Kurdish food: favourite dishes and the words to order them

Kurdish food is home cooking at heart: pots of stuffed vegetables, rice with a slow-cooked stew, warm flatbread, cool yoghurt and plenty of sweet black tea. This guide introduces the best-known dishes across the Kurdish regions and gives you the words to ask for them in Kurmancî (Northern Kurdish) and Soranî (Central Kurdish). Every Kurdish phrase below comes from the ZimanGo lessons.

What Kurdish food is like

Kurdish cooking shares a lot with its neighbours. Many dishes are also known in Armenian, Assyrian, Arab, Persian and Turkish kitchens, often under a similar name. Every region, and every family, has its own way of making them.

Many Kurds were once herders, and lamb and chicken have been the main meats for centuries. Rice, bulgur (cracked wheat), vegetables, fresh herbs and dairy fill the rest of the table.

The word for food is xwarin in Kurmancî. In Soranî it is خواردن. You will meet both again in the word lists below.

Dolma and yaprax

Dolma is one of the most common dishes on a Kurdish table. Vegetables or leaves are filled with rice, minced meat, herbs and spices, then cooked together in a pot. Onions, peppers, aubergines, tomatoes and vine leaves are all popular choices.

The word dolma comes from Turkish and means “stuffed”. Stuffed vine leaves are also called îprax or yaprax; yaprax comes from the Turkish word for “leaf”. You may hear sarme, too.

You will find the words for onion, tomato and garlic in the word lists further down.

Kutilk, kubba and kifte

Kutilk are small parcels of bulgur dough wrapped around spiced minced meat. Each one is shaped by hand. They are fried, or boiled and served on their own or in a soup or stew.

Across Iraq, Kurdish areas included, a similar dish is known as kubba, also written kube. Some cooks make the shell with rice instead of bulgur.

Kifte are spiced meatballs or small patties of minced meat. The name is a cousin of köfte in Turkish and kofta in English, and all of them go back to a Persian word for “pounded meat”.

Rice, bread and breakfast

Rice is a staple in many Kurdish homes. It often comes with a stew of meat or vegetables, often in a tomato sauce, and bulgur pilaf is a common alternative. In Kurmancî, rice is birinc.

Bread is part of most meals. Thin flatbread is baked on a sêl, a metal plate set over a fire, or slapped onto the hot inner wall of a tenûr, a clay oven. Thicker loaves are common too.

Nan /nan/ نان nan Bread

The word nan means bread, and it can also mean food in general. Soranî shows this nicely: its word for breakfast, نانی بەیانی, is literally “morning bread”. Kurmancî says taştê.

A simple breakfast is often bread with yoghurt or cheese, and black tea.

Yoghurt, dew and tea

Yoghurt is mast in Kurmancî. In Soranî it is ماست. It turns up at many meals as a side dish, in sauces and soups, and as a drink.

That drink is dew in Kurmancî and do in Soranî: yoghurt mixed with water and a little salt, sometimes with mint. You may also hear mastaw for a similar drink, which is often served with meals.

Then there is tea. It is black, often sweet, and people drink it throughout the day and on almost any occasion.

Çay /tʃaj/ چا ça Tea

If you would rather have coffee, ask for qehwe. In Soranî it is قاوە.

Food words in Kurmancî and Soranî

These words come from the beginner food lessons, plus a few from the kitchen lesson. Learn them in small groups and say each one out loud.

Bread, water and tea

Vegetables and fruit

Around the table

Ordering, paying and saying thanks

When you are hungry

Ez birçî me /ɛz biɾˈtʃi mɛ/ برسیمە birsîme I am hungry

Soranî packs “I am hungry” into a single word. Kurmancî uses three, just like Ez baş im (I am fine).

To ask for something in Kurmancî, use Ez dixwazim (I want) and add ji kerema xwe (please) at the end. In Soranî, تکایە (please) often comes first, but it can also go at the end. More differences like this are in Kurmancî vs Soranî.

Paying the bill

Hesab ji kerema xwe حسابەکە تکایە hisabeke tikaye The bill, please

Prices come as numbers, so Kurdish numbers are a good next step. For more polite words, see how to say thank you in Kurdish.

ZimanGo teaches these words in short lessons with audio from its own Kurdish text-to-speech voices, and you can practise saying them out loud with its Kurdish speech recognition. For more everyday sentences, continue with basic Kurdish phrases.