Jibneh Arabieh substitute

Best substitute

Fresh or low-moisture mozzarella

Use the same amount as the jibneh arabieh you are replacing

Best for knafeh, kunafa and sweet cheese pastries

Close match

Fresh or low-moisture mozzarella is the best widely available swap at 1:1, because it is the only supermarket cheese that shares both of jibneh arabieh's key traits - a mild milky flavour and the ability to melt and stretch. Akkawi is the real thing if a Middle Eastern grocer is within reach. Queso fresco is excellent if you are eating the cheese cold, and paneer or soaked halloumi work sliced for breakfast. Feta is the answer most sites give and it is the wrong one: it is far saltier and much tangier, and it does not melt. Jibneh arabieh's job is mild salt, milky fat and structure - it is deliberately bland, which is exactly why a sharp cheese changes the dish.

Other jibneh arabieh substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Akkawi
Close match
Use the same amount but soak it first
Not really a substitute so much as the closest cousin, and if your grocer has it, stop looking.
What changes
Akkawi is the Levantine white brined cheese sold specifically for cheese pastries, and it slices, melts and stretches in the same way. What changes: akkawi is often preserved in a much stronger brine than jibneh arabieh, sometimes aggressively so, which is why it is traditionally soaked in several changes of cold water for a few hours before use. Soaked, it is mild and milky and almost indistinguishable. Unsoaked, it will make a sweet knafeh taste startlingly salty.
Best for
knafeh and kunafa, cheese fatayer and pastries, breakfast plates, any recipe naming jibneh arabieh, baladi or Arabic white cheese
Cube or slice it, cover it with cold water and change the water two or three times over two to four hours, tasting a piece each time until it is only lightly salty. Nabulsi cheese is a related option and is also usually soaked, though it is firmer and squeakier and better fried than melted.
3Queso fresco
Close match
Use the same amount
An excellent swap for every use except melting, and it is stocked in far more supermarkets than any Middle Eastern cheese.
What changes
Queso fresco is a fresh, lightly salted, mildly milky white cheese that is firm enough to slice and crumbly enough to scatter - which describes jibneh arabieh's role at breakfast almost exactly. What changes: it does not melt. Heated, it softens and holds its shape or dries out rather than flowing and stretching, so it is entirely wrong for knafeh or a cheese pastry that depends on a molten pull. Cold, alongside olives, tomato, cucumber and bread, it is very close indeed.
Best for
Levantine breakfast plates, salads and sandwiches, crumbling over cooked vegetables and eggs, anywhere the cheese is served cold
Buy the firmer block sort rather than the very soft crumbly kind if you want to slice it. Because it is milder than jibneh arabieh, a small pinch of salt over the slices makes a noticeable difference. Do not use it in any baked cheese pastry expecting it to melt.
4Halloumi, soaked to reduce the salt
Different taste
Use the same amount soaked for 1 to 2 hours in cold water
The right choice when the cheese is going to be sliced for breakfast or fried, and a poor one when it needs to melt.
What changes
Halloumi has the firm, squeaky, sliceable body jibneh arabieh has, and it is a brined white cheese from the same broad tradition. What changes: two things. Halloumi is considerably saltier, which a soak in a few changes of cold water largely fixes, and it is specifically designed not to melt - heated, it softens and browns while holding its shape. So it is superb sliced and pan-fried alongside eggs and flatbread, and useless as a filling for kunafa where you want a stretchy pull.
Best for
breakfast plates, sliced or fried, grilling and pan-frying, salads, sandwiches with tomato and za'atar
Soak, then pat dry thoroughly before frying, or it will spit and steam rather than brown. Halloumi turns squeaky and rubbery as it cools, so serve it hot from the pan. Kashkaval is a better option than halloumi if what you need is a melting cheese, though it is sharper and more mature-tasting than jibneh arabieh.
5Paneer
Different taste
Use the same amount plus salt
Widely available, cheap, and closer in texture than most people expect - firm, white, dense and completely mild, which is precisely the character of jibneh arabieh.
What changes
What changes: paneer contains no salt at all, so you must season it yourself and it will taste of nothing if you forget. It also does not melt, being an acid-set cheese, so it softens and stays put under heat rather than stretching. As a sliced breakfast cheese, salted and drizzled with olive oil and za'atar, it does a genuinely good job for very little money.
Best for
breakfast plates, salted and dressed, frying in slices, salads and sandwiches, budget substitutions
Sprinkle the slices with salt and let them sit for ten minutes before serving so the seasoning penetrates rather than sitting on the surface. Do not use paneer in knafeh or any pastry that needs a molten cheese pull.
6Feta, soaked first - the popular but flawed answer
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount soaked in cold water or milk for several hours with the liquid changed twice
This is the substitution most recipes suggest and it deserves a warning rather than a recommendation.
What changes
Feta is far saltier than jibneh arabieh, distinctly tangy and acidic from its longer ripening, and it does not melt cleanly - it softens, crumbles and releases fat rather than flowing. What changes: a breakfast plate made with feta tastes sharp and briny where it should taste mild and milky, and a sweet knafeh made with feta tastes like a mistake. If it is genuinely all you have, soak it in cold water or, better, milk for several hours with two changes to pull out the salt, and use it cold rather than baked. Expect a tangier dish and reduce the salt everywhere else.
Best for
cold breakfast plates when nothing else is available, salads, where the extra tang is welcome, crumbling over cooked vegetables
Milk pulls salt out more gently than water and leaves the cheese tasting creamier. Sheep feta is sharper than cow feta, so choose cow if you have the option. Never substitute feta in a sweet cheese pastry - use mozzarella, ideally blended with a little ricotta, for that.
7Farmer cheese or dry curd cheese
Different texture
Use the same amount plus salt
A quiet, useful option for cold uses.
What changes
Farmer cheese is pressed fresh curd - mild, faintly tangy, dry and crumbly - which puts it very close to jibneh arabieh in flavour if not in body. What changes: it is drier and more crumbly than a block of brined white cheese, so it does not slice neatly, and it will not melt or stretch. It is also usually unsalted or barely salted. Where it shines is scattered over a breakfast plate, folded into a savoury pastry filling with herbs, or spread on bread with olive oil and za'atar.
Best for
savoury cheese fatayer fillings, breakfast plates, spreading on bread, mixing with herbs and olive oil
Salt it and let it sit before use. For a pastry filling, mixing it with a little grated low-moisture mozzarella gives you both the fresh curd flavour and enough melt to hold together.

