Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Lakh
Steamed millet couscous under cool sweetened curdled milk and fresh grated coconut, the Sahelian sweet Mauritania makes to mark the end of Ramadan.
Mauritanian · medium · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 20 min
~477 cal · 14g protein · 72g carbs · 14g fat · 6g fiber · 14g sugars · 11g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Lakh is the -and-milk sweet of Mauritania and the wider Sahel: fine steamed until fluffy, cooled, then flooded with curdled milk sweetened with sugar and scattered with freshly grated coconut. It is eaten cool and gently tangy from a shared bowl, a dish built for the heat of the desert.
It belongs to the same Sahelian family as Senegalese laax and Malian degue, and it is above all celebration food. In both Mauritania and Senegal it marks the end of Ramadan, when bowls of it travel between houses for Eid al-Fitr. The Mauritanian version stays plain and milky, whereas cooks in Dakar often stir in condensed milk and dried fruit.
from the Sahel and soured milk from the herds are two of the oldest ingredients on the Mauritanian table, and lakh is the simplest and sweetest way they meet.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, 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
2 cups fine
2 cups water
2 cups curdled or soured milk
2 tbsp sugar, to taste
1/2 cup fresh grated coconut
Instructions
1
Sprinkle the millet couscous with a little water and steam it over simmering water until tender and fluffy, about 15 minutes.
2
Rake the grains apart with a fork and let them cool to just warm.
3
Whisk the soured milk with the sugar until smooth and sweet.
4
Spoon the cool millet into bowls, pour the sweet milk over the top, and scatter with the grated coconut. Serve cool from a shared bowl.
Nouakchott and Saharan nomad tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Nouakchott. Tea has a fixed shape here: three rounds poured from a height to raise the foam, each glass different from the last, and leaving before the third is a small rudeness. Zrig, soured camel or goat milk cut with water, is what the fast gets broken with.
🗺️
Mauritania. The rice dish here is thieboudienne-style rather than Mauritanian in origin: ceebu jen came from Saint-Louis in Senegal and is shared along this coast. Zrig, soured camel or goat milk thinned with water and sometimes sweetened, is the drink taken to break a fast and the one most particular to the country.
🌍
Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Mauritania
MéchouiWhole lamb (or a shoulder) slow-roasted with cumin and salt until falling off the bone, desert feast food.
Maru wa LahméMeat and vegetables simmered in a mustard-scented broth, then rice cooked in that broth, the generous communal lunch of the Mauritanian table.
Dates Stuffed with ButterPlump dates split and filled with cardamom-scented butter, a Saharan sweet of Mauritanian hospitality.
Browse all Mauritania recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Steamer, Whisk.
Storing it: Keeps 2 to 3 days refrigerated. Resteam or warm through gently to serve.
Make it a Mauritania meal
ZrigDrink
Dates Stuffed with ButterDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Lakh?
Steamed millet couscous under cool sweetened curdled milk and fresh grated coconut, the Sahelian sweet Mauritania makes to mark the end of Ramadan.
Where does Lakh come from?
Lakh is a Mauritanian dish from Nouakchott, Mauritania.
Can Lakh be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Lakh 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 Lakh 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 Lakh take to make?
About 35 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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