ISRAEL: Best Israeli Food

In big cities and small towns, Israelis from all walks of life enjoy these popular Israeli foods.

It’s easiest to try them during a trip to Israel, but you can also find many of these dishes at a local Israeli or Middle Eastern restaurant, a specialty market, or make them in your own kitchen!

While there is a tremendous variety of cuisines and food eaten in Israel, certain dishes are considered typical Israeli food.
popular israeli food

These traditional foods of Israel can be found throughout the country in restaurants and cafés,food stands, and of course, in many Israeli homes.

Israeli Breakfast Foods:

These dishes are universally popular in Israel. We often eat them at home because they’re easy to make and very filling. A chopped Israeli salad is often served on the side.

Borekas – these pastries can be filled with cheese, potatoes, or vegetables

Israeli breakfast – features fresh vegetables, eggs, and cheeses

Israeli salad – a popular way to enjoy vegetables

Jachnun – a filling dish made from dough and cooked overnight

Labane – a tangy yogurt spread to be enjoyed at any meal

Shakshooka – an easy way to enjoy eggs in the morning (or anytime!)


Israeli Lunch / Dinner Foods:

Popular Israeli food is characteristically simple. A typical lunch in Israel is shnitzel with different side salads, including hummus and tahini, and served with rice or mashed potatoes, and vegetables.

For a quick meal on the go, it’s easy to grab a falafel or shwarma on the street, usually stuffed in pita with French fries ("chips") and salad.

Baba Ganoush – a tangy eggplant spread

Falafel – deep fried chickpea balls, often served in pita bread

Hummus – a mashed chickpea spread, hummus can be served in many ways and is a staple in Israeli households

Malawach – this flaky round pastry can be enjoyed with sweet or savory toppings

Pita bread – the “national bread” of Israel

Sabih – a sandwich of fried eggplant, hard boiled egg, tahini in pita

Shnitzel – chicken cutlets breaded and fried, Israeli supermarkets also offer many varieties of frozen “shnitzelim” to be enjoyed easily at home

Shwarma – grilled lamb or other meat that is then sliced or “shaved”, often enjoyed in pita or laffa bread

Tahini – a delicious spread made from ground sesame seeds


Israeli Snack Foods / Desserts:

These are just some of the sweet treats available in Israel. Disclaimer - they're not exactly dietetic!

Baklava - a sweet layered pastry enjoyed throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East

Crêpes - In the malls and on the streets, food stands sell freshly made crêpes, available with different fillings.

Ice Cream - Israelis, like people all over the world, love their ice cream.

Knafeh – this dessert is made of shredded pastry, soft cheese and sweet syrup

Malabi – a pudding flavored with rose water and topped with nuts

Sahlab – a rich, creamy, sweet hot drink or pudding


Israeli Drinks:

Living in Israel convertes one from a die-hard tea drinker to a coffee drinker. The coffee served in cafés here is delicious! Fruit shakes and lemonades are especially refreshing and tasty because the produce is grown locally.

Café Afuch – an “upside-down” cappuccino

Fruit Shake – in Israel these shakes are always fresh and flavorful

Mint Lemonade – called “lemonana”, sometimes served frozen and blended

Mint Tea - enjoyed with or without a teabag!


As you can see from this list, most of the popular food in Israel is also “everyday food” – tasty, unpretentious dishes to be enjoyed often, both in and out of the home.

Enjoy Turkish Pumpkin Dessert

This Turkish pumpkin dessert features pumpkin wedges “soaked” for hours in sugar to draw out the liquid from the gourd.

Pumpkins are a fixture at autumn farmers markets in Turkey, where they grow so large that they’re often cut with saws and sold in halves or by the slice. Like Americans, Turks love their pumpkin both savory — in soups, stews and as stuffed vegetables — and sweet.

