Kubbeh soup

Ingredients

Dumpling shell

• 400 gfine semolina
• 150 gplain flour
• about 350 ml warm water
• 1 teaspoonsalt

Filling

• 400 gminced beef
• or minced lamb
• 2onions, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoonsoil
• a large handful of parsley
• 1 teaspoonbaharat
• 1/2 teaspoonground cinnamon
• salt and black pepper

Beetroot broth

• 4beetroot, peeled and diced
• 2onions, sliced
• 3celery sticks, sliced
• 2 litresbeef stock
• juice of 2 lemons
• 2 tablespoonssugar
• or to taste
• salt and black pepper

To serve

• hot in deep bowls
• extra lemon
• flatbread

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a wide heavy pan. Add the chopped onions to the pan. Cook them for a good ten minutes. Add the minced beef to the pan. Fry it until it is well browned. Add the baharat and the cinnamon. Season it with salt and black pepper. Chop the parsley very generously. Stir it in right at the very end. Spread the filling on a wide plate. Let it cool down completely there.
2. Warm filling softens the semolina dough. Put the semolina and flour in a bowl. Add the measured salt to them as well. Add the warm water in gradually. Mix it well as you pour the water in. Judging the dough takes a feel.
3. Cover the bowl over with a cloth. Let it rest for thirty minutes. It becomes smooth and workable. Knead it for about five minutes. It should become smooth and pliable. Add a little flour if it still does. Wet both your hands in cold water. Take a piece of dough the size of a walnut.
4. Roll it into a smooth even ball. Turn the ball around your thumb slowly. Press the walls out as it turns. Keep the walls even all the way round. The shell should be quite thin.
5. Spoon cold filling into the hollow. Fill it about two thirds full. Do not overfill it at any point. Bring the edges up and pinch them shut. Smooth the join with wet fingers. Roll each one gently between wet palms. Make them smooth and roughly spherical. Setting them aside takes care.
6. Put them on a lightly floured tray. Keep them apart from each other. Cover them loosely with a cloth. Peel and dice all of the beetroot. Wear gloves if that bothers you. Rinse boards immediately after use. Put the beetroot in a large pot. Add the sliced onions and celery.
7. Pour in all of the measured beef stock. Bring the pot up to a full boil. Cooking it takes about half an hour. Let the beetroot cook until tender. Give it a good thirty minutes. Add the lemon juice to the pot. Add the sugar a spoonful at a time. Taste it between each addition. It should be clearly sour first.
8. Adjust it until it tastes right. Season it with salt and black pepper. Bring the broth to a gentle simmer. Do not crowd the pot at any point. Keep it barely moving throughout. Cooking them takes about twenty minutes. Ladle broth and beetroot into each bowl. Add three or four dumplings to each. Serve warm flatbread alongside them. It keeps three days refrigerated.

Technique

• Jewish communities lived in Iraq for thousands of years, with Kurdish Jewish communities in the north; almost all left between nineteen fifty and fifty-one under great pressure, most going to the new state of Israel, and the cooking travelled with the people. Kubbeh soup became a Jerusalem staple served in small restaurants around Mahane Yehuda market.
• This shell uses semolina rather than bulgur, which is what distinguishes it: semolina gives a smoother softer dumpling and bulgur a coarser nuttier one. Semolina dough is loose and sticky until it has rested for half an hour and absorbed the water fully, and it cannot be shaped before then.
• Three broths are made — kubbeh selek with beetroot, kubbeh bamia with okra, kubbeh hamusta sour with lemon — and all three are sour, with the beetroot version balancing that sourness with sugar so neither dominates.

Substitutions

• Minced lamb works in place of beef in the filling.
• Okra or a sour lemon broth replace the beetroot for the other two versions.

Variations

• Kubbeh selek, bamia and hamusta are the three standard broths.
• Some cooks flatten the dumplings slightly and others keep them round.
• Chard is added to the hamusta version in many households.

History

A soup made from a light broth, typically flavoured with beet, pumpkin or sour ingredients, containing dumplings made from bulgur or semolina filled with spiced ground meat, documented across Israel with roots tracing to Iraqi and wider Middle Eastern Jewish culinary tradition, brought to Israel through Iraqi Jewish immigration, particularly a large wave of immigration during the mid-1900s. Its dumplings, called kubbeh, are closely related to the wider Middle Eastern kibbeh tradition found across Iraq, Syria and the Levant, reflecting shared regional culinary lineage adapted specifically within Iraqi Jewish cooking and subsequently carried to Israel. Kubbeh soup remains closely associated with Israel’s Iraqi Jewish community, now enjoyed more broadly across the country.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kubbeh soup?

Kubbeh soup is a soup & stew from Israel: iraqi-Kurdish semolina dumplings in beet or sour broth. A soup made from a light broth, typically flavoured with beet, pumpkin or sour ingredients, containing dumplings made from bulgur or semolina filled with spiced ground meat, documented across Israel with roots tracing to Iraqi and wider Middle Eastern Jewish culinary tradition, brought to Israel through Iraqi Jewish immigration, particularly a large wave of immigration during the mid-1900s. Its dumplings, called kubbeh, are closely related to the wider Middle Eastern kibbeh tradition found across Iraq, Syria and the Levant, reflecting shared regional culinary lineage adapted specifically within Iraqi Jewish cooking and subsequently carried to Israel. Kubbeh soup remains closely associated with Israel’s Iraqi Jewish community, now enjoyed more broadly across the country.

How long does Kubbeh soup take to make?

Kubbeh soup takes 1 hour 30 minutes of preparation and 1 hour of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Kubbeh soup?

Yes, within limits. Minced lamb works in place of beef in the filling. Okra or a sour lemon broth replace the beetroot for the other two versions.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kubbeh soup?

Spoon cold filling into the hollow. Fill it about two thirds full. Do not overfill it at any point. Bring the edges up and pinch them shut. Smooth the join with wet fingers. Roll each one gently between wet palms. Make them smooth and roughly spherical. Setting them aside takes care.