Asia → Saudi Arabia → Hejaz
🥔 SIDE
Tamees (Saudi Hejazi Flatbread)
A large, round yeasted flatbread of white and wholemeal flour, docked all over, brushed with ghee and scattered with sesame and nigella, baked very hot until blistered and eaten warm with ful.
Saudi (Hejazi) · medium · serves 6
prep 25 min · cook 27 min · plus 1 h 15 min hands-off time
~452 cal · 9g protein · 72g carbs · 13g fat · 3g fiber · 2g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Tamees is the everyday bread of the Hejaz, and of Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah above all. It is one of the dishes that pilgrims brought to Islam's holy cities: it came with Central and South Asian communities, and is said to have first been baked in Madinah by Bukharan settlers. Saudipedia traces it to the Makkah region, from where it spread across the kingdom.
Tamees bakeries shape balls of a soft wheat dough into large rounds, prick them all over with a toothed tool so they bake evenly without puffing into a pocket, brush them with and scatter them with sesame or black seed before slapping them into a hot clay oven. Plain, , sesame, black seed and cheese tamees are all sold, for a riyal or a few riyals each.
The classic way to eat it is torn and dipped into a bowl of ful, stewed fava beans, at breakfast or on the Ramadan iftar table. In Jeddah it is also eaten at breakfast with cream cheese or honey. A home oven with a hot baking steel or stone makes a good tamees.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and 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
- 2 cups (480 ml) lukewarm water
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 3 1/4 cups (about 420 g) white bread flour
- 1 cup (about 130 g) wholemeal (whole wheat) flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp
- 3 tbsp , melted, for brushing
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp nigella (black) seeds
Instructions
- 1Stir the yeast and sugar into the lukewarm water and leave for 5 minutes. Add both flours, the salt and the oil, and knead for about 10 minutes into a soft, smooth, slightly sticky dough.
- 2Cover and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour, until doubled.
- 3About half an hour before the rise is done, put a baking steel, pizza stone or heavy upturned baking tray on the lowest shelf of the oven and heat it to 250C (480F) so the steel is thoroughly hot. Divide the dough into 3 balls and rest them, covered, for 15 minutes.
- 4On a floured sheet of baking paper, press and stretch one ball into a round about 30 cm across and 1 cm thick, leaving the edge a little thicker. Prick it all over, close together, with a fork or docker.✎ Chef’s noteDock it thoroughly, right to the edge. It is what keeps tamees flat and even instead of ballooning like a pita.
- 5Brush generously with melted ghee and scatter with sesame and nigella seeds. Slide it, on its paper, onto the hot steel and bake for 7 to 9 minutes until golden with dark blistered spots, finishing under the grill for a minute if the top is pale. Repeat with the rest.
- 6Brush the hot bread with a little more ghee and serve warm, torn, with ful, cheese or honey.
Hejazi bakery tradition (Makkah, Madinah and Jeddah).
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Hejaz. The Hejaz is the western edge of Arabia, a strip of Red Sea coastal plain backed by the Sarawat Mountains and their lava fields. It holds Jeddah, the kingdom's main port and second city, the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, and Taif up in the cooler mountains.
🗺️
Saudi Arabia. Coffee here is a ceremony with rules. Qahwa is lightly roasted, cardamom-heavy, pale rather than dark, poured from a dallah into small handleless cups filled only part way, and refilled until the guest shakes the cup. Dates come with it, and the pairing is offered before any conversation about business begins.
🌍
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 Saudi Arabia
KabsaSpiced rice cooked in aromatic broth with chicken, dried lime, and a whole-spice perfume, heaped high for sharing.
MasabibSoft, holey yeasted pancakes drenched in date syrup or honey, a Hejazi and Saudi breakfast.
MutabbaqA thin folded pastry stuffed with spiced minced meat and egg, griddled crisp, a favorite Saudi street snack.
Browse all Saudi Arabia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Grill or barbecue.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Saudi Arabia meal
Sobia (Hejazi Ramadan Barley Drink)Drink
AreekaDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Somun (Bosnian Flatbread)Bosnia & Herzegovina
Roshi (Maldivian Flatbread)Maldives
Obi Non (Uzbek Stamped Bread)Uzbekistan
Matlouh (Algerian Semolina Pan Bread)Algeria
Lavash (Armenian Thin Flatbread)Armenia
Flatkaka (Icelandic Rye Flatbread)Iceland
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Tamees (Saudi Hejazi Flatbread)?
A large, round yeasted flatbread of white and wholemeal flour, docked all over, brushed with ghee and scattered with sesame and nigella, baked very hot until blistered and eaten warm with ful.
Where does Tamees (Saudi Hejazi Flatbread) come from?
Tamees (Saudi Hejazi Flatbread) is a Saudi (Hejazi) dish from Hejaz, Saudi Arabia.
Can Tamees (Saudi Hejazi Flatbread) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tamees (Saudi Hejazi Flatbread) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Tamees (Saudi Hejazi Flatbread) 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 still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), 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 Tamees (Saudi Hejazi Flatbread) take to make?
About 2 h 7 min in all: 25 minutes prep and 27 minutes cooking, plus 1 h 15 min of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 6.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.