'Delights from the Garden of Eden': author explores rich history of Iraqi cuisine

Turkey, Iran, Iraq – where did the kebab, now enjoyed the world over, originate? As Iraqi scholar and food writer Nawal Nasrallah will tell you, Iraq’s claim to the kebab goes back to ancient Mesopotamian times. “In ancient Akkadian kababu meant ‘to grill’ or ‘to burn fire or wood,’” she says. “The medieval Arabic meaning is from kabba ‘lay meat on the fire.’”

Nasrallah explores the historical and cultural aspects of Iraqi cuisine in her book Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and History of the Iraqi Cuisine (McGill-Queen’s University Press; 2nd edition, 2013). This dense volume, which draws on the nation’s literature, poetry, folklore, songs and stories, was truly a labour of love for Nasrallah, who immigrated to the United States in 1990.

Settling in a new country, she often faced questions about what people eat in Iraq. “It’s only human,” she says with a laugh. Nasrallah originally set out to share the culinary side of Iraqi culture; to illustrate that Iraq is much more than the political and Saddam Hussein. She intended to document Iraqi recipes but the project soon developed into much more.

“The more I delved into the matter, the more I discovered things like Babylonian recipes, medieval Baghdadi cookbooks, and all the descriptions of medieval food,” Nasrallah says. Six years and 400 recipes later, she had some difficulties securing a commercial publisher for the tome. The first edition came out as a self-published volume in 2003, which just so happened to coincide with the invasion of Iraq.

The first edition became something of an underground bestseller and garnered the Gourmand World Cookbook Special Jury Award in 2007. Equinox published the second edition this year, allowing Nasrallah to include more than 300 colour illustrations and photos, and update a large portion of the information. Among the photos are several of the cuneiform Babylonian culinary tablets – or the first “recipe book” in human history – thought to have been written in Babylonia around 1700 BC. As Nasrallah writes in Delights from the Garden of Eden, tablet 4644 contains stew recipes, tablet 8958 mostly recipes for various bird pies, and tablet 4648 is badly damaged.

Nasrallah describes the experience of holding these ancient tablets as one of the most magnificent experiences in her life; to see record of recipes that were written centuries ago and to feel a connection with those that have held them previously. “[The curator of the Yale Babylonian Collection] opened the case and showed me those three cuneiform tablets, and the first one was the stew. I held it in my hands – it was polished and very smooth with all those nice indents on it. Both sides were inscribed and I turned it like we do with our books; from left to right,” she says with a laugh. “I think [the curator] was expecting it and she was standing behind me and said, ‘No, no, no! This is not the way to flip this page. You flip it from bottom to top.’”

When researching the contents of these tablets, Nasrallah was most surprised by the similarities between what Iraqis cook today and what people cooked in medieval and ancient Mesopotamian times. She gives the example of tablet 4644, which dealt entirely with stews. “[Stews] are a staple dish of Iraq nowadays. Even some of the dishes are described similarly, especially when we prepare tripe and trotters, and also recipes with vegetables and meat,” she says. “As you proceed to medieval times, we have two cookbooks from Baghdad. A huge number of the dishes are similar to what we cook nowadays.”

She emphasizes that this is a unique situation; to be able to trace a given cuisine from ancient to medieval to present times through historical documents. Names of dishes and some of the kitchen utensils were the same as today, but there are of course differences. Stews in medieval and ancient times were coloured with saffron and thickened with breadcrumbs, rice flour or wheat starch. These are roles that tomatoes now fill, which is a relatively new development from the 19th century.

“I also noticed that nowadays we don’t use a fermented sauce, something similar to soy sauce or fish sauce. They used to use it in most of their dishes,” Nasrallah says. “And as we know nowadays, those fermented sauces give some depth to the taste of the dish. What we call umami; this elusive taste. And of course we know that tomatoes have the same properties so we are fine with the tomatoes now, we don’t need our fermented sauces anymore.”

The recipes for Babylonian bird pies, documented on tablet 8958, are surprisingly sophisticated and highlight the importance of ‘stuffing’ techniques that are still present today in Iraqi cuisine. The stuffed pies from the tablet were made with a white sauce similar to béchamel and bird meat; not so far off the chicken pot pies of today.

“In medieval times they were also fond of stuffed dishes. When you read the recipes you find a kind of excitement in the way they describe those dishes. For example, one of the recipes would describe how to stuff eggplants with meat and all of this lovely stuff, and at the end of the recipe the writer would say ‘Put the top of the eggplant back on and arrange the eggplants on the plate as if nothing had happened to them,’” she says with a laugh. “It really tells you about the pride they felt, the pleasure they took in cooking those dishes, and the joy they wanted to share with their diners.”

