Kubbeh hamusta
A soup of Kurdish and Iraqi Jews, today one of the icons of Jerusalem home cooking — you can find it, among other places, in the eateries around the Mahane Yehuda market. The name means sour kubbeh: in a lemon-soured broth float semolina-dough dumplings filled with meat. The whole difficulty lies in the dough — it must be supple enough to press to 3 mm, and always shaped with wet hands, since dry dough cracks.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Filling 15 min
- Semolina dough 20 min
- Shaping the kubbeh 40 min
- Soup 45 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneCook the filling and cool it completely
Fry the onion with the celery in 1 tablespoon of the oil for 5 minutes, add the meat and cook, breaking it up, for 10 minutes until browned and cooked through. Season with allspice, pepper and salt, stir in the parsley, spread on a plate and cool completely (while you make the dough) — warm filling softens the dough from inside.
Ingredients: 300 g minced beef · 1 pcs onion · 3 tbsp parsley · 1 pcs celery · ½ tsp allspice · ½ tsp black pepper · ½ tsp salt
Knead the semolina dough
Mix the semolina with the flour and salt, add the oil and gradually the warm water, kneading with wet hands. Knead 8 minutes, until smooth and pliable as modelling clay. Rest under a cloth for 10 minutes.
Ingredients: 300 g semolina · 50 g plain flour · 180 ml water · 2 tbsp oil · 1 tsp salt
Smooth as modelling clay — and always wet hands.Check the dough's pliability
Flatten a piece of dough in your palm: the edges must not crack. If they do, add a spoon of water and knead on. Cracking dough opens in the soup and the filling escapes.
Ingredients: 300 g semolina · 50 g plain flour · 180 ml water · 2 tbsp oil · 1 tsp salt
Shape kubbeh with wet hands
Wet your palms, take a large walnut-sized ball of dough (about 25 g), press it into a disc 3 mm thick, add a heaped teaspoon of filling (about 15 g) and seal it into an oval. Wet your hands for every kubbeh — dry ones stick to the dough and tear it. You will get about 22.
Ingredients: 300 g semolina · 50 g plain flour · 180 ml water · 2 tbsp oil · 1 tsp salt
Three millimetres of dough, wet hands every time.Freeze the kubbeh for 20 minutes
Lay the finished kubbeh on a lined tray and freeze for 20 minutes. Part-frozen, they firm on the surface and do not fall apart in boiling soup. Make the soup meanwhile.
Ingredients: 300 g semolina · 50 g plain flour · 180 ml water · 2 tbsp oil · 1 tsp salt
Cook the sour vegetable base
Fry the onion, garlic, sliced chard stalks and celery in the remaining oil for 8 minutes, add the turmeric, pour in the stock and simmer 15 minutes. Add the diced courgette, chopped chard leaves, lemon juice, sugar and mint.
Ingredients: 400 g Swiss chard or beet greens · 2 pcs courgettes · 3 pcs celery · 1 pcs onion · 4 cloves garlic · 2000 ml stock · 3 pcs lemons · ½ tsp turmeric · 1 tbsp dried mint · 1 tsp sugar · 3 tbsp oil · 1 tsp salt
Drop the kubbeh into gently boiling soup
Lower the kubbeh one at a time into gently simmering, not bubbling, soup and cook 15 minutes, until they float and the dough softens. Stir carefully, sliding a spoon along the bottom — vigorous stirring breaks them.
Ingredients: 400 g Swiss chard or beet greens · 2 pcs courgettes · 3 pcs celery · 1 pcs onion · 4 cloves garlic · 2000 ml stock · 3 pcs lemons · ½ tsp turmeric · 1 tbsp dried mint · 1 tsp sugar · 3 tbsp oil · 1 tsp salt
A gentle simmer, no bubbling — kubbeh are fragile.Balance the acid and serve
Taste: the soup should be distinctly sour, with a faint sweetness behind. Season with salt and, if needed, add more lemon or a pinch of sugar. Serve 3–4 kubbeh per bowl, with a lemon wedge beside.
Ingredients: 400 g Swiss chard or beet greens · 2 pcs courgettes · 3 pcs celery · 1 pcs onion · 4 cloves garlic · 2000 ml stock · 3 pcs lemons · ½ tsp turmeric · 1 tbsp dried mint · 1 tsp sugar · 3 tbsp oil · 1 tsp salt
Before you start
Kubbeh frozen for later
Raw kubbeh frozen on a tray, then bagged, keep for three months in the freezer. Drop them into the soup straight from frozen, adding 5 minutes. That is why many households make a large batch at once.
The beetroot and tomato versions
Kubbeh hamusta has sisters, among them kubbeh selek — a red, sweet-and-sour beetroot soup. Many households also cook red, tomato-based versions. The dumplings are the same; only the broth changes.
Soup three days, kubbeh apart
The soup keeps three days in the fridge, but the kubbeh soak in it and soften. If cooking ahead, keep cooked kubbeh separate and add them to the soup only on reheating.
