Our cookbook of the week is Lugma by Bahrain-born, London-based cook, author and recipe developer Noor Murad.

Noor Murad is used to straddling two worlds. Growing up in Bahrain, an island country in the Persian Gulf, with an Arab dad and British mom, machboos and saloonat dajaj were as likely to be on her family’s table as bolognese and mushroom risotto.

Her mother, a self-taught cook, found far-ranging inspiration in recipes by authors such as Anissa Helou and Madhur Jaffrey . “My curiosity about cooking was more than just the food of Bahrain. It was everything,” says Murad. “I was always curious about other cuisines because I knew mine so well.”

In her cookbook debut, Lugma (Quadrille, 2025), Murad features more than 100 recipes from Bahrain and its neighbouring countries “with

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