Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Harees
Wheat berries and meat pounded together over long cooking into a smooth, comforting porridge.
Qatari · medium · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 180 min
~310 cal · 38g protein · 0g carbs · 16g fat · 0g fiber · 0g sugars · 7g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Harees is a Ramadan staple in Qatar and across the Gulf, wheat berries and meat cooked together for hours and pounded into a smooth, porridge-like consistency. Simple in ingredients but demanding in labor, it is deeply nourishing.
The long cooking and vigorous pounding break down the wheat and meat into a creamy, cohesive mass, seasoned simply with salt and often topped with and cinnamon. Its origins are ancient, appearing in early Arab cookbooks, and it is shared across the wider region.
Especially associated with Ramadan, Eid, and weddings in Qatar, harees is made in large batches to share with family and neighbors.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally 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 cups whole wheat berries (harees wheat), soaked overnight
2 lb bone-in chicken or lamb
3 tbsp , to finish
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp roasted ground cumin
1 tbsp coriander seeds, to garnish
to taste salt and black pepper
8 cups water
Instructions
1
Simmer the wheat (or rice) and meat (or chickpeas) together in the water with salt for 2-3 hours until everything is very soft.
2
Lift out any bones and shred the meat back into the pot.
3
Beat the mixture hard with a wooden mallet or whisk until it turns smooth and creamy.
4
Adjust the salt and loosen with hot water if needed.
5
Melt the ghee (or oil) with the cinnamon, cumin, salt and pepper, pour it over the harees, and scatter coriander seeds on top.
✎ Chef’s note
The spices go into the hot fat, not into the pot. Pouring that seasoned ghee over the plain beaten wheat at the end is the whole seasoning of the dish. Eat it by scooping with khubz.
Doha tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Doha. The bay did the provisioning before anything else did. Pearling and fishing were the economy within living memory, so dried and salted fish, rice brought in by dhow and dates were the working pantry, and the spice habit, bezar and dried lime, arrived on the same boats.
🗺️
Qatar. The pantry is a trader's rather than a farmer's. Almost nothing grows in a peninsula this dry, so the defining flavours came in by dhow, rice and cardamom and saffron from India and Persia, dried limes from the Gulf coast, and the cinnamon and clove that go into the local baharat, and the sea supplied the rest before oil did.
🌍
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 Qatar
KhanfarooshLittle saffron-and-cardamom cakes, crisp outside and soft within, fried and dusted with sugar.
MadroubaA soft, porridge-like rice and chicken dish beaten smooth with spices and dried lime, comforting Qatari Ramadan fare.
Assidat al-BoubarA warm pumpkin pudding of toasted flour, date syrup, and cardamom, a warming Qatari Ramadan sweet.
Browse all Qatar recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Whisk.
Storing it: Thickens as it sits. Reheat with extra water or milk to loosen, and keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated.
Make it a Qatar meal
Sharbat LoomiDrink
Assidat al-BoubarDessert
MadroubaLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Harees?
Wheat berries and meat pounded together over long cooking into a smooth, comforting porridge.
Where does Harees come from?
Harees is a Qatari dish from Doha, Qatar.
Can Harees be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Harees 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 Harees 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 Harees take to make?
About 195 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 180 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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