Perhaps the most prized Turkish dessert is kabak tatlisi (literally, “pumpkin sweet”), wedges of pumpkin simmered in a syrup made by using sugar to leach the gourd of its natural juices. Because the recipe doubles or triples easily and the result keeps well for a day or two in the refrigerator, it’s a perfect dessert for holidays that demand do-ahead short-cuts, like Thanksgiving.

I’ve been a pumpkin lover all my life, yet until recently, kabak tatlisi, which is often served on its own or with kaymak (Turkish clotted cream), left me cold. Then I sampled it in Hatay province in southeast Turkey, where the pumpkin is served drizzled with tahini (that is a Turkish pantry staple) and sprinkled with crushed walnuts. The tahini’s slight bitterness tames the cloying sweetness of the pumpkin and crunchy walnuts complement the pudding-soft texture of the vegetable. The tahini’s oil content lends a rich, satisfying mouth feel, but since it’s made up mostly of vegetable, kabak tatlisi settles lightly in the stomach.

Though Turkish cooks usually make kabak tatlisi in a covered pan on top of the stove, I’ve found that the dish cooks wonderfully — and with less bother — in the oven. It emerges a lovely burnt orange, tinged with brownish bits from the caramelization.

Be prepared. This recipe calls for what will seem like a lot of sugar. Resist the temptation to cut back. The sugar is there to pull liquid out of the pumpkin. Yes, the result is super-sweet, but kabak tatlisi isn’t meant to be eaten in American pumpkin-pie-sized wedges. Just a few cubes per diner — three or four little bites of caramel-y, tahini-nutty sweetness to end a meal — will do.

Resist also any urge to reduce cooking time by cutting the pumpkin into smaller pieces than this recipe indicates, or it will turn to mush before it caramelizes and the syrup has reduced. Be sure to use unadulterated tahini, without peanuts or peanut butter. Its bitter edge is essential to the success of this dish.

Plan ahead: the pumpkin must “soak” in the sugar for 8 hours (or overnight) before baking.

Caramelized Pumpkin with Tahini and Walnuts (Firinda Kabak Tatlisi)

Directions

Prepping the pumpkin:

1. Cut the pumpkin into wide (3-inch) wedges and/or large (4-by-4-inch) chunks.

2. Arrange the pumpkin pieces in a baking dish or tray just large enough to hold them closely, but without crowding.

3. Sprinkle the sugar over the pumpkin and cover the dish with plastic wrap.

4. Leave the pumpkin at room temperature for 8 hours or overnight. Turn the pumpkin pieces occasionally – once every few hours, or once before bed and once after you get up — to expose all sides to the sugar.

Baking the pumpkin:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Before baking, turn the pumpkin pieces one last time in what has likely become a mixture of syrup and lumps of wet granulated sugar.

3. Place the baking dish on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 40 minutes, gently turning the pumpkin pieces and basting with the sugar syrup once or twice.

4. Check the pumpkin for doneness by piercing a piece with a sharp knife. There should be no resistance.

5. Baste the pumpkin once more, then raise the heat to 400 F and continue to bake until it shows bits of caramel brown in some spots and the syrup bubbles, about 10 to 15 minutes.

6. Cool the pumpkin in its baking dish.

7. To serve, cut the pumpkin into small cubes or wedges and carefully transfer to bowls or plates. Spoon a bit of syrup over it, if you like, or leave it in the dish. Drizzle 1 1/2 tablespoons of tahini over each serving of pumpkin and sprinkle with walnuts.

Note: This recipe can easily be doubled, halved, cut into thirds. The rule of thumb is one part sugar to two parts pumpkin. Do not serve kabak tatlisi hot out of the oven. Room temperature or slightly chilled is best. Make sure your tahini is at room temperature when you serve.

Prep time: Up to 1/2 hour to prep the pumpkin; 8 hours to “soak” the pumpkin

Cook time: 45 minutes

Yield: Serves 8

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds peeled pumpkin

3/4 pound (1 1/2 cups white sugar)

12 tablespoons pure tahini, at room temperature and whisked to remove any lumps

3/4 cup chopped walnuts