My Cookbook: Souk to Table 
Arabic Pasta with Easy Yogurt Sauce (30 Minutes!)
If you need a quick, comforting pasta dinner with a unique twist, try my middle eastern / Arabic style pasta with an easy yogurt sauce. This recipe combines pasta with a creamy garlic, yogurt and tahini sauce, plus warmly spiced ground beef and crunchy pine nuts. Unlike traditional cream-based pasta sauces, this lighter yogurt sauce is tangy, rich, and incredibly easy to make. You’ll have it ready in about 30 minutes; the perfect weeknight meal.
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The Pasta & Yogurt Combination
So a lot of Arabs have grown up eating pasta with yogurt sauce. Not just plain yogurt, but mixed with some garlic, sometimes tahini, and sometimes I add a lot of herbs like mint or parsley. It’s the best quick pasta sauce – it takes 5 minutes. I suspect the dish came about as busy Arab moms scrambled to make a pasta with ingredients they know best.
To add more protein and make it a bit more filling, I often add ground beef seasoned in the typical Hashweh style that’s used for many ground beef dishes, including this bechamel pasta casserole.
It’s quite common to use yogurt in savoury applications across middle eastern cuisine (shish barak is a classic example), but this pasta is one of the quickest yogurt based recipes. In more recent years, I also started to make another Turkish inspired version which I call my addictive Turkish pasta. Similar idea, but with more spice and a butter drizzle.
Ingredients And How To Make It
You’ll need your basic pasta ingredients, but with some middle eastern additions. For the pasta, I used a beautiful mafalda corta but you can use any pasta you like (long or short noodles both work). If you can’t find allspice, you can replace it with my homemade seven spice blend.
This recipe comes together so quickly – you’ll have dinner ready in 30 minutes.
- First, start by boiling the pasta in salted water and cooking until al dente.
- Then work on the ground beef mixture by cooking the onions until softened, then adding the beef and breaking it up, browning it until all the liquid has evaporated.
- Add all the spices, mix well and taste and adjust.
- Meanwhile, the pasta should be done cooking. Drain it and set aside.
- To make the sauce, mix together the yogurt, tahini, garlic, mint, and lemon juice using a fork until smooth. Don’t be tempted to use a blender here, it will make the sauce turn into liquid.
- You can adjust the amount of garlic to your taste, but keep in mind that raw garlic is quite strong.
- Finally, prepare the pine nuts by toasting them for a few minutes on a pan until lightly golden – I use a bit of olive oil to toast them.
- Assemble the dish by adding a layer of pasta, then the meat mixture, then the sauce, and finally the pine nuts and fresh herbs of your choice.
FAQs and storage instructions
Can I make this pasta ahead of time? Yes! You can prepare the meat mixture ahead of time and store it in the fridge. The day you want to make it, just boil the pasta, mix together the sauce, heat the meat and assemble.
How to store it? I prefer to only mix the amount I need, and leave all the other elements separate. That way, leftovers can be stored separately. You can then re-heat the pasta and meat, but keep the yogurt cold or room temperature and not risk it changing texture with heat.
Can I add vegetables to this dish? Absolutely! You can add things like spinach, mushrooms, peas, carrots, peppers, etc. Do this by cooking the vegetables you want to add with the meat and onions and then assembling everything the same way.
Can I make the yogurt sauce using a blender? No! If you put the yogurt in a blender, it will liquify and you’ll end up with a liquid. Always mix it together using a fork.
If you tried these recipes, please consider leaving a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page – I’d love to hear from you! You can also hop on over to Instagram and say hello!
30-Minute Arabic Pasta with Yogurt Sauce
Ingredients
For the pasta:
- 400 g pasta, I used mafalda corta
- Salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
For the meat:
- 700 g extra lean ground beef
- 2 cups chopped white onions, roughly 2 medium onions
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons allspice, you can also use 7 spice
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 5 tablespoons tomato sauce
For the sauce:
- 2.5 cups plain full fat yogurt, 750g
- 1/2 cup tahini
- 1 large garlic clove, crushed
- 4 teaspoons dried mint, more per preference
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- A squeeze of lemon
For garnish:
- Toasted pine nuts
- Fresh herbs
Instructions
- Start by boiling the pasta in salted water until al dente. Drain and then drizzle with olive oil and set aside
- Meanwhile, make the meat mixture by firstly cooking the chopped onion with the olive oil on medium high heat until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes
- Add the ground beef and break it up into small pieces and cook it for 5-7 minutes, until browned and most of the moisture has dried up
- Add all the spices and the tomato sauce and mix well. Taste and adjust
- To make the yogurt sauce, mix all the sauce ingredients together using a fork (do not use a blender)
- Toast the pine nuts with half a tablespoon of olive oil on a pan until lightly golden
- To serve, layer the pasta, add the ground beef mixture, then the yogurt sauce, and top with the pine nuts and any fresh herbs you like. Enjoy!
A new favorite! Thank you for sharing your delicious recipe.
This is such a quick favourite at my house too, I’m really glad you enjoyed it Teresa! Thanks for your review!
Excited to make this but wondering where all the sodium is coming from?
Hi Miranda! I use a nutrition info generator that analyzes all the ingredients and uses average values for each one. The sodium in this recipe is likely from the added salt (in the pasta, beef, and the sauce) as well as from the yogurt. You can use less added salt and try it with greek yogurt which typically has less salt than plain yogurt. Hope that helps!
Delicious & plentiful.
I substituted what was on hand – tomato paste instead of sauce.
Added chopped yellow squash from the garden. Will make again when a hearty meal for six (or more) is needed.
Thank you!
This was so yummy, a new favorite! Thank you 🙂
Hi Teresa, Humaira here from the HP Team. So glad you enjoyed it, it’s such a good one! Thank you for your review!
This was amazing!! I love beef with cinnamon/all spice from my Greek grandmother’s recipes and I also love anything tahini. So easy to make and delicious! I did use fat free Fage Greek yogurt and it was still perfect. Thank you!
So wonderful to hear Jenn! Greek food has so many common threads with middle eastern. Thanks for your review!
I tried this recipe and it was sooo delicious! I didn’t have ground beef so I made it with ground chicken and it was really tasty. Love the yogurt sauce!
Awesome – great to hear 🙂
This was one of the most delicious and easiest meals I’ve ever had! I never thought to mix yogurt and tahini together and I’m addicted to it for this pasta or even a dip! Highly recommend this pasta.
Right? It’s such a great combo! It’s a staple sauce over here too.
So delicious! I used Ground lamb and would 10/10 recommend!!
Hi Emily, Humaira from the HP team here. What a great way to use ground lamb, it definitely sounds delicious! Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting, truly appreciate it.
Really loved this recipe. Hasn’t tried anything like it before. The flavors were spot on!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Fatimah! 🙂
This was the easiest and tastiest quick meal! I have made it in the past with yogurt only, but adding the meat made it filling and delicious! Thank you Amina ! I look forward to making your recipes so much. They do give me so much joy!