Iftar without dairy

Breaking the fast on dates and water is dairy free, and so is most of what follows it.

Lentil soup, freekeh soup, fattoush, tabbouleh, hummus, grilled meat, rice, bread, salad. The core of most iftar tables is fine.

The rest of the year works the same way, because most dinners only need what the dairy was doing, which is fat, or acid, or something creamy to carry the sauce.

Ghee. Samneh is made from butter. Clarified or not, it is dairy. It is in the rice, in the ma'amoul, in half the sweets, and it is the one people forget. If you are avoiding dairy because of an allergy rather than a preference, this is the one to ask about first.

Laban and ayran. Poured for everyone, often without asking.

Mutabbal. Frequently made with yogurt. Baba ghanoush usually is not. The two names get used for each other, so the name on the table tells you nothing. Ask.

Cream soups. Restaurant lentil soup sometimes has cream or butter stirred in at the end, even though the home version does not.

Sambousek and fatayer. The cheese ones are obvious. The meat ones are usually fine, unless they have been brushed with butter.

Marinades. Yogurt is a standard marinade for chicken. It cooks in and you cannot see it.

Bread. Some commercial flatbread has milk powder in it.

Most of Ramadan dessert is dairy.

• Kunafa. Cheese or cream. No.
• Muhalabia. Milk pudding. No.
• Riz bi haleeb. Milk. No.
• Qatayef with ashta. Ashta is cream. But qatayef with walnuts is a different filling, and the batter itself is often just flour, water and yeast. Often, not always. Ask whether there is milk in the batter.
• Basbousa. Usually yogurt or milk, and usually ghee. Assume no.
• Ma'amoul. Traditionally made with samneh. Assume no unless somebody tells you otherwise.
• Dates, plain or stuffed with nuts. Yes.
• Fresh fruit. Yes, and it is what most tables have anyway.

• Qamar al-din, which is apricot
• Jallab, which is date or grape molasses, though the pine nuts sometimes sit in cream so look
• Tamarind
• Lemon and mint
• Water, which after a day of fasting is what you actually want

This is the part nobody writes about. The food is not the problem. The table is.

Say it before the day, not at the table. A message the morning of, asking what is being made, is easier for everyone than turning down a plate in front of eleven people.

Offer to bring something. It is normal in Ramadan and it guarantees there is one dish you can eat.

Be specific rather than general. "No dairy" gets heard as "no milk in the tea". Naming ghee, laban and yogurt separately is what actually works.

Eat the dates. Nobody notices what you did not take when they see you eating.

And say all of it, because dairy is rarely the only thing on the list. Once it is dairy and gluten, or dairy and nuts, every dish in front of you becomes arithmetic rather than one question.