Kurdish History Journal
Fefil salçası (biber salçası) is the Kurdish red pepper paste — fresh peppers sun-dried for six to seven days on the rooftops of Amed each August. The bright red companion to the dark izot spice, it is the foundational condiment of the Kurdish Bakur kitchen, used in meftûne, kebabs, and countless dishes.
Read article →Şorba nîsk is the Kurdish red lentil soup — the most everyday and universal pot in the Kurdish kitchen, finished with somaq (sumac) and served with flatbread. Originating in Southeast Anatolia (Kurdish Bakur), it is eaten across all four parts of Kurdistan and is the first course of the Ramadan iftar.
Read article →Kanzar is the Kurdish wild mushroom — foraged from the Zagros oak forests of Bashur (Iraqi Kurdistan) each spring. Edible mushrooms and truffles are integral to Kurdish local cuisine; 17 species have been documented in the Kurdistan Region. The food that grows in the forest floor when the rains come.
Read article →Bih (beh) is the Kurdish quince — known as the ‘fruit from heaven’ in Rojhelat, with its name meaning goodness. Used in Kurdish lamb stew (khoresh-e bih), prized quince reçel, and quince paste. The last orchard fruit of the Kurdish autumn, transforming under heat from sour to amber-gold.
Read article →Aşure is Kurdish Noah’s pudding — wheat, walnuts, pomegranate seeds, dried figs, apricots and chickpeas cooked into a sweet pudding and distributed to forty neighbours during Muharram. Noah’s Ark landed on Mount Ararat in Kurdish Bakur; Kurdish communities have been making this pudding from the Kurdish pantry ever since.
Read article →Nanê tirî is the nomadic Kurdish flatbread of the Koçer herders of Hakkari / Colemêrg — baked on the same fire used to boil the morning’s milk, eaten with fresh cheese and butter in the highland camp. The bread of a people who keep moving.
Read article →Perde pilavı is Siirt’s curtain rice — chicken and pine-nut rice baked inside a pastry dome, served at Kurdish weddings. The dough symbolises keeping the home’s secrets; the rice means fertility; the almonds represent grandchildren. The most symbolic dish in the Kurdish kitchen.
Read article →Hejîr (هەنجیری) is the Kurdish fig — wild fig grows spontaneously in Kurdistan, and the fig is probably the world’s first cultivated fruit, over 11,000 years old. Named with the olive in the Quran as a sacred fruit, the hejîr connects the Kurdish mountains to the very beginning of human agriculture.
Read article →Tût (toot / dut) is the Kurdish mulberry — eaten fresh in summer, dried for winter, pressed into syrup, or made into fruit leather. The black mulberry originated in the Zagros mountains; white mulberries grow in Tunceli/Dersim. The fruit that fed the silkworm of the Silk Road.
Read article →Daweta Kurdî is the Kurdish wedding feast — cattle slaughtered at dawn, women cooking qozê in copper cauldrons, dolma and biryani and kebabs served straight from the pot to hundreds of guests. The communal heart of Kurdish celebration.
Read article →Izot (isot / Urfa biber) is the dark, oily, smoky Kurdish chili pepper of Şanlıurfa / Riha, the Kurdish-majority city of Bakur. Sun-dried by day and wrapped to sweat at night, izot develops flavours of raisins, chocolate, and tobacco — the defining dark spice of the Kurdish kitchen.
Read article →Taskababi is the Kurdish onion and lamb stew of the winter clay pot — known in Kurdistan as “onion water,” slow-cooked for hours with dried lime, cinnamon, and pearl onions. A symbol of Kurdish comfort food at its most simple and nourishing.
Read article →Genim is the Kurdish word for wheat — and einkorn wheat, ancestor of all bread wheat, was first domesticated on Karacadağ mountain near Diyarbakır / Amed, in Kurdish Bakur. The Kurdish mountains are where farming began.
Read article →Zeytûn is the Kurdish olive — and a 2013 peer-reviewed study found that the olive tree was first domesticated in the Kurdish-region south Taurus Mountains. The world’s most iconic Mediterranean crop has its primary origin in Kurdish hands.
Read article →The Kurdish breakfast of Van is a spread of fifteen or more small plates — penîrê giyayî, kaymak, honey, reçel, bread, eggs, tahini with molasses, and endless tea. The elaborate breakfast tradition credited to Kurdish Van, now a beloved institution at Van Kahvalti Evi in Istanbul.
Read article →Pestil is Kurdish dried grape leather — grape juice thickened with flour and sun-dried each October at the communal vintage, to the sound of klams. The winter snack rolled around walnuts, the last preserve of the Kurdish autumn.
Read article →Mangal is the Kurdish charcoal grill — a social institution where families gather around coals on a Friday afternoon. The Kurdish kebab tradition includes kababî kurdî (Van kebab), şiş, kofta, and liver, all served with sumac onion, bread, and yogurt.
Read article →Qêsî is the Kurdish dried apricot — sun-dried in summer, stored through winter, and the heart of qayse w kishmish, the classic Kurdish festive stew of lamb with dried apricots and raisins. From the Zagros orchards to the Eid feast table.
Read article →Gûz is the Kurdish walnut — a tree whose wild ancestors grow in the Zagros mountains, the heart of Kurdistan. Used pickled, in syrup, in halva, and cracked with tea in winter, it is one of the most ancient and versatile foods of the Kurdish kitchen.
Read article →Hênar is the Kurdish pomegranate — cultivated in Halabja, Horaman, and Sharazur, sacred in both Yarsanism and Islam, and used as juice, dried arils, and autumn molasses. A Kurdistani fruit par excellence.
Read article →Nan is the Kurdish word for bread — and for food itself. Baked in the tenûr (Kurdish clay oven) by Kurdish women every morning, it underlies every meal in the Kurdish table, from breakfast with honey to the feast stew soaked into torn flatbread.
Read article →Somaq is the Kurdish name for sumac — the wild dark-red mountain spice at the heart of Kurdish sourness. Ground on grilled meat, steeped in water for sour stews like meftûne, and scattered on onions beside the kebab, it is the spice that underlies a whole cuisine’s love of acidity.
Read article →Rewas is the Kurdish name for wild rhubarb (Rheum ribes) — foraged in spring from the mountain slopes, eaten raw with salt and sumac, and known as the “Kurdish banana.” The sour spring snack at the heart of the Kurdish foraging tradition.
Read article →Rûn (rowan) is Kurdish clarified butter — made from butter churned in the mashk waterskin on the summer zozan high pasture, then clarified and stored in clay jars for winter. Praised since medieval times for its wildflower scent, it is the cooking fat at the heart of the Kurdish kitchen.
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