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Afghan cuisine
Afghan cuisine (Dari: ‫آشپزی افغانستان‬‎, Pashto: ‫افغان پخلی‬‎)
is largely based upon the nation's main crops: wheat,
maize, barley and rice. Accompanying these staples
are native fruits, vegetables, and dairy products such
as milk, yogurt, and whey.[1] The nation's culinary
specialties reflect its ethnic and geographic diversity.
Afghanistan is known for its high-quality
pomegranates, grapes, and sweet rugby-football-
shaped melons.[2] Its national dish is Kabuli palaw.[3]

Contents
Major foods
Types of rice dishes Some of the popular Afghan dishes, clockwise
Palaw from top left: 1. Lamb grilled kebab (seekh
Qormah kabab); 2. Kabuli palaw and salad; and 3. Mantu
Mantu (dumplings).
Kebab
Chicken
Quroot
Other Afghan food items
Drinks
By region and ethnicity
Pashtun cuisine
Hazara cuisine
Special occasions
See also
References
Further reading

Major foods

Types of rice dishes

Challow is served mainly with qormas (korma; stews or casseroles).

Palaw

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Palaw is cooked similarly to challow, however a combination of

meat, stock, qorma, and herbs are intermixed before the baking
process. This creates elaborate colors, flavors, and aromas from
which some rice is named. Sometimes Caramelized sugar is used
to give the rice a rich brown color as well. Examples of Palaw
include:

Kabuli Palaw – a national dish.[3] Meat and stock are added,

and topped with the fried raisins, slivered carrots, and
pistachios. Non (bread) from a local baker, the
Yakhni Palaw – meat and stock are added, rice has a brown most widely consumed bread in
color. Afghanistan
Zamarod Palaw – spinach qorma mixed in before the baking
process, hence 'Camaro' or emerald.
Bore Palaw – former Lawand added, rice has yellow color.
Landi Palaw – Among many others, Rice with livestock that
has been salted and rested in the sun is a very traditional
meal in Afghanistan
Bojan-e-Roomi Palaw – formerly Bonjan-e-Roomi (tomato
qorma) added during baking. It creates red rice.
Serkah Palaw – similar to yakhni pulao, but with vinegar and
other spices.
Shibet Palaw – fresh dill, raisins are also added during
baking. Afghan men eating lunch in Kunar
Narenj Palaw – a sweet, elaborate rice dish made with Weleyat
saffron, orange peel, pistachios, almonds, and chicken.
Maash Palaw – a sweet and sour pulao baked with mung
beans, apricots, and bulgur wheat. Exclusively vegetarian.
Alou Balou Palaw- a sweet rice dish with plums and chicken

Qormah
Rice with kofta (meatballs)
Qormah/Korma is a stew or casserole, usually served with chateau
and corn
rice.[1] It is always beasend on onions- and tomatos. Firstly, the onion
gets caramelized, creating a richly colored stew. Then the tomato
is being added, as well as a variety of fruits, spices, and vegetables
depending on the recipe. The main ingredient is added last, which
can be meat or other vegetables. There are hundreds of different
types of qormahs, some examples include:

Qormah e Gosht – translates to meat qormah, it usually is the

main qormah served with Palaw at the gatherings.
Qormah e Alou-Bokhara wa Dalnakhod – onion-based, with
sour plums, lentils, and cardamom. It uses veal or chicken.
Qormah e Nadroo – onion-based, with yogurt, lotus roots, Afghan Qabeli palaw
cilantro, and coriander. It uses lamb meat or veal.
Qormah e Lawand – onion-based, with yogurt, turmeric, and
cilantro. It uses chicken, lamb or beef.
Qormah e Sabzi – sautéed spinach and other greens. It uses lamb.
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Qormah e Shalgham – onion-based, with turnips and sugar; sweet and sour taste. It uses lamb.

Mantu

Known under the name 'khameerbob' and often eaten as dumplings,

these native dishes are popular. Due to the long time required to
make dough for the dumplings, they are rarely served at large
gatherings like weddings, instead they are rather served at special
occasions, e.g. at home:

Mantu – Dumplings filled with onion and ground beef or lamb.

