Creamy Moghli Lebanese Dessert (Meghli)

Moghli (meghli), is a humble spiced vegan rice pudding topped with soaked nuts and desiccated coconut. This easy and delicious Lebanese dessert is naturally sweetened.

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Jump to:

• What is Meghli?
• 😋Why you’ll love this recipe
• ✔️What You’ll Need
• 🥘Ingredient Notes
• 🔪How to Make Meghli
• 🍳Variations
• 💭Pro Tips
• FAQ
• 🥘Related recipes
• Creamy Moghli Lebanese Dessert (Meghli)

What is Meghli?

Moghli is said as ‘meghli’ in the Lebanese accent. It is the word for ‘boiled’ in Arabic. Pronounced as megh-lee.

Meghli is a Lebanese dessert typically reserved for special occasions such as heralding a newborn or Christmas.

This spiced rice pudding is made for the new mother as it is believed to help with the milk production via the spices within; cinnamon, caraway and anise.

Pre-soaked nuts also assist with digestion and a boost of protein, the same concept as eating soaked almonds.

For guests who are visiting the newborn and mother, you can expect to be served this wonderful Lebanese dessert.

😋Why you’ll love this recipe

• Very flavorsome
• It’s a gluten-free dairy free dessert
• Made with simple ingredients
• It's a healthier version - free from processed sugar

✔️What You’ll Need

Notes on some of the ingredients, the full list of ingredients and their measurements can be found in the recipe card below.

🥘Ingredient Notes

Nuts - generally a combination of walnuts, almonds (affliate link), pistachio and pine nuts (affiliate link) are used.

You can however choose to only use the ones you prefer. Use only raw nuts with not flavourings.

These should be soaked overnight, in particular walnuts and almonds. I recommend if you are using whole pistachios to overnight soak these in water, if you are using chopped pistachio you can add these without soaking.

All soaked nuts should be peel free - see pro tips below.

Spices - a combination of caraway (affiliate link) and cinnamon (affiliate link) is an excellent flavour in itself, you can also add anise seed. These spices are ground. Either purchase ground up or use a spice grinder to grind whole seeds. Do not skimp on the spices as they are the star flavouring.

Maple syrup (affiliate link) - this Lebanese dessert normally calls for white sugar, however, I have substituted this.

🔪How to Make Meghli

Step 1 - Place all nuts in separate soaking containers, fill with water, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Step 2 - Combine all dry ingredients in a pot.

Step 3 - Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and whisk through.

Step 4 - Turn heat on medium and whisk continuously until it thickens. Once thickened, turn off the heat and immediately pour into individual serving glasses (see notes). Allow these to cool down to room temperature.

Step 5 - Add a layer of desiccated coconut and nuts on top. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate. Serve meghli cold.

🍳Variations

Sultanas - if you like the taste of sultanas (currents or raisins (affiliate link)) you could add this as part of the meghli toppings

💭Pro Tips

Almonds - for larger almonds (affiliate link) - separate the two halves. For smaller almonds use as-is (as per video) You can purchase already peeled whole almonds or almonds with skin. If purchasing with skin, these will easily come off once soaked

Walnuts - these can be difficult to peel, just peel as much as you can.

Toppings - the amounts can be adjusted to suit

Consistency - meghli should be thick but pourable whilst it is warm (as per video). As it cools down it will thicken considerably and set into a pudding. Sometimes cracks will form on the skin, this is normal and will be covered by the coconut and nuts.

Cooking - Avoid bringing this rice pudding to a hard boil. Continuous stirring is required as rice flour thickens very fast and will clump if there is no motion

Pouring - prepare the individual glass vessels before cooking, this will help you to work quicker with pouring. Fill each vessel ¾ full to allow for toppings.

Serving - when serving meghli, the toppings are integral to the overall dessert and must be substantial but not overwhelming.

FAQ

🥘Related recipes

Some other gluten free dairy free puddings that might interest you;

• Sahlab which is a sweetened milk drink.
• Muhallabi - milky ground rice pudding
• Riz Bi Haleeb - whole rice grains in milk pudding
• Haytaliyeh - milky pudding
• Atayef - stuffed Middle Eastern pancakes