List of Israeli dishes explained

The following is a list of Israeli dishes. For the cuisine, see Israeli cuisine (Hebrew: המטבח הישראלי).

Main dishes

Meat

• Jerusalem mixed grill—originating in Jerusalem,^[1] a mixed grill of chicken hearts, spleens and liver mixed with bits of lamb cooked on a flat grill, seasoned with a spice blend and served with rice, mujaddara or bamia
• Kubba seleq—stew or soup made of beet
• Merguez—a spicy sausage originating in North Africa, mainly eaten grilled in Israel
• Moussaka—oven-baked layered ground-meat and eggplant casserole
• Schnitzel—fried chicken breast with breadcrumb or spice-flavored flour coating
• Shashlik—skewered and grilled cubes of meat
• Skewered goose liver—flavored with spices
• Kabanos — is a long, thin, dry sausage usually made of pork which originated in Poland, and is also very popular in Israel

Fish

• Denesse—in the coastal region, baked with yogurt, tomatoes, garlic, dried mint and cucumbers; also prepared fried
• Gefilte fish—traditional Ashkenazi Jewish quenelles made of carp, whitefish, or pike, typically eaten as an appetizer
• Tilapia—St. Peter's fish, eaten in Israel and especially in Tiberias fried or baked with spices

Vegetarian

• Brik—thin pastry around a filling, commonly deep fried
• Burgul—wheat, cooked in many ways
• Hamin—long-cooked Shabbat stews made with a variety of meats, grains and root vegetables
• Jakhnun—pastry served on Shabbat morning with fresh grated tomato and skhug, eaten for breakfast especially on Shabbat
• Khachapuri—bread filled with eggs and cheese
• Kishka—stuffed derma, typically cooked in Shabbat stews
• Ktzitzot Khubeza—a patty made of mallow, bulgur/bread crumbs, eggs, onion, olive oil
• Kubba bamia—dumplings made of semolina or rice and okra cooked in a tomato stew or soup
• Macaroni Hamin—a traditional Sephardic Jerusalemite dish, originally from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem
• Malawach—bread eaten with fresh grated tomato and skhug
• Orez Shu'it—white beans cooked in a tomato stew and served on rice
• Ptitim—toasted pasta shaped like rice grains^[2]
• Ziva—puff pastry topped with sesame seeds and filled with cheese and olives

Soups

• Maraq 'Adashim—lentil soup cooked with tomato sauce
• Maraq Shuit—white-bean soup cooked with tomato sauce
• Matzah ball—dropped into a pot of salted boiling water or chicken soup, a staple food on Passover.
• Shkedei marak—small yellow squares made from flour and palm oil.

Meze

• Bourekas—phyllo or puff pastry filled with vegetables, cheese, meat, spices, herbs, nuts, pickles, etc. (comes from börek)
• Kreplach—small dumplings filled with ground meat, mashed potatoes or another filling, usually boiled and served in chicken soup, though they may also be served fried.

Salads and dips

• Cabbage salad
• Carrot salad
• Coleslaw
• Greek salad
• Hamusim—vegetables pickled in a pot, such as cucumber and cabbage, eggplant, carrot, turnip, radish, onion, caper, lemon, olives, cauliflower, tomatoes, chili, bell pepper, garlic and beans
• Israeli salad—made with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, parsley
• Matbucha—cooked dish of tomatoes and roasted bell peppers seasoned with garlic and chili pepper
• Salat avocado—rural salad made of avocados, with lemon juice and chopped scallions
• Salat ḥatzilim b'mayonnaise—contains fried eggplant, mayonnaise, garlic
• Sabich salad—rural salad dish, the ingredients are almost the same as in sabich itself without the hummus and pita bread

Cheeses and yogurts

• Cottage cheese
• Circassian cheese—a mild cheese that does not melt when baked or fried, and can be crumbled
• Feta cheese
• Gvina levana—Israeli quark cheese, sold in different fat content variations (1-2%, 3%, 5% and 9%)
• Milky—yogurt with chocolate pudding, vanilla whipped-cream and other variations
• Sirene—a type of brined cheese made in the Balkans
• Tzfat cheese—semi-hard salty sheep milk cheese

Spices and condiments

• Ras el hanout—used in many savory dishes, sometimes rubbed on meat or fish, or stirred into couscous, pasta or rice
• Sumac—dried fruits are ground to produce a tangy, crimson spice
• Hawaij—a variety of Yemeni ground spice mixtures
• Filfel chuma—a chili-garlic paste similar to a hot sauce originating from Libyan Jews
• Skhug—the hot sauce of choice in the Middle East, made from chili peppers, cilantro, and various spices, red or green, depending on the color of the chilis
• Amba—tangy mango pickle condiment of Iraqi-Jewish and Kurdish-Jewish origin