Mantu is steamed and usually topped with a tomato-based Mantu in a steamer before
sauce and yogurt- or qoroot-based sauce. The yogurt-based cooking
topping is usually a mixture of yogurt, garlic, and split chickpeas.
The qoroot-based sauce is made of goat's cheese and is also
mixed with garlic; a qoroot and yogurt mixture will sometimes be used. The dish is then topped
with dried mint and coriander.
Ashak – Dumplings filled with a mixture largely of leeks. Ashak is topped with garlic-mint qoroot or
a garlic yogurt sauce, sautéed tomatoes, red kidney beans, and a well-seasoned ground meat
mixture. It is a dish associated with Kabul.

There's a wide variety of dumplings. A local plant called gandana

is cut and used as dumplings; it is boiled and fried in ghee with
pudina powder added over the soup, with vinegar.

Kebab

Afghan kebab is most often found in restaurants and outdoor

street vendor stalls. Most of the time, lamb meat is served in Afghan Ashak
Afghan kebab. Kebab is made with naan, instead of rice.
Customers have the option to sprinkle sumac or ghora (dried
ground sour grapes) on their kebab. Pieces of fat from the sheep's tail
(jijeq) are usually added with the lamb skewers to add extra flavor.

Other popular kebabs include the

lamb chop, ribs, kofta (ground beef)
and chicken.

Chapli kebab, a specialty of Eastern Kofta Kebab with non

Afghanistan, is a patty of beef mince.
It is a popular barbecue meal in both
Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is prepared flat and round and
served with naan. The original recipe of chapli kebab dictates a
Chopan Kebab being prepared
half meat, half flour mixture, which renders it lighter in taste and
is less expensive.

Chicken

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Afghani chicken or Murgh Afghani is a classic example of one of the most famous dishes of
Afghanistan. Chicken dishes are usually found in restaurants and outdoor street vendor stalls. Unlike
the Indian cooking style, chicken in Afghan cuisine is often used in order to be halal. Cream, butter,
and curd are customary ingredients in all chicken recipes, whether served as an appetizer or as a main
course.

Quroot

Quroot (or Qoroot) is a reconstituted dairy product, traditionally a by-product of butter made from
sheep or goat milk. The residual buttermilk remaining after butter churning is soured further by
keeping it at room temperature for a few days, treated with salt, and then boiling it eventually. The
precipitated casein is filtered through cheesecloth, pressed in order to remove liquid, and then shaped
into balls. The product is thus a very sour cottage cheese. Quroot is hard and can also be eaten raw. It
is typically served with cooked Afghan dishes such as Ashak, Mantu, and Kichri Qoroot.

Other Afghan food items

Afghan Kofta (meatball)
Afghan Kaddu Buranee (sweet pumpkins)
Afghan salad
Afghani burger
Ashak (vegetable and chive-filled dumplings
topped with tomato and yogurt sauces)
Aush (hand-made noodles)
Bichak (small turnovers with various fillings,
including potato and herbs, or ground meat)
Shorba (Afghan soup similar to borscht)
Dolma (stuffed grape leaves)
Londi, or gusht-e-qaaq (spiced jerky) A table setting of Afghan food in Kabul
Kichri (sticky medium-grain rice cooked with mung
beans and onions)
Badenjan (cooked eggplant with potatoes and
tomatoes)
Badenjan-Burani (fried slices of eggplant, topped
with a garlic sour cream sauce and sprinkled with
dried mint)
Baamiyah (okra)
Bolani also called “Buregian” in southern
Afghanistan (somewhat similar to a Quesadilla)
Badenjan (eggplant), usually
Halwaua-e-Aurd-e-Sujee served for lunch as a light meal
Nan-e-Afghan/Nan-e-Tandoori (Afghan bread or as a side dish. It tastes best
cooked in a vertical ground clay oven or a tandoor) with thin bread along with plain
Nan-e-Tawagy (flatbread cooked on a flat pan) yogurt or cold mint added.
Osh Pyozee (stuffed onion) Shomleh/Shlombeh (a cold drink
made of yogurt that is sprinkled
Mantu (meat dumplings), usually served under a
with fresh or dried mint).
yogurt-based white sauce.
Qabili Palau (traditional rice dish)