What is Jibneh Arabieh?

Jibneh Arabieh is Jibneh arabieh, also written jibna arabieh and known simply as Arabic white cheese or baladi cheese, is a fresh, mild, only lightly salted white cheese sold in blocks in brine, firm enough to slice for a Levantine breakfast and stretchy enough to melt into cheese pastries.

Cooking tips

Soaking is the standard technique with Levantine white cheeses, not a shortcut or a compromise. Akkawi, nabulsi and most brined blocks arrive far saltier than the finished dish wants, and cubing them and soaking in two or three changes of cold water over a few hours brings them down to jibneh arabieh's gentle saltiness. Taste a piece after each change rather than following a clock.
For knafeh, kunafa or any sweet cheese pastry you need a cheese that melts and stretches, which rules out feta, queso fresco, paneer and halloumi no matter how good they are cold. Low-moisture mozzarella, ideally with a spoonful or two of ricotta blended in for softness, is the reliable substitution and is what most diaspora recipes now specify.
Store brined block cheese submerged in its own brine, or in lightly salted water if you have discarded the brine. Left dry in a container the surface dries out, hardens and sours within a couple of days, and the cheese loses the milky sweetness that is its whole appeal.
Slice it thick for breakfast, not thin. Jibneh arabieh is served in generous slabs alongside olives, sliced tomato and cucumber, za'atar with olive oil, and warm flatbread - it is one of the substantial elements on the table rather than a garnish, and thin slices get lost among everything else.
Do not overcook it. Fresh white cheeses are high in moisture and low in fat compared with aged cheeses, so pushed too far under heat they squeeze out water and turn tough and squeaky. Bake pastries until the cheese has just melted and the dough is golden, then stop.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use feta instead of jibneh arabieh?

You can, but it is the weakest of the common substitutes and worth understanding before you commit. Feta is much saltier and noticeably tangier because it ripens longer in brine, and it does not melt into a smooth stretch - it crumbles and releases fat instead. Soaking it in cold water or milk for a few hours with a couple of changes pulls out much of the salt and makes it acceptable for a cold breakfast plate. For anything baked, and particularly for a sweet knafeh, use low-moisture mozzarella instead.

What is jibneh arabieh called in English?

Usually just Arabic white cheese, or sometimes white brined table cheese. You will also see it labelled baladi cheese, which means local or country cheese, and closely related cheeses in the same family are sold as akkawi and nabulsi. Recipes translated from Arabic often leave the name as jibneh arabieh or jibna arabieh, which is why it is so hard to shop for - there is rarely a supermarket product with that name on it, and mozzarella or queso fresco is what you will actually be buying.

Does jibneh arabieh melt?

Yes, and that is one of its defining qualities. It is a fresh rennet-set brined cheese, so under heat it softens and stretches rather than crumbling, which is why it is the cheese used in knafeh, kunafa and cheese-filled pastries throughout the Levant. This is the single most important thing to check when substituting: feta, queso fresco, paneer and halloumi are all reasonable stand-ins cold but none of them melt properly, so for anything baked you need mozzarella, akkawi or kashkaval.

Can I just leave the cheese out?

Not in a cheese pastry, obviously - the cheese is the filling. On a breakfast plate you can skip it and lean on labneh, hummus, olives and eggs instead, and the meal will still work, since a Levantine breakfast is a spread of many small things rather than one dish. But jibneh arabieh is contributing the mild, milky, faintly salty element that balances the sour labneh and the sharp olives, so replacing it with almost any mild white cheese is a better move than removing it.

Is jibneh arabieh the same as akkawi or nabulsi?

They are close relatives in the same family of Levantine white brined cheeses, but not identical. Jibneh arabieh is the general-purpose mild table cheese. Akkawi is very similar and is the one most associated with cheese pastries, though it is usually sold in a stronger brine and needs soaking. Nabulsi is firmer, squeakier and often flavoured with nigella seeds or mahlab, and it is more commonly fried or grilled than melted. Any of the three can stand in for another, with the salt adjusted by soaking.

Related substitutes

More cheese substitutes

Jibneh Arabieh substitute

Other jibneh arabieh substitutes

2Akkawi

3Queso fresco

4Halloumi, soaked to reduce the salt

5Paneer

6Feta, soaked first - the popular but flawed answer

7Farmer cheese or dry curd cheese