A celebratory dish to usher in spring

Integral to any Newroz feast, stuffed vine leaves celebrate the vegetables of spring. In her recipe, chef Pary Baban uses shallots, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and chard.

“From late February, the hills in Southern Kurdistan are blossoming with wild foods,” recalled chef Pary Baban, owner of Nandine, a Kurdish eatery in the South London neighbourhood of Camberwell. “People forage for herbs and fresh ingredients, cook feasts and bring picnics into the mountains. Newroz isn’t just one day; it is the entire season of spring.”

Newroz, also called “Nowruz” in Persian, is the Kurdish and Persian New Year that has more than 3,000-year-old roots in the Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism. Each year, Newroz, which literally translates to “new day”, is celebrated on the spring equinox to welcome a new year, new life and new beginnings.

“Newroz is something special for us,” said Baban. “It’s the only thing the government couldn’t take away from us when Saddam Hussein came to power. Kurdish people never give up; they still go out and celebrate. It’s our identity.”

[jump to recipe]

While the celebrations vary across different regions of Western Asia, in Kurdistan (an autonomous region that spreads over eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, western Iran and parts of northern Syria and Armenia), festivities commence on 20 March. On this night, known as Newroz Eve, people walk through town centres in processions, jump over and dance around fires, and wear brilliantly coloured garments to represent spring.

In Kurdish culture, Newroz Eve echoes a Kurdish myth in which a blacksmith named Kawa was believed to have defeated the evil King Kuhak, thereby liberating the Kurdish people. The symbolism of this myth endures as the liberation of Kurds, one of the world’s largest stateless people.

“We celebrate everything in Newroz, it is not just the New Year,” said Baban. “Everything is coming alive. Music is coming alive. Fighting for your freedom is coming alive. We think about when we will become a free people.”

On 21 March, elaborate feasts are prepared using wild foods foraged from the valleys and mountains now blossoming with fresh herbs and vegetables, like watercress and kengir (similar to a wild artichoke). This tradition of cooking outside and preparing mountain picnics then stretches throughout the entire spring season.

Chef Pary Baban is the owner of Nandine, a Kurdish eatery in South London (Credit: Alicia Erickson)

Baban called Southern Kurdistan (also called Iraqi Kurdistan) home until 1988, when she fled following Saddam Hussein’s massacre of Kurdish people. Refusing to end up in refugee camps, she and her family walked for nine days in the mountains and then crossed the border into Iranian Kurdistan (Eastern Kurdistan). Four years later, she returned to Southern Kurdistan after escaping violence associated with uprisings in Iran. Tired of running from unstable and violent governments oppressing the Kurdish people, Baban eventually came to London with her husband in 1997. There, in 2019, she opened Nandine, where she now serves traditional Kurdish dishes inspired by memories of home.

Lining the restaurant’s wooden shelves were jars filled with dried Kurdistan delicacies such as sumac, qazwan (coffee made from the seeds of a wild pistachio tree) and black basil. And on a table lay a brilliant spread of colourful foods specially prepared for Newroz: salads of watercress, rocket, mint, spring onion, pomegranate and cucumber; bowls of pickled carrots and cauliflower tinted deep fuchsia from beetroot; piles of nani tiri (flatbread); and a chalice of mastaw (yoghurt drink) topped with dill and young qazwan seeds. In the centre of the feast was a platter stacked high with yaprakh (also called “yaprax”), the Kurdish version of dolmas, stuffed vine leaves that have been tightly packed in a pot and steamed.

Dolmas find a home across the Middle East and Mediterranean regions, particularly with countries rooted in the Ottoman Empire. The precise origins of this popular dish are disputed, with claims ranging from the Ottoman Empire to the city of Thebes on the Nile River. Today, however, Turkey, Greece, Armenia, Iran and Iraq, among other countries, all have their own versions, with spiced rice and meat being among the most popular fillings. Other variations include stuffed apples with grape-flavoured sumac or calamari and mackerel.

Along with their distinct culture and language, Kurds take deep pride in dishes like yaprakh. “Other cuisines talk about dolmas,” Baban said. “But I guarantee you they don’t cook it the same. We have our own names and have been making these dishes for thousands of years before these nations were formed.”

There are different varieties of Kurdish yaprakh, such as “spring yaprakh”, fresh grapevine leaves stuffed with rice, dill, spring onions, turmeric and fresh thyme, cooked with broad beans and served with yoghurt. Swiss chard can be substituted when vine leaves aren’t available. Come summertime, other vegetables are stuffed, too. In her recipe below, Baban uses shallots, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and chard.

