Maftoul substitute

Best substitute

Pearl couscous (Israeli couscous, ptitim), toasted first

Use the same amount by volume, with roughly 1.25 cups liquid per cup as the maftoul you are replacing

Best for maftoul with chicken and chickpeas

Taste and texture differ

Pearl couscous is the practical swap at 1:1 by volume, but toast it in olive oil or ghee until deep golden first - untoasted it is pale and bland where maftoul is nutty and wheaty. Fregola sarda is actually the better match if you can find it, because it is already toasted. Coarse bulgur gets the flavour exactly right and the texture wrong, since it cooks to a loose fluff rather than distinct beads. Maftoul's job in a dish is structure and absorbency - it is the starchy base that soaks up the chicken and chickpea broth - so the key thing any substitute must do is stay in separate pieces and not turn to mush under the stew.

Other maftoul substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Fregola sarda
Close match
Use the same amount by volume
The best substitute on this page and an underused one.
What changes
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.
3Coarse bulgur (#3 or #4)
Different texture
Use the same amount by volume but use only 1.5 cups liquid per cup, and expect a different texture
The flavour twin and the texture opposite.
What changes
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.
4Orzo
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, cooked separately in salted water or broth
Mechanically fine and widely available.
What changes
Orzo is roughly the right size and it holds its shape well in a brothy dish, so a maftoul stew ladled over it works perfectly 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.
5Pearl couscous mixed with coarse bulgur
Close match
2 parts pearl couscous to 1 part coarse bulgur, total volume 1:1 with the maftoul
A deliberate hybrid that splits the difference, and a genuinely clever fix if you have both in the cupboard.
What changes
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.
6Pearl barley
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, but 3 cups liquid per cup and 30 to 40 minutes cooking
The wildcard, and better than it sounds.
What changes
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.

What is Maftoul?

Maftoul is Maftoul is Palestinian hand-rolled couscous - coarse bulgur wheat rolled with wheat flour into irregular pellets a little larger than a peppercorn, then sun-dried, giving it a toasty wholewheat flavour and a firm chew quite unlike smooth semolina couscous.

Cooking tips

Cook maftoul or any substitute in chicken broth rather than water. This is where the dish gets its flavour - the grain is porous and absorbent by design, and a maftoul cooked in water tastes like nothing no matter how good the stew on top is. If you are using a stock cube, go easy on additional salt.
Toast whatever you are using in olive oil, ghee or samneh before any liquid goes in. Real maftoul is sun-dried and already tastes toasty; substitutes almost never do, and four minutes in hot fat until the pellets smell nutty is the single highest-value step you can take.
Do not stir it while it absorbs. Rolled and pelleted wheat products release surface starch when agitated, and a stirred pot goes from distinct beads to a sticky mass. Bring it to a simmer, cover, turn the heat low, then leave it alone and fluff with a fork at the end.
Traditional maftoul is steamed over the stew in a couscoussier rather than boiled in it, which keeps the pellets separate and lets them take on the aroma without waterlogging. A metal colander lined with cheesecloth set over your pot and covered does the same job, and is worth trying once.
It keeps drinking liquid after you take it off the heat, so hold back a cup of hot broth and loosen the dish just before serving. The classic seasoning is allspice, cinnamon and plenty of soft fried onion, with chicken and chickpeas - and toasted almonds or pine nuts on top for the crunch.

Frequently asked questions

Is maftoul the same as Israeli or pearl couscous?

No, and this is the most common mix-up. Pearl couscous, also sold as Israeli couscous or ptitim, is extruded from a plain semolina dough into uniform smooth spheres. Maftoul is coarse bulgur hand-rolled with wheat flour and dried in the sun, so it is irregular in shape, browner, larger, made from a wholegrain base, and tastes toasty and wheaty rather than neutral. They are close enough to swap at 1:1, but maftoul takes longer to cook and has a firmer bite, so toast the pearl couscous first and cook it for less time.

Can I just leave the maftoul out?

Not really, because it is the base of the dish rather than a seasoning in it - a maftoul stew with no maftoul is a bowl of chicken and chickpeas. But you never need maftoul specifically. Serve the same stew over rice, bulgur, pearl couscous, fregola or even barley and you will have a very good dinner. Only the texture and the wholewheat flavour change, not the identity of the sauce.

How much liquid does maftoul need?

Roughly one and a half to two cups of broth per cup of dry maftoul, simmered for fifteen to twenty minutes, though it varies with how coarsely it was rolled. The safest method is to cook it in plenty of broth like pasta and drain the excess, rather than trying to hit an exact absorption ratio - that way you cannot end up with either a dry, chalky centre or a sticky mass. Substitutes need different amounts: pearl couscous less liquid and less time, barley considerably more of both.

Is maftoul gluten free?

No. Maftoul is bulgur and wheat flour, so it is wheat all the way through, and every substitute on this page except barley is also wheat - and barley contains gluten too. For a gluten-free version of a maftoul dish, the closest textures come from toasted sorghum, buckwheat groats or a gluten-free pearl-shaped pasta made from corn and rice, all cooked in well-seasoned broth. None taste like maftoul, but sorghum has a comparable chew.

What does maftoul taste like?

Nutty and distinctly wholewheat, a bit like the toasted flavour of good bulgur, with a firm chew that stays firm even in a wet stew. It is noticeably more flavourful than either fine couscous or pearl couscous on its own, which is why cooks who grew up with it find pearl couscous a disappointing stand-in unless it has been toasted first.

Related substitutes

More grains & starches substitutes

Maftoul substitute

Other maftoul substitutes

2Fregola sarda

3Coarse bulgur (#3 or #4)

4Orzo

5Pearl couscous mixed with coarse bulgur

6Pearl barley