These dishes are inspired by chefs like Yotam Ottolenghi and Karen Martini, both of whom are known for their contemporary (and traditional) Middle Eastern and Arabic dishes;

  • Eat with your hands – you can get away with serving this with just napkins which is really convenient when hosting large numbers! If you are using large pieces of lebanese bread (which I was), just cut them into quarters so they are easy to make and hold in your hand rather than needing a plate;

  • Flavour Explosions and Freshness – this menu has a balance of “flavour explosions” (the chicken and kebabs), rich and creamy (hummus and marinated feta) and freshness (the salads); and

  • Fragrant and Colourful – when it comes to food, we smell first then we eat with our eyes. Every single time without fail, someone comments on the smell when the meat is grilling! And the bright fresh colours always brings a smile to my face!

“All these dishes are made with everyday ingredients you can get from any supermarket. I think you’ll be surprised how many of the spices you already have in your pantry.”

You will be amazed how fast and easy it is to prepare this feast! This is what’s on the menu (click for the recipe):

TO NIBBLE

Arabian Feast Menu (1 hr prep): Classic Hummus  Arabian Feast Menu (1 hr prep): Chargrilled Vegetable Platter  Arabian Feast Menu (1 hr prep): Herb Chili Marinated Feta

1. Hummus (5 minutes) –  just whizz up chick peas, tahini (sesame paste – usually in the spreads or health food section of your supermarket), olive oil, garlic and lemon juice until smooth. Can be made ahead up to 2 days (keeps for a week, but is best made closer to serving day).

2. Chargrilled Vegetable Platter (Homemade Vegetable “Antipasto”) (15 minutes) – Slice vegetables of choice, cook until charred on grill or stove with just salt, pepper and olive oil. Make ahead (day before) or on the day. Serve drizzled with olive oil and Yoghurt Sauce on the side.

3. Herb & Chili Marinated Feta (5 minutes) – dice feta into cubes, drizzle over olive oil, crushed garlic and your choice of herbs, finely chopped chili, lemon zest. I like to use a soft feta (like Danish feta) so it can easily be spread onto bread with a knife, but sometimes I make it with hard Greek feta too. Make ahead (day before) or on the day.

Serve with pita / lebanese bread.

FOR THE MEN TO GRILL

Arabian Feast Menu (1 hr prep): Chicken Sharwarma  Arabian Feast Menu (1 hr prep): Lamb Koftas

4. Chicken Sharwarma (5 minutes prep) – thigh fillets marinated overnight in spices, olive oil and lemon juice. The spice mix marinade will only take you minutes to make. Then on the day, grill, rest then slice to serve on pita bread with salad.

5. Lamb Koftas (10 minutes prep) – mix ground lamb (mince), spices and breadcrumbs. Shape into sausages and thread onto skewers. Can be prepared ahead.

Stuff into pita bread with salad and a drizzle of Yoghurt Sauce (included in the Chicken Sharwarma, Lamb Koftas and Chargrilled Vegetable Platter recipes).

BECAUSE WE MUST HAVE GREENS

….and cater for Vegetarians….

Arabian Feast Menu (1 hr prep): Spiced Chickpea Salad   Arabian Feast (1 hr prep): Shredded Red Cabbage, Carrot and Mint Salad

Both these salads are great for stuffing into pita breads with the grilled meat. The chickpea salad is a great meat free alternative for stuffing into pita breads.

6. Spiced Chickpea Chopped Salad (15 minutes) – chopped tomato, cucumber and red onion topped with chickpeas coated in a spice mix, herbs and a fresh lemon zest dressing. The dressing and chickpeas can be made the day before but the salad is best chopped on the day. I have made it up to 12 hours before serving and it was fine. The tip to make ahead is to scoop out the watery centre of the tomatoes before chopping them. This helps keep the salad fresh for longer.

7. Shredded Cabbage, Carrot and Mint Salad (10 minutes) – if you have a tool to julienne the carrots (I slice the cabbage by hand), this takes just 5 minutes to chop.

