List of Israeli dishes facts for kids

Israeli food is super tasty and has a mix of flavors from all over the world! This list will tell you about some of the yummy dishes, snacks, and drinks you can find in Israel.

Main Dishes

These are the main meals people eat in Israel, from meaty treats to delicious vegetarian options.

Meaty Meals

• Jerusalem mixed grill: This dish started in Jerusalem. It's a mix of chicken hearts, spleens, and liver, cooked with bits of lamb on a flat grill. It's seasoned with special spices and often served with rice.
• Kubba seleq: A stew or soup made with beets.
• Merguez: A spicy sausage that came from North Africa. In Israel, it's usually grilled.
• Moussaka: A yummy oven-baked dish with layers of ground meat and eggplant.
• Schnitzel: Fried chicken breast covered in breadcrumbs or spiced flour. It's a popular dish!
• Shashlik: Cubes of meat cooked on a skewer over a grill.
• Skewered goose liver: Goose liver cooked on a skewer with spices.
• Kabanos: A long, thin, dry sausage that came from Poland. It's also very popular in Israel.

Fishy Feasts

Gefilte fish with carrot slices

• Denesse: In areas near the coast, this fish is baked with yogurt, tomatoes, garlic, and mint. It can also be fried.
• Gefilte fish: A traditional Jewish dish, often eaten as a starter. It's made from fish like carp or pike, shaped into a kind of dumpling.
• Tilapia: Also called St. Peter's fish. It's eaten a lot in Israel, especially in Tiberias, and is often fried or baked with spices.

St. Peter's fish (tilapia) in a restaurant in Tiberias, Israel

Vegetarian Delights

Ptitim (Israeli couscous)

• Brik: A thin pastry with a filling, usually deep-fried.
• Burgul: A type of wheat that can be cooked in many ways.
• Hamin: A slow-cooked stew often eaten on Shabbat (the Jewish day of rest). It has different meats, grains, and vegetables.
• Jakhnun: A pastry served on Shabbat mornings with fresh grated tomato and skhug (a hot sauce).
• Khachapuri: Bread filled with eggs and cheese.
• Kishka: A stuffed sausage, often cooked in Shabbat stews.
• Ktzitzot Khubeza: A patty made from mallow plants, breadcrumbs, eggs, and onion.
• Kubba bamia: Dumplings made from semolina or rice, cooked with okra in a tomato stew.
• Macaroni Hamin: A traditional dish from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
• Malawach: A type of bread eaten with fresh grated tomato and skhug.
• Orez Shu'it: White beans cooked in a tomato stew and served over rice.
• Ptitim: Toasted pasta shaped like small rice grains, sometimes called Israeli couscous.
• Ziva: A puff pastry topped with sesame seeds and filled with cheese and olives.

Hamin

Jerusalem mixed grill

Soups

Soups are a comforting part of Israeli meals.

Soup with matzah balls

• Maraq 'Adashim: A tasty lentil soup cooked with tomato sauce.
• Maraq Shuit: A white-bean soup also cooked with tomato sauce.
• Matzah ball: A dumpling often dropped into chicken soup. It's a very important food during Passover.
• Shkedei marak: Small yellow squares made from flour, often added to soup.

Meze (Small Dishes)

Meze are small dishes, like appetizers, that are often shared.

• Bourekas: Pastries made with thin dough (phyllo or puff pastry) filled with vegetables, cheese, meat, or spices. They are very popular!
• Kreplach: Small dumplings filled with ground meat, mashed potatoes, or other fillings. They are usually boiled and served in chicken soup.

Bourekas served with Israeli salad, olives, and feta cheese

Salads and Dips

Israelis love fresh salads and flavorful dips.

• Cabbage salad
• Carrot salad
• Coleslaw
• Greek salad
• Hamusim: Pickled vegetables like cucumber, cabbage, eggplant, and carrots.
• Israeli salad: A classic salad made with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and parsley.
• Matbucha: A cooked dish of tomatoes and roasted bell peppers, seasoned with garlic and chili.
• Salat avocado: A simple salad made with avocados, lemon juice, and chopped scallions.
• Salat ḥatzilim b'mayonnaise: A salad with fried eggplant, mayonnaise, and garlic.
• Sabich salad: A salad with ingredients similar to the sabich sandwich, but without hummus or pita bread.

Salat ḥatzilim b'mayonnaise

Cheeses and Yogurts

You'll find many types of cheese and yogurt in Israel.

• Cottage cheese
• Circassian cheese: A mild cheese that doesn't melt easily when cooked.
• Feta cheese
• Gvina levana: Israeli quark cheese, sold with different fat levels.
• Milky: A popular yogurt with chocolate pudding or whipped cream.
• Sirene: A type of salty cheese from the Balkans.
• Tzfat cheese: A semi-hard, salty sheep milk cheese from the city of Safed.

