Kbeibat bi-silq, chard-filled bulgur dumplings from Tartus

Kbeibat are small balls of flour and fine bulgur dough, stuffed with chopped chard and onion and boiled in water. The sauce is made by adding garlic and lemon to the cooking water. They are cooked on feast days in the villages of Tartus and Latakia, and Muslim and Christian families make them on the same days.

How they are made

Flour is kneaded with fine bulgur. Small pieces of dough are opened out, filled with chopped chard and onion, and closed into balls. The balls are boiled in water. Umm Jaber, a woman in her seventies from Latakia, told Athr Press she started kneading the dough in the morning for the first iftar of Ramadan. According to SANA, reporting from the Latakia countryside, some homes use minced meat instead of chard.

What goes into the sauce

The cooking water is kept; it is the base of the sauce. Garlic and lemon go in. The third flavour changes from house to house: sumac, pomegranate molasses or red pepper paste.

Which days

On the coast’s feast calendar: the Annunciation, Eid al-Helweh (Eastern Christmas), Qozla on 13-14 January, and the first iftar of Ramadan. Zlebiyeh, chard fatayer and muhammara share the table. An old guest’s line shows how often the dish turns up on these days: ‘We had kbeibat for lunch, and kbeibat for dinner.’

Why these ingredients

Haidar Nuaysa, a folk-culture researcher, told Athr Press that people on the coast treat dishes of bulgur, flour, olive oil and winter greens such as chard as the base of the table. The dough and filling of kbeibat are exactly that: bulgur, flour and chard.

How they differ from kibbeh

In most of the kibbeh on this site, the shell is bulgur and meat and the filling is minced meat. Kbeibat have no meat in the dough, but flour. The filling is chard. And the balls are boiled, not fried. The name itself means ‘little kibbehs’.

Where they are eaten

At home in the villages of Tartus and Latakia, at feast-day meals. Athr Press recorded the method in Latakia and in the countryside around Drekish, in Tartus.