Arabic & Levantine Pantry Guide
What is kishk? Fermented bulgur and yoghurt powder explained
Kishk (kishk baladi) is a traditional Levantine pantry staple made by fermenting bulgur wheat with salted yoghurt for several days, sun-drying the dough and milling it into a fine powder. Whisked with water and simmered with garlic, mint and ghee, it cooks in minutes into a thick, tangy winter soup.
How traditional kishk is made for the winter pantry
At the end of summer in villages across Lebanon and Syria, coarse bulgur is mixed with strained yoghurt and salt in large basins. Over several days the mixture is kneaded by hand and fed with more yoghurt as it ferments and develops a bright, savoury tang. Once the grain has absorbed the yoghurt, it is shaped into small nuggets, spread on rooftops under the hot sun until bone-dry, and ground at the mill into a pale golden flour that keeps all year.
How to cook kishk soup and bake kishk manakish
On chilly mornings and winter evenings, kishk is cooked into a comforting bowl of soup: diced onions and minced lamb (or small potato cubes) are browned in ghee, cold water whisked with kishk powder is poured in, and the pot is stirred over medium heat for 10 minutes until velvety. It is finished with a sizzling pan of crushed garlic and dried mint fried in ghee, and served with Arabic bread, radishes and spring onions. Mixed into a paste with olive oil, finely chopped onion, tomato paste and sesame seeds, kishk is also spread onto flatbread dough to bake kishk manakish.
