Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Luqaimat
Crisp golden dumplings drenched in date syrup and scattered with sesame, the classic fried sweet of the Emirati Ramadan table.
Emirati · medium · serves 6
prep 90 min · cook 20 min
~327 cal · 6g protein · 69g carbs · 3g fat · 2g fiber · 25g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Luqaimat, meaning little bites, are the quintessential Emirati sweet, crisp fried dough balls drizzled with date syrup, and an essential part of the Ramadan and celebration table across the Gulf. Vendors and home cooks alike fry them fresh by the trayful.
A soft, yeasted batter, often scented with and , is dropped in small rounds into hot oil, where it puffs into crisp, hollow golden balls, crunchy outside and fluffy within. Still warm, they are drenched in dibs, the thick local date syrup, and sometimes honey, then scattered with sesame seeds. Sweet, sticky, and impossible to resist, they are the taste of Gulf hospitality.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp sugar (to feed the yeast)
a pinch salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tsp and
3/4 cup date syrup (dibs)
Hard to find? golden syrup with a spoonful of molasses - sweet and pourable but missing dibs's dark caramel-date depth; date syrup has reached many health-food aisles, so look there first
2 tbsp sesame seeds
for frying oil, for frying
Instructions
1
Bloom the saffron and cardamom in a splash of warm water, and separately dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water. Whisk both into the flour and salt to a thick, stretchy batter, then rest until bubbly and doubled, 1 hour or longer.
✎ Chef’s note
The batter should be a shade thicker than pancake batter and genuinely bouncy before it goes anywhere near the oil. Luqaimat carries almost no sugar of its own: the sweetness is all in the syrup poured over at the end.
2
Drop small spoonfuls into hot oil and fry, turning, until deep golden and crisp.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep the batter loose and use two wet spoons or a squeeze method to drop neat little balls, so they puff hollow and crisp.
3
Drain the luqaimat briefly.
4
Drizzle generously with date syrup and scatter with sesame seeds; serve warm.
Emirati Ramadan tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Dubai. Harees takes patience and a stick. Wheat and meat are cooked together for hours and beaten with a wooden medrab until they collapse into one smooth paste, then finished with ghee. It is Ramadan food, and it sits on Abu Dhabi's register of intangible heritage.
🗺️
United Arab Emirates. Balaleet is the traditional first meal after Ramadan across the Gulf: sweet vermicelli with cardamom, saffron and rosewater, served under a thin savoury omelette, the sweet and the savoury on one plate. The pearl-diving economy that preceded oil is what put dried limes, rice and Indian spice into an otherwise sparse desert pantry.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from United Arab Emirates
BalaleetSweet saffron-and-cardamom vermicelli topped with a thin savory omelette, the Gulf’s sweet-and-savory breakfast.
Emirati SalonaA tangy Emirati stew of meat or fish and vegetables in a spiced tomato-and-dried-lime broth.
Emirati ThareedA spiced meat-and-vegetable stew ladled over thin crisp regag bread, a comforting Emirati dish, especially in Ramadan.
Browse all United Arab Emirates recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
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Themes
Frequently asked questions
What is Luqaimat?
Crisp golden dumplings drenched in date syrup and scattered with sesame, the classic fried sweet of the Emirati Ramadan table.
Where does Luqaimat come from?
Luqaimat is a Emirati dish from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Can Luqaimat be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Luqaimat recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Luqaimat safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Luqaimat take to make?
About 110 minutes total (90 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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