Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Rishda (Noodles in Onion and Chickpea Sauce)
Fresh hand-cut noodles steamed and dressed with busla, a sweet onion and chickpea sauce warm with cinnamon and cloves.
Libyan · medium · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 40 min
~308 cal · 12g protein · 56g carbs · 4g fat · 7g fiber · 11g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Rishda is a Libyan home-made noodle dish, thin fresh pasta cut by hand and dressed with busla, a slow-cooked sauce of soft onions and chickpeas scented with cinnamon and cloves. In Tripoli it is a comforting favourite, sometimes steamed over the sauce in a couscoussier.
It shows the Mediterranean pasta traditions woven into Libyan cooking, made from nothing more than flour, water and patience. The busla sauce is deliberately mellow and lightly sweet, a gentle counterpoint to the springy noodles.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and 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 4
400 g thin fresh noodles
4 onions, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp turmeric
3 tbsp olive oil
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Cook the sliced onions slowly in the olive oil until deeply soft and sweet, about 20 minutes.
2
Stir in the tomato paste, cinnamon, cloves and turmeric and cook 2 minutes, then add the chickpeas and a few cups of water and simmer to a thick sauce.
✎ Chef’s note
Cook the onions long and low until they nearly melt, which is what gives busla its sweetness.
3
Meanwhile boil or steam the noodles until just tender, then drain.
4
Toss the noodles with some of the sauce, then serve topped with the rest of the busla.
Libyan home cooking, Tripoli.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tripoli. Bazin is the older dish and much the harder one. Barley flour is beaten into boiling water with a stick until it stiffens into a dome, turned out onto a platter with red sauce, eggs and lamb around it, and eaten by hand from the shared plate. The pasta, by contrast, is an Italian inheritance.
🗺️
Libya. Libyan food bridges the Maghreb and the Mediterranean, famous for bazin (a dense barley dough with rich sauce), spicy soups, and couscous. Pasta from Italian rule and lamb-heavy stews reflect its layered history.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Libya
BazinA firm barley-flour dome served in a spiced lamb-and-tomato sauce with a hard-boiled egg.
SfinzStretchy, lacy fried dough eaten warm with honey or date syrup, a Libyan weekend breakfast.
Macaroni ImbakbakaPasta simmered in a spiced lamb-and-tomato sauce until it absorbs it all, Libya's signature everyday pasta.
Browse all Libya recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Steamer.
Storing it: Best fresh. Leftovers keep 2 days refrigerated; loosen with a splash of water or oil as you reheat so they do not clump.
Make it a Libya meal
Shahi bil Ful (Libyan Tea)Drink
GhraybahDessert
Macaroni ImbakbakaLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Rishda (Noodles in Onion and Chickpea Sauce)?
Fresh hand-cut noodles steamed and dressed with busla, a sweet onion and chickpea sauce warm with cinnamon and cloves.
Where does Rishda (Noodles in Onion and Chickpea Sauce) come from?
Rishda (Noodles in Onion and Chickpea Sauce) is a Libyan dish from Tripoli, Libya.
Can Rishda (Noodles in Onion and Chickpea Sauce) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Rishda (Noodles in Onion and Chickpea Sauce) 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 Rishda (Noodles in Onion and Chickpea Sauce) 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 Rishda (Noodles in Onion and Chickpea Sauce) take to make?
About 70 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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