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This internationally popular, beige-colored spread is traditionally made with mashed chickpeas, tahini sesame paste, lemon juice, and garlic. People across the world love hummus for its tangy flavor and the fact that it is filled with nutrients.
When served, it is typically dressed with a drizzle of olive oil, and is then used as a dip for vegetables or a flavorful filling for flatbreads such as pita. Even today, not much is known about its origins, although the earliest mention of hummus dates back to 13th-century Egypt.
VARIATIONS OF Hummus
MOST ICONIC Hummus
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Ashkenazi in origin, the Jewish pastry known as rugelach is made by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling, resulting in crescent-shaped pastries. Alternatively, the dough can be rolled in the form of a strudel or a nut roll which is then sliced prior to baking.
The dough can be made with sour cream or cream cheese, but the dairy ingredients can be omitted, while the fillings can vary from nuts and raisins to fruit preserves. These delectable pastries are traditionally eaten on Hanukkah, but they can also be bought all year round in cafes and bakeries.
MOST ICONIC Rugelach
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Kunāfah consists of two crunchy layers of shredded and buttered kataifi or knefe dough, filled with a luscious cheese cream that's often flavored with orange zest and cardamom, then drenched in a sugar syrup infused with lemon juice and orange blossom water.
Turkish künefe is traditionally made with Hatay, Urfa, or Antep cheese. It is usually topped with pistachios and is best served warm. Elegant and amazingly simple to make, this dessert is nothing short of what cheese-filled pastry dreams are made of.
MOST ICONIC Kunāfah
Shakshouka is a delicious combination of eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce. Although it has an unusual name, the dish is straightforward and easy to make. It is usually made in a skillet in which onions, tomatoes, and spices are cooked until they form a delicious tomato sauce.
Eggs are then added directly to the tomato sauce and poached until done. Merguez sausage can also be added to the dish. It is believed that shakshouka originated in Tunisia, but the dish is well-known and commonly eaten throughout North Africa and the Middle East as well.
MOST ICONIC Shakshouka
First brought to Israel in the 1940s and 1950s by the Iraqi Jews, sabich is a sandwich made by stuffing pita bread with fried eggplants, hard-boiled eggs, tahini sauce, Israeli salad, hummus, pickled mango sauce (amba), and parsley. It is often eaten as a snack or a breakfast on Sabbath morning, and can be purchased from many street food vendors.
MOST ICONIC Sabich
Even though these protein-packed chickpea fritters are listed as one of Israel's national dishes, and are a staple in many Middle Eastern countries including Palestine and Lebanon, it is often suggested that falafel might have evolved from the Egypt dish known as taameya. By the 1950s, to earn a living, Yemenite immigrants in Israel started making falafel in the streets, selling it wrapped in paper, which has eventually transformed this ancient dish into an early form of Israeli fast food and facilitet the global recognition of it.
As an alternative to the Israeli version, the Egyptian taameya uses fava beans instead of chickpeas, while the mixture is typically flavored with parsley, coriander, cumin, and onions. Today, both in Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, falafel fritters are most commonly enjoyed in pita or lafa flatbread sandwiches, topped with fresh or pickled vegetables, and coated either in hummus paste, tahini dip, or a zesty, garlic-flavored yogurt sauce.
MOST ICONIC Falafel
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Challah is a loaf of leavened, braided egg bread that is traditionally consumed on Shabbat in Jewish communities, although it is also popular on festive occasions such as weddings or brit milahs. Less common varieties of challah are not braided, but shaped into spirals, books, keys, and flowers.
Sometimes, before baking, challah is sprinkled with poppy, sesame, or coriander seeds, symbolizing manna that fell from heaven while the Israelites were in Exodus. On Shabbat, two loaves of challah are traditionally placed on the festive table, their braids symbolizing connection, justice, love, and peace.
MOST ICONIC Challah
Israeli breakfast consists of numerous ingredients such as yogurt, cheese, salads, omelets, peppers, flatbreads, fish, olives, fresh juices, dips, and butter. This breakfast style originated on the kibbutz collective farm, where a hefty breakfast was crucial to endure the long day of manual labor following it.
Israeli hotels picked up the habit during the 1950s, adopting the breakfast style and serving it as a self-service buffet for their guests. Since serving meat and dairy together is forbidden in Jewish culture, Israeli breakfast remained a dairy meal.
MOST ICONIC Israeli Breakfast
Cholent is a traditional Jewish stew characterized by its long cooking time. Eastern European cholent usually incorporates ingredients such as barley, beans, and meat, with variable seasonings. Cholent is traditionally cooked on Friday, before the Jewish Sabbat, when all work is forbidden.
On Sabbat, the flavors will already infuse, the beans will soften, while tougher cuts of meat will become juicy and tender due to the long cooking time. The dish was invented in Israel and the Middle East, and then spread to North Africa. By the 9th century, it could already be found in Spain.
MOST ICONIC Cholent
The hole-less, jelly-filled sufganiyah is a descendant of the German krapfen, which was imported to Israel by German Jews who fled the Nazi regime, although some sources claim that sufganiyah appeared much earlier, in the 1920s. Traditionally, this sweet treat is consumed during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
However, most bakeries would start selling it at least a week before, if not earlier. Besides the typical strawberry jam filling, sufganiyah is nowadays available in multiple flavors such as Bavarian cream or cappuccino, for example, but there is also the alcohol-infused (typically vodka) variety, and many more.