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Dampukht (steamed rice)

Bonjan Salad (spicy eggplant salad)
Shor-Nakhud (chickpeas with special toppings)
Nan (a type of flat-bread cooked in an oven made
from a hole in the ground. The bread is slapped
onto a stone wall to cook)
Maast or labanyat (type of plain yogurt)
Chakida or chakka (type of sour cream)
Salata (tomato and onion-based salad, often
Long Afghan flatbreads being sold
incorporating cucumber)
at a stall in Kabul
Sheer Berinj (rice pudding)
Cream roll (pastry)
Baklava (pastry)
Afghan Cake (similar to pound cake, sometimes
with real fruit or jelly inside)
Gosh e feel (thin, fried pastries covered in
powdered sugar and ground pistachios)
Kebab (similar to Middle Eastern style)
Fernea Pashto/Persian: ‫]فر نی‬, sometimes spelled
feereny (milk and cornstarch help make this very
sweet, similar to rice pudding without the rice)
Mou-rubba (fruit sauce, sugar syrup and fruits,
apple, sour cherry, or various berries, or made
with dried fruits. "Afghan favorite is the Alu-
Bakhara".)
Kulcha/Koloocheh (variety of cookies, baked in
clay ovens with charcoal)
Narenge Palau (dried sweet orange peel and
green raisins with a variety of nuts, mixed with
yellow rice glazed with light sugar syrup)
Nargis kabob (egg-based angel hair pasta soaked
in sugar syrup, wrapped around a piece of meat)
Torshi (eggplant and carrot mixed with other herbs
and spices, pickled in vinegar and aged)
Khoujoor[4] (Afghan pastry, deep-fried, oval
shaped, similar to doughnuts in taste)
Afghan Chatni[5] made with fresh Coriander leaves
Kalah Chuquki or Kalah Gunjeshk (battered deep-
fried bird heads)
Kalah Pacha (lamb or beef head/feet cooked in a
broth, served in bowls as a soup dish or in a stew
or curry)
Shami kabob (cooked beef blended with spices,
flour and eggs, rolled in hot dog shapes or flat
round shapes and fried)
Shorwa-E-Tarkari[6] (meat and vegetable soup)

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Chopan [Pashto/Persian: ‫چوپان‬, meaning

"shepherd"] kabob [Pashto/Persian: ‫( ]کباب‬lamb
chops, skewered and grilled on charcoal)
Delda or Oagra (mainly a Southern dish, made
from the main ingredient of split wheat and a
variety of beans mixed)
Owmach (made from flour; a soup-like dish, very
thick and pasty)
Peyawa or Eshkana (a soup based on flour, very
similar to a gravy, but mixed with chopped onion,
potatoes and eggs)
Aushe Sarka (vinegar-based flat noodle soup,
taste very similar to Chinese hot and sour soup)
Maushawa (mixed beans and tiny meatballs,
served in a bowl)
Sheer khurma, a traditional dessert

Baamiyah (okra), also served Afghan lamb kebab with yellow

for lunch or as a side dish saffron rice

Roasted chicken

Drinks

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Doogh (also known by some Afghans as shomleh or shlombeh) is a cold drink made by mixing water
with yogurt and then adding fresh or dried mint. Some variations of doogh include the addition of
crushed or diced cucumber chunks. It is the second most widely consumed drink in Afghanistan (the
first being tea), especially during lunchtime in summer. Doogh can be found at most every Afghan
grocery store and is served in restaurants.

