M'hamsa substitute

Best substitute

Pearl couscous (Israeli couscous or ptitim)

Use the same amount as the m'hamsa you are replacing

Best for m'hamsa salads

Different taste

Pearl couscous is the best swap at 1:1, and toasting it in a little olive oil first gets you most of the way there. Fregola sarda is even closer if your shop has it, since it is also irregular and toasted. Orzo also works well at 1:1. Ordinary instant couscous is the one to be careful with: it can stand in for the flavour but not the texture, and it must be hydrated off the heat rather than simmered, or it turns to porridge.

Other m'hamsa substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Fregola sarda
Close match
Use the same amount
Small irregular toasted semolina balls from Sardinia, made in much the same way as m'hamsa.
What changes
Best for
salads, brothy soups, seafood dishes, anything that calls for m'hamsa
This is arguably the closest match of anything you can buy, because it is also hand-shaped semolina that has been toasted rather than just dried. It is slightly larger and more emphatically toasted, so the dish comes out a shade nuttier and darker. Cooking time and liquid ratio are near-identical. If you spot it in an Italian deli, buy it and keep it for exactly this purpose.
3Orzo or risoni
Different taste
Use the same amount
Rice-shaped pasta with a similar size, bite and cooking method.
What changes
Best for
salads, soups, side dishes, baked dishes
It cooks in a comparable time and keeps a pleasant firm bite, so structurally it works. It is more obviously pasta: slicker on the outside, a little softer in the middle, and some brands are made from soft wheat flour rather than durum semolina, which makes them softer still. Cook it in well-salted water, drain, and toss immediately with oil so it does not clump. Toasting it dry in a pan first also helps a lot.
4Coarse bulgur
Different taste
Use the same amount with about 1.5 times the water
Cracked parboiled wheat with real chew and a nutty flavour.
What changes
Best for
salads, grain bowls, stuffings, serving under braised meat
Use the coarse grade, number three or four, not fine bulgur. It gives you the chew and the nuttiness convincingly, and it holds up in leftovers as well as m'hamsa does. The difference is that bulgur is wholegrain, so the dish tastes wheatier and slightly earthy and looks browner, pulling the salad towards tabbouleh territory. Simmer covered for twelve to fifteen minutes and rest off the heat.
5Instant couscous
Different texture
Use the same amount by volume, but with a completely different method
Fine pre-steamed semolina granules, the couscous most supermarkets sell.
What changes
Best for
serving under a stew where fluffiness is acceptable, quick weeknight versions
Read this before you use it: do not simmer instant couscous the way you would simmer m'hamsa, or you will get a pot of paste. Pour hot stock over it off the heat at a ratio of one to one and a quarter, cover for five minutes, then fork it through. The flavour is in the right family, but the texture is soft, fine and fluffy rather than chewy, so a m'hamsa salad becomes a fine-grained couscous salad and the dressing soaks in rather than clinging. Acceptable for flavour, genuinely wrong for texture.
6Acini di pepe or broken vermicelli
Different taste
Use the same amount
Tiny pasta shapes, neutral in flavour, similar in scale.
What changes
Best for
soups, children's meals, brothy dishes
These are the right size and cook in the right way, and in a soup they are almost indistinguishable in function. They bring no toasted or nutty flavour of their own, so the dish loses m'hamsa's character even if it keeps its structure. Toasting the dry pasta in oil until golden before adding stock makes a surprising difference here and takes two minutes.

What is M'hamsa?

M'hamsa is hand-rolled Tunisian couscous, made by rolling semolina into large irregular pearls and sun-drying them, which gives it a toasty flavour and a firm chewy bite that survives simmering and holds its shape in a salad instead of going soft.

Cooking tips

Toast before you boil. Frying the dry m'hamsa or its substitute in a tablespoon of olive oil for two to three minutes, until it smells nutty and turns a shade darker, is the single biggest thing you can do for flavour, and it also helps the grains stay separate.
Treat it like pasta, not like instant couscous. M'hamsa needs to be simmered in plenty of well-salted liquid, roughly one cup of grain to two cups of stock or water, covered, for twelve to eighteen minutes, then rested off the heat for five. Recipes that tell you to pour boiling water over it and wait are describing a different product.
Salt the cooking liquid properly, or better still cook it in stock. Semolina pearls are bland on their own and salting afterwards never gets inside them, which is why unseasoned couscous salads taste thin no matter how good the dressing is.
M'hamsa is the couscous to use when the dish will be eaten cold or the next day, because it keeps its bite rather than going soggy. That is precisely why Tunisian cooks use it for salads, and it is the reason pearl couscous is a better substitute for those dishes than instant couscous.
Berkoukes, also spelled berkoukech, is the larger Algerian hand-rolled relative, roughly the size of a peppercorn. It works in the same recipes but needs five to ten minutes longer and more liquid, so do not swap it in without extending the cooking time.

Frequently asked questions

Is m'hamsa the same as pearl or Israeli couscous?

They are close cousins, not the same thing. Both are semolina pearls that you simmer rather than steam, which is why the swap works. M'hamsa is hand-rolled and sun-dried in Tunisia, so the pearls are irregular in size and shape and taste toastier and nuttier, while pearl couscous is machine-extruded into uniform spheres and tastes plainer and comes out springier. Use pearl couscous 1:1 and toast it first.

Can I use regular couscous instead of m'hamsa?

You can, but you must change the method and lower your expectations on texture. Regular instant couscous is pre-steamed and rehydrates in about five minutes off the heat, so if you simmer it like m'hamsa it collapses into mush. Hydrate it with hot stock in a covered bowl instead. The result is soft and fluffy rather than chewy, which is fine under a stew and disappointing in a salad.

How do I cook m'hamsa?

Toast it dry or in a little olive oil for two to three minutes, add about two parts salted stock or water to one part grain, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for twelve to eighteen minutes until tender but still chewy. Rest it off the heat for five minutes and fork it through with olive oil. Some Tunisian cooks steam it over a broth in a couscoussier instead, which takes longer and tastes better.

Is m'hamsa gluten-free?

No. It is made from durum wheat semolina and contains gluten, as do pearl couscous, fregola, orzo and bulgur. If you need a gluten-free version of a m'hamsa dish, cooked quinoa or short-grain brown rice will give you the bulk and some of the chew, though neither has the toasted semolina flavour or the round shape.

Can I leave the m'hamsa out and serve the stew with something else?

Yes, easily. M'hamsa is the starch component, not a flavouring, so anything that soaks up a sauce will do the job: rice, bulgur, orzo, flatbread or even potatoes. What you lose is the specific chewy texture that makes a m'hamsa salad worth eating, so if the grain is the dish rather than the accompaniment, use one of the pearl-shaped substitutes above instead of omitting it.

Related substitutes

More grains & starches substitutes

M'hamsa substitute

Other m'hamsa substitutes

2Fregola sarda

3Orzo or risoni

4Coarse bulgur

5Instant couscous

6Acini di pepe or broken vermicelli