Skip to content

Nabulsi Cheese substitute

Best substitute

Halloumi

Use the same amount soaked 1 hour in cold water as the nabulsi cheese you are replacing

Best for frying as jibneh mishwiyeh

Close match

Halloumi is the closest substitute and swaps one for one, especially for frying and grilling, though it is saltier and more rubbery, so soak it in cold water for an hour and press a quarter teaspoon of nigella seeds onto the slices to finish the impression. Akkawi cheese is the other traditional choice and is milder and meltier. For knafeh Nabulsieh, where you need salt-tang and a cheese pull at the same time, the practical compromise is three parts low-moisture mozzarella to one part feta. Nabulsi's job is to bring salt and a mild sheepy tang while holding its structure under heat, softening into a chewy pull rather than collapsing into a puddle, which is exactly why cheeses that melt easily are the wrong answer for frying and the right answer for knafeh.

Other nabulsi cheese substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Nabulsi Cheese with ratios

  1. 2Akkawi cheese

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount soaked first

    Soft mild cow's milk brine cheese from Akka, the other traditional Levantine choice for the same dishes.

    What changes
    Best for
    knafeh and kunafa, cheese manakish, sweets where a molten filling is wanted, milder palates

    Culturally correct and easy to find in Middle Eastern groceries. It is softer, milder and made from cow's milk, so it lacks nabulsi's sheepy tang, and crucially it melts properly rather than merely softening. In knafeh that is an improvement if you want a long stretch, and a change if you wanted the chewier Nabulsi-style pull. For frying it is the weaker choice, because it slumps in the pan where nabulsi holds up.

  2. 3Low-moisture mozzarella with feta (3 to 1)

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount total weight, three parts mozzarella to one part feta

    Grated block mozzarella mixed with crumbled feta that has been soaked briefly to reduce salt.

    What changes
    Best for
    knafeh Nabulsieh, cheese pastries, supermarket-only shopping, when you need both salt and stretch

    The best knafeh you can build from a regular grocery store. Mozzarella provides the pull nabulsi's chew hints at, and the feta provides the sheep tang and the salt that mozzarella completely lacks. The result tastes milder and more Italian-creamy than the real thing, and the stretch is longer and looser than nabulsi's chewy pull. Do not push the feta past a quarter of the total or the filling turns sharp and grainy.

  3. 4Queso fresco, queso blanco or paneer

    Different taste

    Use the same amount plus salt and nigella seeds

    Fresh unaged pressed white cheeses that soften under heat but do not melt or stretch.

    What changes
    Best for
    frying, sweets where the cheese should stay in pieces, halawet el jibn if blended with mozzarella, wide availability

    Right crumb, right mildness, right refusal to melt, wrong seasoning. Paneer is completely unsalted and queso fresco only lightly so, so add half a teaspoon of salt per cup plus nigella seeds to get anywhere near nabulsi. They also lack any tang, since neither is brined or aged, so the finished dish tastes flatter and sweeter. Queso fresco browns less enthusiastically than nabulsi or halloumi, so give it a hotter pan and less oil.

  4. 5Feta, soaked in cold water

    Different texture

    Use the same amount soaked 1 to 2 hours

    Brined sheep or sheep-and-goat cheese, the closest match for nabulsi's milk and its tang.

    What changes
    Best for
    dishes where the cheese is crumbled rather than sliced, savoury pastries and fatayer, salads, when sheepy tang is the priority

    The best flavour match of all, because it is the same kind of milk brined in the same way, and a soak knocks back the salt to roughly nabulsi's level. What fails is structure: feta is crumbly and it collapses and weeps when heated instead of holding a slice or pulling into a chew, so it cannot be fried or grilled as nabulsi is and it will not give a knafeh any stretch. Use it where the cheese is broken up anyway.

  5. 6The honest gap for knafeh Nabulsieh

    Taste and texture differ

    no single cheese does it

    An admission rather than a substitute: no widely available cheese delivers both nabulsi's salty sheep tang and its structural chew.