Chef Baban uses shallots, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and chard in her dolmas (Credit: Alicia Erickson)

Chef Baban uses shallots, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and chard in her dolmas (Credit: Alicia Erickson)

Yaprakh recipe
By Pary Baban

Ingredients

2-3 long shallots or brown onions
2 long courgettes, rinsed
2 long aubergines, rinsed
salt
juice of 1 lemon
5 small tomatoes, rinsed; one finely chopped
3 small green peppers or green chillies, rinsed
3 bunches of fresh Swiss chard
2½ cups of short-grain rice or jasmine rice, soaked in water for 15 minutes then drained
2 tbsp ground sumac
2 tsp turmeric powder
½ tbsp cumin powder
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 bunch of fresh dill, washed and finely chopped
1 large bunch of parsley, washed and finely chopped
5 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
3 tbsp of tomato purée
1 bunch green broad beans
1 litre warm water

Method 

Step 1
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Prepare the shallots first. Cut both the top and bottom off, along with the skin. Now, gently cut lengthwise down one side of the shallot, ensuring that you reach the core, but don’t cut all the way through. Once you’ve repeated these steps for all the shallots, place them in hot water and blanch for 3-4 minutes, until their colour is bright. Be careful not to cook them too thoroughly or else they will start to open up.

Step 2
Remove the shallots from the hot water and give them a cool rinse, then carefully separate the layers of the shallots using your fingers and place them aside.

Step 3
Now for the chard. Cut off the stalks and blanch the leftover chard leaves in water over medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Then, bathe them in cold water to stop the cooking process.

Step 4
Move onto the courgettes and aubergines. Cut them lengthwise and scoop out the flesh (this is where we put our stuffing). Keep the scooped flesh to add to your stuffing.Coat the insides of your aubergines and courgettes with some salt and fresh lemon juice.

Step 5
Next up, prepare the tomatoes. Cut the tops of four tomatoes, keeping them attached to form a “hood”, and scoop out the flesh to form a fillable centre. Repeat this process with the green peppers.

Step 6
Rinse the rice in water, then soak for 15 minutes and drain the water. Put the rice in a large bowl and season generously with lemon juice, sumac, turmeric, cumin, black pepper and salt. Add the celery leaves, dill and parsley; mix well and set aside to marinate. 

Step 7
Prepare the rest of the ingredients for the stuffing. Dice the onion and add to a large pan with the oil and cook on medium heat until soft and lightly brown. Next, add your tomato purée followed by one finely chopped tomato. If you like, you can also add some fresh herbs to taste. Fry this batch for at least 4 minutes until tender and add it to your rice mixture (stuffing).

Step 8
Cut the chard stalks into two pieces and place them with the fresh broad beans in the pan that was used for the tomatoes and onions.

Step 9
Using the stuffing, start to fill your shallot layers. Put roughly 1 tsp of the rice mixture in the shallot layer, and roll it up to seal. Repeat to fill the rest of your vegetables, sealing the “lids” onto the tomatoes and green peppers. Tip: a little goes a long way – try not to overstuff your vegetables.

Step 10
Once all your vegetables are stuffed, tightly pack them in the pan and stack them in layers, starting with the shallots as they need more cooking time.

Step 11
Place the chard leaves onto your work surface and stuff them in a rolling motion. Once all are rolled, place them on top of the veggie-filled pan and add a large, flat plate on top (the weight of the plate will help ensure even cooking).

Step 12
Add one litre of water to the pan, making sure to cover the plate. Place the pan on the stove over a medium-high heat, bringing it to a boil for 30 to 40 minutes.

Step 13
Halfway through the cooking process, remove the plate from the pan. Take care as it will be extremely hot. Try a piece of rice to check if it is fully cooked. If it’s still crunchy, add some more boiling water and allow it to simmer for around 5 more minutes, or until the rice in the vegetables is tender.

Step 14
To serve the dish, place a large serving plate on top of the pan and flip the dolmas over to present the colour and flavour. There’s no need to drain the dolmas as the extra juice keeps them moist and flavourful.

Note: Traditionally, sumac berries are used in dolmas to add a sour flavour and pop of colour, but this is optional.

BBC.com’s World’s Table “smashes the kitchen ceiling” by changing the way the world thinks about food, through the past, present and future.

Join more than three million BBC Travel fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called “The Essential List”. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

You may also like...