Yaprax includes stuffed leaves and mixed vegetables in Kurdish cooking. Published recipes show different fillings, souring ingredients and methods, from lentil-filled mixed pots to vine leaves with rice and pine nuts.

Round metal tray crowded with cooked stuffed onions, green peppers and dark-skinned vegetables, with rice visible and serving spoons resting above the food
Kurdish dolma photographed by Ktmcd66 on 27 March 2009. The mixed tray illustrates stuffed vegetables; its filling and method should not be assumed to match every recipe discussed below. [4] Photo: Ktmcd66, 2009, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

A family of preparations

Kurdish Central’s cuisine guide describes yaprax or dolma in grape-leaf, chard-and-mixed-vegetable, and cabbage forms. Its account distinguishes the spring use of vine leaves from mixed vegetables prepared at other times and describes meat as optional in the pot. [1] Yaprax should therefore not be defined only as a single vine-leaf recipe. The named examples below show how individual cooks organise this broader group.

Seiran Sinjari’s vegan mixed pot

In her recipe published by Best of Vegan, Seiran Sinjari uses rice and cooked brown lentils with dill, parsley, leek and garlic. Lemon and pomegranate molasses provide sourness. Her selection includes dried peppers, courgettes, aubergines, onion layers and preserved grape leaves, arranged over sliced potatoes. The vegetables are packed into the pot and simmered in a tomato-based stock until the rice and vegetables are cooked. [2] This is a documented vegan preparation, not a rule that all Kurdish yaprax contains lentils or this particular vegetable assortment.

Shokhan’s vine-leaf rolls

KYCLOS publishes a yapraq recipe credited to Shokhan from Kurdistan. It uses rice, onion, olive oil, pine nuts, currants, cinnamon, pimento, mint, lemon and dill, with parsley optional. The rice filling is partly cooked before wrapping and cooled before the fresh herbs are added. The wrapped leaves are arranged in a lined pot and held under a plate during their final simmer. [3] Here the emphasis is on vine-leaf rolls rather than Sinjari’s mixed stuffed vegetables.

Glossy stuffed vine-leaf rolls on a white plate with small Greek and Kurdistan flags on wooden picks
Stuffed leaves photographed by Sina.ahm on 14 December 2018. The flags present a Kurdish and Greek comparison; the photograph does not document either named recipe’s filling. [5] Photo: Sina.ahm, 14 December 2018, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What the comparison explains

These recipes differ in both ingredients and sequence: Sinjari’s filling includes cooked lentils and uses a mixed pot, while Shokhan partly cooks a rice filling before rolling leaves. [2] [3] It is more useful to follow one complete recipe than to combine its quantities with another cook’s liquid level or cooking time. Neither example requires the claim that yoghurt, meat or pomegranate molasses is present in every Kurdish household’s preparation.

Serving, company and attribution

Kurdish Central describes the work of preparing yaprax with family or friends and turning the cooked contents onto a shared platter. [1] Such accounts help document social use without assigning cooking to all women or one generation. Kurdish names and cooks deserve explicit attribution. The sources here establish particular preparations; they do not date the invention of stuffed leaves or prove exclusive ownership of the wider regional technique.

Sources and further reading

  1. Kurdish Central / SIL Global, Cuisine, Yaprax or Dolma section; leaf types, mixed vegetables, optional meat and shared preparation.
  2. Seiran Sinjari, Vegan Kurdish Aprax / Dolma, Best of Vegan, updated 12 March 2026; author’s filling, vegetables and method.
  3. Shokhan, Yapraq, KYCLOS, 5 October 2024, updated 16 November 2024; attributed community recipe for stuffed vine leaves.
  4. Ktmcd66, Kurdish dolma, photograph, 27 March 2009; own work released into the public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  5. Sina.ahm, Dolmades Kurdish and Greek — Dec 2018, photograph, 14 December 2018; own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.