Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Qamar al-Din
A thick, velvety apricot drink reconstituted from sheets of dried apricot leather, the sweet, tangy staple of the Ramadan table.
Jordanian · easy · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 10 min
~34 cal · 0g protein · 9g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 9g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Qamar al-Din, whose name poetically means "moon of the faith", is the apricot drink that breaks the fast across Jordan and the wider Levant throughout Ramadan. It is made from sheets of apricot leather, ripe apricots pureed and dried into thin, leathery sheets that concentrate the fruit and keep for months.
To make the drink, the sheets are torn up and soaked in water until they soften, then blended or stirred into a thick, smooth, tangy-sweet nectar, sometimes brightened with a little orange-blossom water or a squeeze of lemon and thinned to taste. It is served well chilled.
It is above all the drink of iftar, the sunset meal, its natural fruit sugars and thick body reviving a body worn down by a long day of fasting. Sweet, tart, and deeply tied to the holy month, qamar al-Din is a taste that says Ramadan across the region.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- 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
1 lb apricot leather (qamar al-din sheets)
Hard to find? dried apricots, soaked and blended - honestly close, though sheet qamar al-din carries a deeper, cooked-fruit intensity
8 cups water
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp orange-blossom water
Instructions
1
Tear the apricot leather into pieces and soak in the warm water for a few hours until softened.
2
Blend the softened apricot and its soaking water until completely smooth.
3
Sweeten to taste and stir in the orange-blossom water.
4
Chill well and serve cold; it thickens as it sits, so loosen with water if needed.
Jordanian Ramadan tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Amman. The sauce is the difficult part. Jameed is yoghurt drained, salted and dried into hard pale balls that keep for months, then broken up and loosened back into the tart white liquid the lamb cooks in. Mansaf itself is eaten well beyond Jordan, so what is Jordanian is the ceremony rather than the dish.
🗺️
Jordan. Mansaf was inscribed by UNESCO in 2022, and the inscription records how it is actually eaten: five to seven people gathered around each platter, the meat sheep or goat, the rice scattered with fried almonds, and the right hand used while the left is held behind the back. The sauce is jameed, dried fermented yoghurt reconstituted into something sharp and salty.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Jordan
Maqluba (Upside-Down Rice)Layers of chicken, fried eggplant, cauliflower, and spiced rice cooked in one pot, then flipped tableside.
FattehLayers of toasted bread, warm chickpeas, and garlicky yogurt topped with sizzled butter and pine nuts.
MansafLamb cooked in a tangy fermented-yogurt sauce over rice and flatbread, Jordan's national dish of hospitality.
Browse all Jordan recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Blender.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Jordan meal
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MahalabiaDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Qamar al-Din?
A thick, velvety apricot drink reconstituted from sheets of dried apricot leather, the sweet, tangy staple of the Ramadan table.
Where does Qamar al-Din come from?
Qamar al-Din is a Jordanian dish from Amman, Jordan.
Can Qamar al-Din be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Qamar al-Din 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 Qamar al-Din 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 Qamar al-Din take to make?
About 25 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 10 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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