Maftoul substitutes

The most available option and the one most recipes suggest, though it is a genuine downgrade if you use it straight from the bag. Pearl couscous is extruded from plain semolina dough, so it is smooth, uniform, pale and fairly neutral, with a springy, almost pasta-like bounce. Maftoul is bulgur-based and hand-rolled, so it is irregular, browner, tastes distinctly of toasted wholemeal wheat, and has a firmer, faintly grainy chew. What changes: the dish loses its nutty backbone and reads softer and blander. Toasting the pearls in fat over medium heat until they smell like popcorn and turn the colour of caramel closes at least half that gap, and takes four minutes.

Best for

maftoul with chicken and chickpeas, maftoul salads, any maftoul stew where the grain is served under the sauce

Cook it in chicken broth, never water, and cook it for eight to ten minutes rather than the fifteen to twenty maftoul needs - it is smaller and it will go gluey if you treat it like the real thing. Drain any excess liquid rather than letting it absorb fully, then let it steam covered off the heat for five minutes.

The best substitute on this page and an underused one. Fregola is Sardinian semolina rolled into irregular pellets and then oven-toasted, which means it shares maftoul's two defining traits: hand-rolled irregularity and a genuinely toasted flavour. What changes: fregola is durum semolina rather than bulgur, so it tastes of toasted pasta rather than toasted wholewheat, and it is a touch smoother and more slippery. Side by side with maftoul, most people would notice a difference but nobody would call it wrong. It also holds its shape beautifully in a brothy stew, which is exactly what you need.

Best for

maftoul with chicken and chickpeas, brothy maftoul dishes where the grain must stay distinct, maftoul salads with parsley, tomato and lemon

Fregola comes in fine and coarse grades - buy the coarse one, it is closest to maftoul in size. It takes roughly ten to twelve minutes in simmering broth. Because it is already toasted you do not need to toast it again, though a minute in the pan does no harm.

The flavour twin and the texture opposite. Maftoul is literally made from bulgur, so coarse bulgur tastes exactly right - toasty, wheaty, faintly sweet - and it is often cheaper and easier to find than any pearl product. What changes: bulgur is loose cracked grain, not rolled pellets, so instead of firm beads sitting in the broth you get a soft, fluffy, slightly porridge-like bed. In a stew that means the sauce disappears into the grain rather than pooling around it, and the dish loses the pleasing bite that makes maftoul worth eating. Use noticeably less liquid than for maftoul and do not stir it while it cooks.

Best for

flavour accuracy over texture, maftoul-style dishes served as a pilaf, budget cooking and pantry substitutions

Use coarse bulgur, not fine - fine bulgur only needs soaking and will turn to paste in a stew. Toast it in ghee with the onions before adding liquid, then cover and steam it off the heat for ten minutes rather than boiling it hard.

Mechanically fine and widely available. Orzo is roughly the right size and it holds its shape well in a brothy dish, so a maftoul stew ladled over it works well as dinner. What changes: it is unambiguously pasta - glossy, slippery, refined-tasting and white - so the dish reads Italian-adjacent rather than Palestinian. There is none of maftoul's wholemeal earthiness and none of its grip. Toasting the dry orzo in oil until golden before cooking helps considerably and is worth the extra step.

Best for

maftoul stew when no pearl product is available, feeding children who prefer smoother textures, quick weeknight versions

Cook orzo separately and drain it, then combine. Boiled directly in the stew it releases a lot of starch and thickens the broth into something closer to a risotto. Wholewheat orzo, if you find it, is a distinctly better match than white.

A deliberate hybrid that splits the difference, and a genuinely clever fix if you have both in the cupboard. The pearl couscous supplies the distinct beads and the bite; the bulgur supplies the wholewheat flavour and a bit of the graininess. What changes: it is not seamless - you can feel two textures rather than one - but the overall impression is closer to maftoul than either ingredient alone. Toast both together in fat before adding liquid.

Best for

getting closest to maftoul from ordinary supermarket ingredients, maftoul with chicken and chickpeas, cooks who already keep bulgur for tabbouleh

The two absorb liquid at slightly different rates. Start the bulgur about three minutes before the pearl couscous, or simply use plenty of broth and drain the excess at the end rather than trying to time it exactly.

The wildcard, and better than it sounds. Barley has the chew maftoul has - firm, resilient, staying distinct in liquid however long it simmers - which is more than can be said for fine couscous. What changes: barley tastes clearly of barley, sweet and faintly malty, and it is starchier, so it thickens the broth around it into something slightly creamy. The dish becomes a barley stew that behaves like maftoul rather than a maftoul dish. Good food, different food, and much slower to cook.

Best for

long-simmered maftoul-style stews, cold-weather cooking, when texture matters more than authenticity

It needs roughly three times the cooking time of maftoul, so add it early in the stew rather than at the end. Rinse it first to remove surface starch if you want a clearer broth.