What spiced rice pudding is served in Lebanon to celebrate a newborn baby? The answer is meghli.
Meghli is a Lebanese rice-flour pudding seasoned with anise, caraway, and cinnamon. It is traditionally cooked with sugar and water until thick, then cooled and served in bowls or small dishes. The brown pudding is commonly topped with coconut and nuts such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios, or pine nuts.
In Lebanon, meghli is strongly linked with the birth of a child. Older accounts associate it especially with celebrating the birth of a male heir, but the custom is now broadly used for any newborn. The dish is also prepared by some Levantine Christian communities at Christmas because it commemorates the birth of Jesus.
The name is related to an Arabic word meaning “boiled,” reflecting the long cooking and stirring required. In Lebanon and Palestine it is often served cold; in Syria and Jordan, the related dish karawiya is more commonly served warm. Meghli should not be confused with roz bel laban, a milk-based rice pudding, or muhallebi, which is usually thickened with starch.