TikTok food creators rustling up Ramadan recipes

Professional and self-taught cooks provide plenty of iftar and suhoor inspiration online

Syrian-American cook Ahmad Alzahabi is the founder of The Golden Balance blog. Photo: The Golden Balance

With a seemingly endless amount of beauty and fitness trends, as well as food content, TikTok is the gift that keeps on giving. This Ramadan is no exception given the breadth of iftar and suhoor ideas on the platform.

Professional and self-taught chefs have been swapping cookbooks for engaging TikTok accounts as they connect with Gen Zs, who spend an average of 12.4 hours a week on the platform, according to research by Measure Protocol, a data aggregating firm, released last year.

Here are a few accounts on TikTok you can check out for recipe ideas.

Abir El Saghir (@abir.sag)

The Lebanese food creator is known for her videos in which she dons a traditional outfit while preparing a dish to music associated with the featured country.

Her cooking videos are a visual treat, produced to a level that is choreographed and rhythmic. She cooks regional dishes, from Iraqi dolma (vegetables stuffed with meat and rice), to rose osmalieh (baked vermicelli pastry with cream) topped with Arabic candy floss.

El Saghir is one of the most popular regional cooks on TikTok, with more than 21.6 million followers.

Hajar Larbah (@moribyan)

The blog's name is a play on the Arab creator's Moroccan and Libyan heritage. Larbah started blogging when she was a first-year student at the University of California, Berkeley where she pursued nutrition and dietetics.

In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, she quit her job and worked full-time on her TikTok account, where she now has 4.4 million followers. She often posts cooking videos, and her style of cooking is heavily influenced by North African cuisine.

This Ramadan, she started a recipe series where she shares a dish for every day of the holy month, from chicken and cheese rolls to hummus with lamb.

Yasmine Daura (@thechefmine)

Daura, who lives in London, started a Ramadan recipe series for her more than 240,000 followers. Her passion is developing “approachable and aesthetically pleasing” recipes, as well as sharing food and kitchen hacks.

The dishes in her Ramadan series include lamb arayes, peri peri chicken and shakshuka.

Eman Ibrahiim (@eman.ibrahiim)

Ibrahiim posts recipes in Arabic, but her videos can easily be followed even by non-Arabic speakers. Aside from TikTok, where she has more than seven million followers, the chef also has a YouTube account for longer videos.

Her international dishes include everything from baked cannelloni pasta and chicken fajitas to sweet katayef dumplings. Other creative desserts feature chocolates such as Kinder and Ferrero Rocher as key ingredients.

Ahmad Alzahabi (@thegoldenbalance)

The Syrian-American cook, who lives in Michigan, produces instructional videos for dishes such as maqluba and Korean-style short ribs.

Alzahabi is also known for being vocal about his Muslim identity and he uses the platform to shed light on his religion and important cultural practices, including fasting during Ramadan. He has 6.2 million followers.

Zaynah (@zaynahsbakes)

The food creator from London posts videos of her “desi-fied cooking”, heavily influenced by her South Asian heritage.

She has a Ramadan recipe series, which features dishes such as crispy aloo pakoras, paneer butter masala and chicken tikka sliders, which she shares with her 272,000 followers.

Kitchen by Noonzay (@amnaarman90)

The food creator, who also has a Ramadan special segment, has a growing community of more than 150,000 followers. She shares videos that show her preparing easy-to-cook dishes such as beef samosa, chicken fried rice and masala fries.

Majida Sofi (@mywanderinghome)

The food content creator loves hosting dinners and having people around.

“The satisfaction you get from feeding others and seeing the joy it brings to their face when eating good food is unmatched,” Sofi, 24, tells The National.

Her TikTok page has close to 87,000 followers. She is a self-taught cook who posts videos of dishes she's either eaten and taken inspiration from or those she has "thrown together" with whatever she can find at home, turning them into family staples.