The most famous meals of Iraqi cuisine
Iraqi cuisine is renowned for many dishes and recipes that set it apart from other Arab and Middle Eastern kitchens. Its originality and uniqueness stem from recipes passed down through generations and the ancient civilizations of Iraq — including the Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian cultures — which shaped local Iraqi culture and appear in many aspects of life, including cooking methods, recipes and traditional meals.
Show key points
- Iraqi cuisine stands out from other Arab and Middle Eastern kitchens due to its deep historical roots and unique culinary traditions passed down from ancient civilizations.
- Rice Bean, known locally as "taman with beans," is a beloved Iraqi dish featuring rice mixed with beans, dill, and optionally meat or chicken.
- The preparation of Iraqi Rice Bean involves sautéing garlic and onions, boiling rice and beans in broth, then adding dill and pre-cooked meat before simmering.
- ADVERTISEMENT
- Smech Mesgoff is Iraq’s national dish, traditionally made by grilling fresh river fish using radiant heat from a willow wood fire.
- Iraqi Masgouf preparation includes butterfly-cutting the fish, seasoning it, staking it upright around a fire, and finally charring the skin directly over coals.
- Dolma is a popular Iraqi adaptation of a dish from the Ottoman period, featuring vegetables stuffed with minced meat, rice, herbs, and tangy sauces.
- The dolma filling is prepared by sautéing onions and combining them with rice, aromatic herbs, pomegranate molasses, and minced meat, then stuffed into an assortment of cleaned vegetables and cooked with broth.
This article attempts to gather the most famous dishes of Iraqi cuisine in one place, with their history, ingredients and preparation methods.
Rice Bean (Rice with Beans)
Recommend
It is one of Iraq’s well-known dishes, prized for its delicious taste and the many ways it can be prepared. The name literally means rice with beans (taman means rice and baqala means beans).
Baqla can be prepared with meat or chicken and seasoned with a variety of spices and flavorings. Dill is particularly important to the dish’s taste. Below we present the ingredients and a recipe for preparing this traditional Iraqi meal.
What are the ingredients of the original Iraqi beans rice recipe?
Prepare the following ingredients: rice; onions; a fat such as rendered fat or oil; green dill, finely chopped; the protein of your choice (meat or chicken); peeled, washed beans; chopped garlic; water or broth; and spices for the beans.
How to prepare Iraqi bakla rice
First, boil the meat in the usual way. Meanwhile soak the rice in water for a short time. Finely chop the onions and garlic, then sauté them in oil over medium heat until the onions turn golden and the garlic is fragrant. Add water or the meat broth and salt, then add the rice and beans and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and after a while add the meat and the dill. Cover the pot and cook until the rice is done, about twenty minutes, stirring once while it cooks.
Serve with peas, garnished with fresh dill, and a side of salad or yogurt.
Masgouf
This dish is considered Iraq’s most famous and popular national meal: fish grilled in the traditional Iraqi way. Freshly caught fish are preferable, usually river fish from the Tigris and Euphrates such as carp or brown varieties when preparing this delicious national dish.
How to prepare grilled fish
To prepare the fish for this dish, open it along the back rather than the belly. The incision extends toward the head and is opened on both sides so that the fish faces the fire when positioned to cook.
After opening the fish this way, clean it well of entrails and any dirt or unwanted objects, then salt it. Make two or three crosswise cuts with a knife to help suspend it when setting it up for cooking.
Grill it by lighting a fire with willow wood in a circular arrangement. Place thin wooden or iron stakes at a height appropriate for the width of the fish around the outer perimeter of the fire. Attach the fish to the stakes so it is cooked by radiant heat, keeping the fire at a distance. The person tending the fish controls the heat, bringing the fish closer to or farther from the fire as needed. Once the belly is cooked, remove the fish from the stakes and place it on the embers to crisp its outer skin.
Masgouf is usually served with traditional Iraqi condiments and pickles.
Dolma
Dolma is another famous traditional dish of stuffed vegetables filled with rice and minced meat. It arrived in Iraq during the Ottoman period, but Iraqis adapted it by altering some ingredients and proportions, making it richer and more flavorful.
How to prepare Iraqi dolma
Prepare the desired quantities of vegetables used for dolma, such as white and purple eggplants, bell peppers of various colors, and tomatoes. Use an appropriate amount of Egyptian rice for the stuffing, aromatic vegetables such as onions, leafy herbs like parsley and mint, plus salt, black pepper, dolma spice mix, oil for browning the onions, and finally a sauce made from tomato paste, pomegranate molasses and minced meat.
The steps for making dolma are straightforward. Start the filling by browning the onions in oil, then add the spices, tomatoes, leafy herbs, rice and pomegranate molasses. Add the minced meat to the mixture at the end.
After cleaning and preparing the vegetables — for example, splitting and cleaning the eggplants from the middle, removing the seeds from the peppers, and washing the tomatoes — leave them wet and inverted for a short time, then begin filling them.
When filling is complete, place pieces of meat that will be eaten with the meal at the bottom of a pot and stack rounds of dolma above them until all are arranged. Add the remaining sauce from the filling to the broth poured over the dolma to settle it; you may add extra pomegranate molasses to the settling liquid if desired. Leave on the heat until fully cooked, then serve hot.