Iraq
The cooking of Mesopotamia — deep, tangy and generous. Iraqi tables lean on pomegranate molasses, baharat and dill: an upside-down pot of stuffed dolma, a tray-baked eggplant casserole, date-filled holiday cookies. Here are twenty-seven dishes closest to a Chaldean-Iraqi home.
Turshi
The curry-golden pickled vegetables that sit in a bowl beside every Iraqi meal — cauliflower, carrot and celery in a sharp, spiced brine.
Mtabbal
Fire-charred eggplant mashed with tahini, yogurt and garlic — the smoky, creamy dip most of the world mislabels baba ghanoush.
Zahra with Amba
Golden egg-battered cauliflower tucked into warm bread with tomato, onion and a drizzle of tangy mango-pickle sauce — Iraqi street food at home.
Shorbat Adas
The everyday red lentil soup of Iraq — golden with curry powder, thickened with a handful of rice, brightened with lemon.
Kubba Hamuth
Rice-dough dumplings stuffed with spiced meat, simmered in a sour tomato-mint broth — the beloved ‘sour kubba’ of Chaldean kitchens.
Tepsi Baytinijan
Iraq’s beloved ‘tray’ casserole — fried eggplant, meatballs, potato and tomato baked together in a garlicky tomato sauce.
Iraqi Dolma
The centerpiece of every Iraqi celebration — vegetables and leaves stuffed with tangy spiced rice, simmered slowly and flipped out onto a platter.
Kubba Halab
Torpedoes of soft rice-and-potato dough wrapped around spiced meat and nuts, deep-fried to a shattering golden crust.
Bamia
A garlicky okra-and-lamb stew in a tangy tomato sauce, finished with pomegranate molasses and spooned over vermicelli rice.
Iraqi Biryani
A festive, jewel-toned rice crowned with fried vegetables, sweet raisins and toasted almonds — Iraq’s celebration platter, not to be confused with the South Asian dish.
Masgouf
Iraq’s national dish — butterflied fish smothered in a rich onion-tomato sauce, traditionally fire-roasted on stakes beside the Tigris.
Quzi
Fall-apart lamb over golden broth-cooked rice with fried almonds and raisins — the grand platter of Iraqi weddings and feasts.
Kibbeh Mosul
Mosul’s famous flat kubba — two thin bulgur-and-meat disks sealed around a warm-spiced filling, boiled and cut in wedges like a savory pie.
Margat Fasolia
White beans and lamb simmered into a rich tomato stew — half of Iraq’s beloved weekday rhythm of marga ladled over rice.
Iraqi Kabab
Juicy lamb-and-beef kabab pressed onto wide skewers and grilled fast over open flame — seasoned, defiantly, with salt and pepper alone.
Timman Bagilla
Basmati steamed with mountains of fresh dill and buttery fava beans — Iraq’s green celebration rice, usually crowned with chicken or lamb.
Kahi & Geymar
Iraq’s most luxurious breakfast — crisp syrup-soaked pastry under a thick slice of homemade clotted cream, finished with date syrup.
Lahm bi Ajeen
Soft, thin flatbreads baked under a savory layer of spiced meat, tomato and parsley — kept warm and pliable under a towel, Iraqi-style.
Kleicha
Iraq’s national cookie — a cardamom-scented dough rolled around a spiced date filling and baked golden. The smell of a Chaldean holiday.
Zlabia
Lacy fried spirals of fermented batter dunked in fragrant syrup — the pale, crisp sweet of Iraqi Ramadan nights.
Kari
The Chaldean kitchen’s everyday curry — “kari” is simply the Assyrian word for curry — a “yellow” marqa of tender meat and potato in a curry-and-tomato sauce, spooned over rice. Turmeric gives it its color and fenugreek its soul, and many families finish it with a sour note of dried lime or lemon. The curry blend is an heirloom; no two families’ is quite the same.
Fasolia Khadra
The white bean’s everyday sibling — green beans and tender meat in a tomato sauce, spooned over rice. In most Middle Eastern kitchens “fasolia” on its own means exactly this, the green-bean stew; the dried white-bean version gets the qualifier yabsa. It’s a quicker weeknight marqa, finished with lemon (Assyrian) or pomegranate molasses (Iraqi).
Hareesa
The holiday dish: wheat and meat slow-cooked for hours and beaten until they become one smooth, comforting porridge, finished with a pour of sizzling browned butter. For Assyrian and Chaldean families this is Christmas (Eeda Zoora) and Easter (Eeda Gura) — cooked in a great pot, stirred in shifts, and shared. It is a labor of love, which is exactly why it means so much.
Gus
Gus is simply what Iraqis call shawarma — thin-sliced beef or veal, marinated in warm spices and lemon, then seared hard on a screaming-hot pan that stands in for the vertical spit. It’s tucked into samoon with the Iraqi signatures: amba, torshi, and sumac onions. That amba-and-pickle treatment, rather than tahini, is what makes it Baghdad and not Beirut.
Yellow Rice
The everyday golden rice of the Iraqi table — basmati turned sunny with turmeric (or saffron for special occasions), perfumed with whole cardamom, cinnamon, and clove, and built pilaf-style so every grain stays separate. It’s the bed under nearly every marqa, and the difference between a good plate and a great one.
Chicken Cream Chop
A metro-Detroit Chaldean staple — and a small mystery, because despite the name there’s no cream anywhere in it. “Cream chop” is a crispy breaded chicken cutlet: pounded thin, dredged, and shallow-fried golden, then sliced into a sandwich with toum and pickles, or laid over rice with roasted vegetables. Nobody quite agrees where the “cream” came from (most likely a worn-down “crumb chop”); everybody agrees it disappears fast.
Chilifry
The home name for the dish Chaldean restaurants like Sahara list as “Stir Fry (Ghallaba)” — diced beef, chicken, or shrimp sautéed with onion, green pepper, and tomato into a quick, savory, lightly spiced sauté, eaten over rice or stuffed into bread. Fast, forgiving, and endlessly riffed on; “chilifry” (sometimes chelfray) is just “chili + fry” smoothed together by the tongue.
Middle Eastern home cooking, organized by country. Your family’s version is the one that counts.