By region and ethnicity

Pashtun cuisine

Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group of Afghanistan, constituting about 42% of the country's total
population.[7] A major dish in Pashtun culture is Sohbat, used in traditional gatherings and events.[8]
Other major Pashtun dishes include lamb-skewered sajji and chapli kebab. The name 'Dampukht'
stands for steamed meat, and Khaddi kebab is the Afghan shashlik, which is being grilled on an open
fire on a spit.[9]

Pashtun cuisine is meat-heavy and is often offered with caramelized rice, however it differs from
region to region. For example, the dish known as “Bolani” in the north and east is often called
“Borogyen” in the south and west of Afghanistan.

Common summer beverages include Shlombeh, also known in Persian as Doogh, a drink consisting of
liquid yogurt, mint, and bedreng (Afghan cucumber). Sherbet is an ice-sugared cold drink. Sheer yakh
is a sweet ice-like product literally translating to "Cold Milk".[9]

Hazara cuisine

The Hazara people in central Afghanistan (in the region of Hazarajat) and western Pakistan
(Balochistan province) have their own food – Hazaragi cuisine. Since the Hazara people share some
similarities with neighboring regional cuisines, the food is mainly influenced by Central Asian,
Persian, and South Asian cuisines. However, the methods of cooking are different in some of the
dishes between these neighboring cuisines.

Special occasions
Serving tea and white sugared almonds (called nuql) is customary during Afghan festivals.[1][10] Eid-
e-Qorban is celebrated at the end of the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, when families and friends
come to visit each other to drink a cup of tea together and share some nuts, sweets, and sugared
almonds called noql.

See also
Culture of Afghanistan

References
1. Brittin, Helen (2011). The Food and Culture Around the World Handbook (https://archive.org/detail
s/foodculturearoun00hele). Boston: Prentice Hall. pp. 20 (https://archive.org/details/foodculturearo
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un00hele/page/n36)–21.
2. "Rare Heirloom Seeds – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds" (https://web.archive.org/web/2016030406
3844/http://www.rareseeds.com/afghan-honeydew-melon/). Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
Archived from the original (http://www.rareseeds.com/afghan-honeydew-melon/) on 2016-03-04.
Retrieved 2013-10-28.
3. Ali, Tanveer (31 July 2012). "Everything You Need To Know About Afghan Food" (https://www.foo
drepublic.com/2012/07/31/everything-you-need-to-know-about-afghan-food/). foodrepublic.
Retrieved 2014-02-19.
4. Chef », This. "Khajoor | Afghan Kitchen Recipes" (http://www.afghankitchenrecipes.com/recipe/kh
ajoor/).
5. "Afghan Chatni made with fresh cilantro leaves, « WATAN CHAT" (https://watanchat.com/afghan-c
hatni/). March 12, 2017.
6. Chef », This. "Shorwa-E-Tarkari (Meat & Veg Soup) | Afghan Kitchen Recipes" (http://www.afghan
kitchenrecipes.com/recipe/shorwa-e-tarkari-meat-veg-soup/).
7. "The Ethnic Groups Of Afghanistan" (https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/ethnic-groups-of-afghani
stan.html). WorldAtlas.
8. "Sohbat: The Pashtun Dish That Brings People Together" (https://www.gounesco.com/sohbat-pas
htun-dish-brings-people-together/). www.gounesco.com.
9. Safia Haleem (1 May 2013). Pakistan – Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs &
Culture (https://books.google.com/books?id=AcA-AQAAQBAJ&pg=PT98). Kuperard. pp. 98–.
ISBN 978-1-85733-678-8.
10. "Afghan Cookbook" (https://afghancookbook.tumblr.com/post/107301656409/afghan-sugared-alm
ond-recipe). afghancookbook.tumblr.com.

Further reading
Helen J. Saberi (1997). "Travel and Food in Afghanistan" (https://books.google.com/books?id=uY
qTiD7SbcQC&pg=PA265). In Harlan Walker (ed.). Food on the Move: Proceedings of the Oxford
Symposium on Food and Cookery, 1996 (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_uYqTiD7SbcQC).
Prospect Books. ISBN 978-0-907325-79-6.

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