Safed cheese (Tzfat)

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Spices and Condiments

These add amazing flavor to Israeli food!

• Ras el hanout: A spice mix used in many savory dishes, sometimes rubbed on meat or stirred into couscous.
• Sumac: A tangy, reddish spice made from dried fruits.
• Hawaij: Different spice mixes from Yemen.
• Filfel chuma: A chili-garlic paste, similar to a hot sauce, from Libyan Jews.
• Skhug: A popular hot sauce in the Middle East, made from chili peppers, cilantro, and other spices. It can be red or green.
• Amba: A tangy mango pickle sauce that came from Iraqi and Kurdish Jews.

Skhug

Breads

Bread is a very important part of Israeli meals.

Types of Bread

Challah and bagels in Mahane Yehuda Market

• Bagel: A ring of dough that's boiled briefly and then baked.
• Challah: A special braided bread, often eaten on Shabbat.
• Kubaneh: A traditional Yemenite Jewish bread, similar to monkey bread.
• Malawach: Thin layers of puff pastry cooked flat in a frying pan.
• Matzah: A flat, unleavened bread, very important during Passover.
• Mofletta: A thin pancake-like bread made from water, flour, and oil.

Bread Dishes

Sabich

• Bagel toast
• Falafel in pita: Israeli pita bread filled with crispy falafel balls and Israeli salad.
• Havita b'laffa: An omelette served in taboon bread, often with hummus or labneh (a creamy cheese).
• Jerusalem mixed grill: Can also be served inside a pita or laffa bread.
• Lahmacun: A round, thin piece of dough topped with minced meat and vegetables, then baked.
• Sabich: Served in pita bread, this sandwich traditionally has fried eggplant, hard-boiled eggs, hummus, tahini, Israeli salad, potato, and amba.
• Tunisian sandwich: A warm sandwich with tuna, hard-boiled egg, potato, harissa (a spicy paste), and olives.

Snacks

Israel has many popular and unique snacks!

Bamba

Grill-flavored Bissli

An Israeli wafer

• Bamba: A very popular peanut-butter-flavored snack.
• Bissli: Crunchy snacks that come in flavors like "Grill," "Barbecue," and "Onion."
• Bourekas: These baked pastries are also a popular snack.
• Cow Chocolate: A well-known brand of chocolate products.
• Wafer: A light, crispy cookie.
• Frikandel: A type of minced-meat hot dog.
• Klik: Various chocolate and candy products, including chocolate-covered corn flakes.
• Krembo: A chocolate-coated marshmallow treat.
• Mekupelet: A chocolate bar made of thinly folded milk chocolate.
• Pannekoek special: A pancake or crêpe filled with Nutella chocolate spread and banana.
• Pesek Zman: A brand of chocolate bar.
• Sufganiyah: A round jelly doughnut, especially popular during Hanukkah.
• Sfenj: A light, spongy ring of fried dough, eaten plain or with sugar or honey.
• Tortit: A wafer covered in chocolate with a rum-like almond cream filling.

Sweets and Desserts

Time for something sweet!

Rugelach

• Fazuelos: Thin fried dough pastries from Sephardic Jews.
• Hamantash: A triangular cookie with a filling, popular during the Jewish holiday of Purim.
• Ice cream: Comes in many flavors, including unique ones like halva (a sweet confection), hummus, and even Bamba!
• Cheesecake: Very popular in Israel, especially during Shavuot, when people traditionally eat dairy foods.
• Crumb cake: A cake made with yeast dough and a sweet crumb topping.
• Krantz cake: Often filled with chocolate and raspberry jam, or soaked in honey syrup.
• Kugel: A baked pudding or casserole, often made from egg noodles.
• Lekach: A honey-sweetened cake.
• Levivot: These are Hanukah latkes (potato pancakes).
• Pannekoek special: A pancake or crêpe filled with Nutella chocolate spread and banana.
• Rugelach: A delicious pastry made by rolling dough around a filling.
• Silan: A sweet syrup made from dates.
• Watermelon with sirene or safed cheese: A refreshing combination, sometimes with mint leaves.

Beverages

Here are some drinks you might find in Israel.

Limonana

• Apricot juice
• Arak: An anise-flavored alcoholic drink, sometimes mixed with grapefruit juice.
• Beer
• Gat: A juice made from the khat plant. In Jerusalem, it's sometimes mixed with citron and called Etrogat.
• Limonana: A refreshing lemonade made with fresh lemon juice and mint leaves.
• Orange juice
• Pomegranate juice
• Pomegranate wine
• Shoko Bsakit: Chocolate milk sold in a bag.
• Sugarcane juice
• Tea: Sometimes flavored with rosewater, mint, lemon juice, or honey.
• Turkish coffee
• Vodka: An alcoholic drink made mostly of water and ethanol.
• Wine

See also

• Israeli cuisine
• Kosher restaurant
• Middle Eastern cuisine
• Strauss-Elite
• Osem (company)