A SWEET ENDING

Since publishing this post, I’ve shared a couple of recipes that will fit right into an Arabian feast – Baklava and a Persian Love Cake, a syrup soaked semolina cake.

While the Baklava does take time to assemble, it is actually quite straight forward and is an impressive dessert that lasts for days – and feeds a crowd! The Semolina Cake is very straight forward to make – and the best part isn’t pouring the hot syrup over, it’s poking tons and tons of holes in the surface of the cake!!

Desserts for Arabian Middle Eastern Meal - Baklava and Semolina Cake

Notes

* All the savoury recipes are entirely gluten free. Use gluten free flatbreads.

* The same Yoghurt Sauce recipe is used for the Chargrilled Vegetable Platter, Chicken Sharwarma and Lamb Koftas. So just make one big batch. This also saves on preparation time.

So truth be told, the total preparation time adds up to 1 hour and 5 minutes, but I rounded it down to 1 hour! Love to hear what you think! Drop a comment below if you have any comments at all. (Note: excludes desserts which I subsequently added)

Happy chopping, marinating and grilling! – Nagi

Table filled with dishes for an Arabian Feast / Middle Eastern Menu, with dishes including Chicken Shawarma, lamb kaftas, hummus, chickpea salad.

Previous Post
Grilled Vegetables Platter
Next Post
Garlic Butter Warm Red Cabbage Salad

Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!

Read More

Free Recipe eBooks

Join my free email list to receive THREE free cookbooks!

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Cooked this? Rate this recipe!




85 Comments

  1. Caroline says

    May 18, 2022 at 4:35 am

    Good evening lovely lady….I’d love to do this feast for friends next month and I’m on my knees asking if you would pretty please with flowers on top convert all the recipes that haven’t been done already in this amazing looking feast into metric for me 🙏❤️

    Reply
    • Kerry says

      July 17, 2022 at 8:27 pm

      Sorry, maybe a bit late for this comment. But if you go to the top of the recipes there is an option for metric or cups, you can also change how many portions.

      Reply
      • Caroline says

        July 18, 2022 at 1:52 am

        Hi Kerry
        Thanks for your reply. Not all the recipes have the option to change to metric but I winged it on the day and it was amazing.
        Definitely gonna to do it again
        Xx

        Reply
  2. Kerry says

    April 18, 2022 at 11:13 am

    I keep coming back to the recipes in this section. I made an Arabian feast for Easter 2022. Kofta, shawarma, rice pilaf, hummus, yoghurt sauce and the cabbage salad. Fantastic thank you Nagi.

    Reply
  3. Amanda says

    October 8, 2021 at 11:02 pm

    Really loved the recipes, but I was able to grill my own meat without needing to bring in a man. Is it the 1950s here? Wow.

    Reply
    • karen says

      October 21, 2021 at 10:22 pm

      Nah, love, it’s just Aussie humour.

      Reply
Older Comments

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

Free Recipe eBooks

Join my free email list to receive THREE free cookbooks!

Meet Dozer

Official taste tester of RecipeTin Eats! Meet Dozer
As Featured On

What's for Dinner?

Close up of beef enchiladas in a baking dish, fresh out of the oven

Beef Enchiladas

Butter Chicken served over basmati rice in a bowl, ready to be served

Butter Chicken

Overhead photo of 2 black bowls with Chinese Chicken Salad with Asian Dressing, ready to be eaten

Chinese Chicken Salad

Salisbury Steak recipe in skillet.

Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy

Vietnamese Coconut Caramel Chicken - 7 ingredient magic. The coconut fragrance is heavenly! recipetineats.com

Vietnamese Coconut Caramel Chicken

Fast prep. Big flavours!

Never miss a recipe

Back to Top
  • Related
  • RecipeTin Japan
  • Food Bloggers Center
  • Help
  • Contact Us
  • Image Use
  • Privacy Policy & Terms
Site Credits Maintained by Zao Designed by Melissa Rose Design Developed by Once Coupled © RecipeTin Eats 2023 · All Rights Reserved Back to Top