    What changes
    Best for
    understanding what you are trading away, deciding which quality to prioritise

    Pick which half of the job matters more. If you want the flavour, use soaked feta or a mozzarella-feta blend and accept a softer, less chewy filling. If you want the behaviour, use halloumi or queso fresco and accept a cheese that tastes plainer than it should. If it is frying rather than baking, halloumi genuinely gets you ninety percent of the way and the remaining ten percent is nigella seeds. There is no version of this where a supermarket cheese does both, and it is better to know that going in than to be disappointed by the tray.

What is Nabulsi Cheese?

Nabulsi Cheese is a firm white brined cheese from Nablus in Palestine, also called nablusi or jibneh nabulsieh, traditionally made from sheep's milk or a sheep and goat mix, boiled in brine and usually studded with nigella seeds, and firm enough to fry or grill in slices without melting into the pan.

Cooking tips

  • Soak any brined cheese before using it in a sweet dish and taste it before you stop. Nabulsi, halloumi and feta all arrive far saltier than a syrup-soaked dessert can carry. One to two hours in cold water in the fridge, changing the water once, is usually enough.
  • Nigella seeds are the signature. That faint oniony, slightly bitter note is what makes people recognise nabulsi, and a quarter teaspoon pressed onto slices or stirred into a filling does more for the impression than any change of cheese. Do not confuse them with black sesame, which tastes nothing like them.
  • Dry the cheese thoroughly before frying and use a hot dry non-stick or well-seasoned pan with barely any oil. Wet brined cheese spits violently and steams instead of browning, and the golden crust is most of the pleasure of fried nabulsi.
  • Do not fry for long. Every cheese in this family goes from tender to squeaky and tough in about a minute past its peak, so aim for a minute or two a side and serve straight away while the inside is still soft.
  • If you are using a mozzarella blend for knafeh, salt the mixture before assembling rather than salting the finished dessert. Salt on the surface tastes harsh and uneven, while salt mixed through the cheese reads as the brined tang you are trying to recreate.

Frequently asked questions

Is halloumi a good substitute for nabulsi cheese?

For frying and grilling, it is genuinely close, because both are brined cheeses engineered to hold their shape under heat and both squeak. Soak it for an hour to bring the salt down and add nigella seeds, and most people will not question it. For knafeh it is a weaker choice, since halloumi resists melting almost completely and a knafeh wants at least some softening and pull.

Can I use feta instead?

For flavour, yes, and it is arguably the best match on the shelf since it is usually the same sheep milk brined the same way. For texture, no. Feta crumbles and weeps rather than holding a slice, so you cannot fry or grill it as you would nabulsi, and it gives no stretch in a pastry. Soak it, then use it in dishes where the cheese is crumbled anyway.

Can I leave the cheese out of knafeh Nabulsieh?

Not from that dish, because the cheese is the filling and its salt is what makes the sweet syrup interesting. If you cannot get a suitable cheese, make a different version instead: ashta cream knafeh or a pistachio-filled one are both traditional and need no cheese at all. That is a better outcome than a knafeh with the wrong filling.

What is the difference between nabulsi and akkawi?

Milk, firmness and melt. Nabulsi is usually sheep's milk, firm, tangier and seasoned with nigella, and it softens rather than melting, which is why it fries so well. Akkawi is cow's milk, softer, milder and it melts and stretches properly. Both are used for knafeh across the Levant, and the version you grew up with probably determines which one tastes correct to you.

Where do I buy nabulsi cheese?

Middle Eastern and Palestinian groceries, usually in tubs of brine or vacuum-sealed in the chilled case, and it is often sold in flat rectangular blocks with visible black nigella seeds. Some shops also sell it frozen, which works fine, since freezing barely affects a firm brined cheese. If your shop has none, halloumi from a regular supermarket is the practical fallback.

Related substitutes

More cheese substitutes

Need a different ingredient?

Browse the full index, or the rest of this category.

Browse all substitutesMore cheese