Cooks & Books: Ottolenghi's Noor Murad for Lugma

Bahrain-born, London-based and New York trained, Noor Murad joined the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen in 2018, where she worked as a recipe developer for Falastin and Flavour as well as Ottolenghi's Guardian and New York Times columns.

She became the head of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, and wrote the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen books: Shelf Love and Extra Good Things. Her own recipes have featured in the Guardian and New York Times and she has cooked on BBC's Saturday Kitchen. Her Middle Eastern roots have a strong influence on her cooking, with Arabic, Indian and Persian flavours making a prominent appearance in her recipes.

Noor joins us to demo, talk & dish out tasters for Lugma, her new cookbook featuring 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.

"I adore this book. It's personal, beautifully written - Noor's voice draws you in and holds you there - and the recipes are absolutely glorious." - Diana Henry

"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