Kibbeh is one of the most famous Middle Eastern dishes that everyone enjoys.
It comes in different shapes and flavors.
The two most famous shapes that many of us enjoy are the croquette shapes that can be deep fried or baked. They are often served as mezze “appetizers” or in some traditional main dishes like kibbeh bl laban “yoghurt” or kibbeh arnabiye and many more!
And it can be served as a main dish in the shape of a big baked pie.
It is a mixture based on bulgur wheat, onions and ground beef with an extra earthy warm taste from a middle eastern spice mix like all spice and ground cinnamon.
The stuffing is usually also made off minced beef, or a mixture of chickpeas and some seasonal greens and some nuts. Here are many ways of stuffing the kibbeh that differ from a region to another in the Middle Eastern countries.
Stuffing kibbeh is as serious as stuffing zucchini or rolling vine leaves. And if you grew is that part of the world, I will assume that your mother would have trained you to make kibbeh by the time you turned 18! 😛
Today kibbeh will be of course a new or as you can say a kibbeh with a twist recipe, a twist to make it 100% lent friendly.
This means it is vegan, full of flavors, loaded with seasonal greens and absolutely what you need for lunch!
The kibbeh for today is the pie style it is two layers of kibbeh dough made from burghul, onions, middle eastern spices and some whole wheat flour. And between these two crispy layers of kibbeh dough there is a moist, tangy stuffing made from seasonal nutritional greens with some sumac and pomegranate molasses and extra punch of protein with some chickpeas to make it the ultimate fully loaded vegan pie!
And to make it more perfect I prepared some fresh tahini sauce to drizzle on the top to replace the yoghurt and cucumber sauce that we usually enjoy with the meat kibbeh!
Once you you have tried this recipe, you will be hooked and to make it more perfect; it’s a freezer friendly and perfect for meal prep! you may even love it more than the meat version as my husband already approved that is open of his best kibbeh he ever had!
and for more lent friendly vegan recipe you can check out my article here!
And now let’s warm those hands and start working some kibbeh!
Vegan Baked Kibbeh
Ingredients
for the kibbeh dough
- 600 g burghul wheat washed and drained
- 2 medium onions grated (see notes)
- 2 tsp dry mint
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1/2 tsp sweet pepper
- 1 tsp seven spices (see notes)
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 2 cups oat flour (see notes)
- 1 tsp salt
for the stuffing:
- 2 medium onions cut into wings
- 1 cup leek washed and sliced
- 1 cup swiss chad (سلق) washed and chopped
- 1 cup spinach washed and chopped
- 1 cup kale washed and chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh corainder washed and chopped
- 1 cup chickpeas cooked and drained (see notes)
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp sweet pepper
- 1 tsp seven spices
- 1 tbsp sumac
- 1/2 small lemon juice
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- 1 tbsp grape seed oil see notes
garlic sauce for kibbeh top :
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
for tahini dressing:
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 4 tbsp water
- 1 clove garlic minced
Instructions
for the kibbeh dough
- after washing the burghul, out it in a deep bowl .add the grated onions with the dry mint and all the spices and mix it all together till the burghul is covered with spices.start adding the flour 1/2 cup each time and mix the dough well work it with your hand well and mix .keep adding the flour gradually until you have a dough it will be a little bit sticky and wet but not to sticky . test it get a small ball of the dough try to work it in your hand if it holds well and don’t stick to you hand that’s mean it is good and do not need any more flour. you might not need all the flour. set aside the dough and cover it with a kitchen towel .
for the stuffing
- start with heating a pan with the oil. add the onion and cook it until it is transparent. add the coriander and stir occasionally until you start smell the aroma. add the leek and cook it for extra couple of minutes util you start smell the leek.add all the greens : spinach, Swiss chad, kale. mix it well and lower the heat and cover the pan .let it simmer for 5 minutes until it steams and get the green start to be wilt.remove the cover, add all the spices and flavors and mix it well until all the spices are mixed and the greens are all wilt.add the chickpeas and the pine nut and mix it well .cook it all together for a couple of minutes turn off the heat. and add the pomegranate molasses and lemon juice and mix it all together. ans set the stuffing aside.
for the kibbeh top
- mix all the ingredients together and set aside.
for the tahini sauce
- mix the garlic . salt and tahini and mix. add the lemon juice gradually and mix well . the mixture will harden but keep mixing . add the water gradually and mix it well until you have a smooth sauce. set aside.
for assembling the pie
- preheat the oven on 200 C°.
- divide the kibbeh dough into two parts.put the first part of the dough into a baking pan 20x30cm or a medium baking equivalent pan . and start working it with your hand to spread it all over the bottom of the tray . put a cold water bowl next to you and keep wetting your hand so you can work the dough and spread it evenly in the bottom of the pan .
- add the stuffing and spread it evenly over the dough. keep an outline of around 2 cm empty so you can close it up later.
- now for the upper layer, because the dough is a little bit tricky to work with. i use a little trick. I put the dough between two big baking sheets and roll over between the two sheets until you have circle shape equal to the diameter of the pan approx. remove the baking sheet on the top of the dough. and roll the dough slowly over your rolling pin. so you can transfer it and roll it over the baking pan of kibbeh. transfer the dough rolled over the pin to the top of the pie and close the edges with your wet hand . (see notes)
- dip a sharp knife in cold water. and draw some geometrical design on the top of the top of the dough. try not to go to deep draw the shapes slowly and you can keep it plain also it will not affect the recipe.
- bake the pie for 15 minutes covered with aluminium foil . after 15 minutes remove the foil and brush the top of the pie with the garlic sauce and bake it for and extra 15 minutes uncovered.
- remove the baked kibbeh from the oven and brush it with the remaining garlic sauce. let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting
- cut the kibbeh and serve with a drizzle if the tahini sauce on the top and with some salad maybe. (see notes)
Notes
- seven spices : it is a Lebanese spices mixtures made of 8 spices that you can prepare at home if you couldn’t find in your neighborhood grocery store. just mix (2 tbsp. ground black pepper, 2 tbsp. paprika, 2 tbsp. cumin, 1 tbsp. ground coriander, 1 tbsp. ground cloves, 1 tsp. ground nutmeg, 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cardamom) store it in a spices container in a dry place like any other spices.
- a quick trick for to grate onions: peal the onion , wash it and dry it with a clean towel. and pop it in the freezer for 1 hour minimum. and remove it and grated it freezed . it will be easier to grate with no tears involved
- you can use instead of oat flour whole meal flour.
- you can use a can of chickpeas if you don’t have time to cook chickpeas or don’t feel like it ! 🙂
- if you are not vegan or doing a vegan lent you can enjoy this kibbeh also with some yogurt (laban)
- to know more about how to transfer and roll the kibbeh dough you can check this link of step by step on how to roll and transfer the dough: https://www.finecooking.com/article/use-your-rolling-pin-to-transfer-pie-dough