Makmour al-Kousa: The Other Half of Stuffed Courgette
The flesh scooped out of the courgette cooks with rice, mince and onion, finished with pomegranate molasses and pine nuts fried in ghee. A feast-day pot.
- Where to eat it
- At home, on feast days and when there are guests. Almost never on a restaurant menu; it is cooked the same day a household makes mahshi.
- Price
- Variable — a home dish, not sold by the plate in the markets
- When it is eaten
- The months when courgettes are fresh; feast and guest tables
When mahshi is made, the inside of the courgette is hollowed out and set aside. Makmour al-kousa is the dish that comes out of that bowl on the side. The scooped flesh goes into a pot with rice, minced meat, onion and tomato paste. Pomegranate molasses, parsley and pine nuts fried in ghee finish it.
What the name means
The name comes from an Arabic root meaning to cover. It is recorded as a dish of the Syrian kitchen. It appears at feasts and at invitations, not at an ordinary lunch.
Two sides of the same pot as mahshi
The relationship sits here, and it is what the dish really tells you. Mahshi fills the shell of the courgette; makmour uses the flesh taken out of it. One vegetable, two parts, two separate dishes, and nothing thrown away. A Syrian home kitchen refuses waste, and this is the clearest example of it. The pot says more than the recipe does.
It should not be confused with makmoura, known in the Irbid countryside of Jordan: that one is made with wheat flour, chicken and onion, and has no courgette in it. The names are close, the dishes are not.
The fatteh version
There is also fattet makmour, layered with fried bread, tahini yoghurt and pomegranate seeds. What separates it from the fatteh already on this site is the layer underneath: chickpeas there, courgette here. The Australian public broadcaster’s food pages record this version as a Syrian dish.
Tips
- Worth asking about in a house making mahshi — the two dishes come out of the same courgette
- Do not confuse it with Jordanian makmoura, which is made with wheat flour and chicken
- The sourness is pomegranate molasses; the ghee and pine nuts go on last
- Under the fatteh version there is courgette rather than chickpeas
Transparency
- How this was chosen
- Two kinds of record live here: the dish itself, and the place that serves it. Both are chosen and written by hand; ranking is not for sale and there are no sponsored entries. If a price range is not known for certain, it says so. Venues that serve alcohol are not listed on this site at all.
- Facts checked
- September 2026
- Last updated
- September 15, 2026