Breads

Breads

• Bagel—a ring of yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, first boiled for a short time in water and then baked
• Challah—a special bread of Eastern-European origin in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, usually braided
• Kubaneh—traditional Yemenite Jewish bread similar to monkey bread
• Malawach—thin layers of puff pastry brushed with oil or fat and cooked flat in a frying pan
• Matzah—an unleavened flatbread
• Mofletta—a thin crêpe made from water, flour and oil
• Sliced bread—less common today

Bread dishes

• Bagel toast
• Falafel in pita–Israeli pita stuffed with falafel balls and Israeli salad^[3]
• Havita b'laffa—omelette in taboon bread, served with hummus or labneh
• Jerusalem mixed grill—can be served in pita or laffa
• Lahmacun—round, thin piece of dough topped with minced meat (most commonly beef and lamb) and minced vegetables and herbs including onions, tomatoes and parsley, then baked
• Sabich—served in pita, traditionally containing fried eggplant, hard-boiled eggs, hummus, tahini, Israeli salad, potato, parsley and amba. Traditionally it is made with haminados eggs. Sometimes it is doused with hot sauce and sprinkled with minced onion
• Tunisian sandwich—warm sandwich with tuna, hard-boiled egg, potato, harissa and olives

Snacks

• Bamba—a peanut-butter-flavored snack
• Bissli—popular flavors are "Grill" and "Barbecue", others include onion, smoky, pizza, falafel, Mexican, and hamburger
• Bourekas—a popular baked pastry
• Cow Chocolate—a brand of chocolate products
• Wafer
• Frikandel—a sort of minced-meat hot dog
• Klik—various chocolate, candy, and chocolate-covered products, including chocolate-covered corn flakes and malted milk balls
• Krembo—a chocolate-coated marshmallow treat
• Mekupelet—a bar of thinly folded milk chocolate
• Pannekoek special—pancake or crêpe filled with Nutella chocolate spread and banana
• Pesek Zman—brand of chocolate bar
• Sufganiyah—a round jelly doughnut
• Sfenj—a light, spongy ring of dough fried in oil, eaten plain, sprinkled with sugar, or soaked in honey
• Tortit—a wafer coated with chocolate containing rum-like almond cream

Sweets and desserts

• Fazuelos—Sephardic pastries of thin fried dough
• Hamantash—an Ashkenazi triangular filled-pocket cookie
• Ice cream—ice creams, ice pops, and sorbets come in many flavors including halva, hummus, Bamba, arak, watermelon, sirene, labane, and za'atar
• Cheesecake—are very popular in Israel, especially during Shavuot when it is customary to eat dairy foods.
• Crumb cake—is a cake made of yeast dough covered with a sweet crumb.
• Krantz cake—variations include one filled with chocolate and raspberry jam, another soaked in honey syrup
• Kugel—a baked pudding or casserole, most commonly made from egg noodles
• Lahoh—a spongy, pancake-like bread originating from Somalia and the Horn of Africa
• Lekach—a honey-sweetened cake
• Levivot—Hanukah latkes (potato pancakes)
• Pannekoek special—pancake or crêpe filled with Nutella chocolate spread and banana
• Rugelach—a triangle of dough around a filling
• Silan—date honey
• Watermelon with sirene or safed cheese, and sometimes mint leaves

Beverages

• Apricot juice
• Arak—Anise-flavored alcoholic beverage, sometimes flavored with grapefruit or khat juices instead of water
• Beer
• Gat—A juice made of khat, in Jerusalem it is mixed with citron and named Etrogat
• Limonana—type of lemonade made from freshly-squeezed lemon juice and mint leaves
• Orange juice
• Pomegranate juice
• Pomegranate wine
• Shoko Bsakit—chocolate milk in a bag
• Sugarcane juice
• Tea—sometimes flavored with rosewater, mint, lemon juice, honey or date honey
• Turkish coffee
• Vodka—distilled beverage composed primarily of water and ethanol, sometimes with traces of impurities and flavorings
• Wine

Other

Starch

See also

• Israeli cuisine
• Kosher restaurant
• Middle Eastern cuisine
• Strauss-Elite
• Osem (company)

Notes and References

1. Book: Ottolenghi . Y. . Tamimi . S. . Jerusalem: A Cookbook . Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony . 2012 . 978-1-60774-395-8 . May 4, 2017 . 326.
2. News: Ben-Gurion's rice . . May 9, 2008 . 19 August 2014 . Gaunt, Doram.
3. Web site: A Brief History of Falafel in Israel.