In terms of key ingredients for Iraqi recipes, Nasrallah lists noomi Basra (dried lime) and baharat (an all-purpose spice blend) as essential to traditional dishes such as tacheena (rice with meat and vegetables) although she doesn’t consider the cuisine to be demanding as far as ingredients are concerned; it’s the techniques used in preparing dishes that are different.

In fact, upon her arrival in the United States, only two ingredients threw wrenches into her cooking. The first was Swiss chard, which she misidentified at a grocery store in Bloomington, Indiana and ended up with dolma wrapped in turnip leaves.

The second was tahini; it was her first week out of Iraq and she wanted to make hummus. “I didn’t know where the Middle Eastern store was. So we had peanut butter and I made hummus with peanut butter. It was good! What do you do? If you can’t find something, you substitute,” she laughs.


Excerpted from Delights from the Garden of Eden (McGill-Queen’s University Press; 2nd edition, 2013)

Simeat: Twisted Sesame Rings

Simeat are well known throughout the eastern Mediterranean countries. Despite some differences, they are all shaped as rings and are generously encrusted with sesame seeds. The authentic varieties, like Iraqi simeat, are closely related to bagels, in that they are poached in hot water before baking. In fact, the name of these pastries originally came from this practice because the root verb samata means ‘dip briefly in hot water.’ This is a baking technique deeply steeped in history. In one of the extant medieval Arab cookbooks, a recipe for ring cookies called ka’k instructs that the dough be shaped into rings, which are first carried by a rolling pin and dipped briefly in boiling water and then arranged on a tray and baked in the brick oven called furn.

In Iraq, they are shaped into attractive small twisted rings, encrusted with lots of fragrant toasted sesame seeds, crispy in crust and chewy in texture. They are bought from wandering vendors who arrange the simeats on wicker baskets in tall piles and carry them on their heads.


Makes 28 pieces

3 tablespoons dried yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup (250 ml) warm water


1 tablespoon salt

¼ cup (60 ml) oil

3 cups (715 ml) warm water

For glaze: 1 egg-white whisked in 1 tablespoon water

Sesame seeds, dry toasted, for sprinkling








I sometimes break away from tradition and make simeat with cheese, olives and herbs. Quite tasty and aromatic.

Here is how to make them:

Herbed Simeat with Cheese and Olives






Simmered Fresh Black-eyed Peas

Loubya Maslouga

Makes 4 servings

A favorite summertime appetizer or a side dish. While in season, fresh black-eyed peas in the pod (also known as cowpeas) are cooked almost every day, to be devoured before the meal or with it. The best loubya grows on the small islands (jazra) that come into existence as the water level of the river Tigris drops in the summer. It has been growing in the region ever since antiquity. In Akkadian, it was known as ‘lubu.’ The best substitute is asparagus beans or string beans, sometimes found in farmers’ markets in the summer, or oriental stores all year round.

1 pound (450 g) fresh black-eyed peas in the pod

1 teaspoon salt

Crushed dry mint

1. Wash beans, leave whole, and do not cut off ends. In a medium pot, arrange beans lengthwise, like untied bunches, to prevent them from being squashed while handling, because they get very tender when cooked. Invert a plate on the beans to keep them submerged. Pour in enough hot water to cover by 2 in./5 cm. Bring to a quick boil, then lower heat to medium-low, and simmer gently, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes or until beans are tender but still intact. Add salt about 10 minutes before beans are done.

2. Use a pancake turner/slice to take beans out of the pot, drain, and place in a flat dish. Sprinkle with mint and serve warm or cold with a drizzle of vinegar or lemon juice, if liked.

3. These beans are usually eaten with the fingers since most of them come with tough strings that have to be removed. The way to do it is to pick up a bean with the fingers, put most of bean in your mouth, press it between the lips or front teeth, and pull out the string with the index finger and thumb. Have fun!

Okra Stew

Margat Bamya

Makes 4 servings

An interesting bit of history on okra ‘hibiscus esculentus’, Arabic bamya:




4 to 6 chunks of lamb on the bone, such as trimmed lamb shanks, cut in half (2−2½ pounds/900 g-1.25 kg)

2 tablespoons canola or olive oil

5 to 6 cloves garlic, whole and leave skin on

3 heaped tablespoons tomato paste (one 6-oz/175g can) diluted in 4 cups (950 ml) hot water

1½ teaspoons salt


1 pound fresh or frozen okra (follow directions given above)

2 to 3 small dried hot peppers, optional



3. Serve the stew with white plain rice or bulgur along with slices of onion and green pepper. Another popular way of serving okra stew is having it as tashreeb (also called thareed): put bite-size pieces of flat bread in a deep dish and drench it with the stew sauce. Arrange meat pieces and garlic on top.



