Kurdish cuisine

Dishes and foods

Dairy products

Yoghurt, or mast in Kurdish, is considered the most popular fermented dairy product amongst Kurds. Doogh (or do in Kurdish) and kashk are two popular dairy products made from yogurt.

Cheeses

The Kurdish people make many types of cheese using sheep, goat, or cow milk. The traditional cheeses made by Kurdish people are the following:

• Lorik — a traditional Kurdish whey cheese that is made by reheating whey that is left over after cheese production. The cheese has a soft texture and is commonly eaten fresh, especially during spring and summer. Before refrigerators existed, lorik was mixed with wild mountain herbs and stored in containers for consumption during the colder seasons. This preserved form was called Lorik u Giya (meaning “Lorik with herbs”) and is still popular in Kurdistan today.

• Jajî (Van herbed cheese) — sometimes known as Penîre Giyayî, is a Kurdish herbed cheese made from raw sheep’s milk and mixed with many varieties of mountain herbs, giving it an aromatic flavor. The cheese is produced at the villages of Van Province by Kurdish women who gather the herbs by hand each spring. The cheese, however, is marketed and sold by the Turkish name Van Otlu Peyniri (meaning Van herbed cheese) and the Kurdish name jajî is almost never used.

Rice dishes

• Perde pelav
• Biryanî
• Birinca sor (red rice)
• Birinc bi maş (mung beans and rice)

Stews

Bread

In Kurdistan, bread can be found in various forms. Their ingredients differ as well as their shapes, densities, and textures.

Stuffed vegetables

Stuffed vegetables are widely known as pelpêç or îprax (sarma) or pel (dolma) in Kurdish regions.

• Pel (dolma)
• Pelpêç or îprax (yaprak or sarma)

Meat

As nomads and herders, lamb and chicken have been the main dishes of Kurdish cuisine for centuries. Dishes with meat involved include:

• Kutilk, also used in the following stews:
  • Tirşik
  • Kutildewk
  • Avşirînk
• Putête çap
• Kebab
• Qelî, Kurdish stir-fry
• Meqlûbî
• Skewered meat (i.e. chicken, mutton, beef, etc.)

Dessert

• Gilûl, cooked yoghurt and rice topped with a layer of date molasses
• Xebîse, brown cookies unique to the city of Amedi
• Kade, ceremonial cookies usually with a date, walnut, or coconut filling
• Arxavk, a paste made from flour and water which can be done savory or sweet
  • Kurds also use arxavk as a kade filling
• Apple salad (chopped apples in mayonnaise) is a popular appetizer in Kurdish cuisine
• Peqlave

Non-alcoholic beverages

• Kurdish coffee, also known as terebinth coffee (Qehweya kezwanê or Kafêya Kurdî)
• Çay
• Dew or do
  • Also used in stews such as kutildewk
• Avamast or mastaw
• Raisin juice
• Xoşav, or compote

Related cuisines

• Afghan cuisine
• Albanian cuisine
• Arab cuisine
• Armenian cuisine
• Assyrian cuisine
• Azerbaijani cuisine
• Balkan cuisine
• Balochi cuisine
• Bosnian cuisine
• Bulgarian cuisine
• Caucasian cuisine
• Central Asian cuisine
• Cypriot cuisine
• Georgian cuisine
• Greek cuisine
• Iranian cuisine
• Levantine cuisine
• Mediterranean cuisine
• Mesopotamian cuisine
• Middle Eastern cuisine
• North Indian cuisine
• Ottoman cuisine
• Pakistani cuisine
• Tajik cuisine
• Turkish cuisine
• Turkmen cuisine
• Uzbek cuisine