Integral to any Newroz feast, stuffed vine leaves celebrate the vegetables of spring. In her recipe, chef Pary Baban uses shallots, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and chard.
“From late February, the hills in Southern Kurdistan are blossoming with wild foods,” recalled chef Pary Baban, owner of Nandine, a Kurdish eatery in the South London neighbourhood of Camberwell. “People forage for herbs and fresh ingredients, cook feasts and bring picnics into the mountains. Newroz isn’t just one day; it is the entire season of spring.”
Newroz, also called “Nowruz” in Persian, is the Kurdish and Persian New Year that has more than 3,000-year-old roots in the Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism. Each year, Newroz, which literally translates to “new day”, is celebrated on the spring equinox to welcome a new year, new life and new beginnings.
“Newroz is something special for us,” said Baban. “It’s the only thing the government couldn’t take away from us when Saddam Hussein came to power. Kurdish people never give up; they still go out and celebrate. It’s our identity.”
While the celebrations vary across different regions of Western Asia, in Kurdistan (an autonomous region that spreads over eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, western Iran and parts of northern Syria and Armenia), festivities commence on 20 March. On this night, known as Newroz Eve, people walk through town centres in processions, jump over and dance around fires, and wear brilliantly coloured garments to represent spring.
In Kurdish culture, Newroz Eve echoes a Kurdish myth in which a blacksmith named Kawa was believed to have defeated the evil King Kuhak, thereby liberating the Kurdish people. The symbolism of this myth endures as the liberation of Kurds, one of the world’s largest stateless people.
“We celebrate everything in Newroz, it is not just the New Year,” said Baban. “Everything is coming alive. Music is coming alive. Fighting for your freedom is coming alive. We think about when we will become a free people.”
On 21 March, elaborate feasts are prepared using wild foods foraged from the valleys and mountains now blossoming with fresh herbs and vegetables, like watercress and kengir (similar to a wild artichoke). This tradition of cooking outside and preparing mountain picnics then stretches throughout the entire spring season.
Chef Pary Baban is the owner of Nandine, a Kurdish eatery in South London (Credit: Alicia Erickson)
Baban called Southern Kurdistan (also called Iraqi Kurdistan) home until 1988, when she fled following Saddam Hussein’s massacre of Kurdish people. Refusing to end up in refugee camps, she and her family walked for nine days in the mountains and then crossed the border into Iranian Kurdistan (Eastern Kurdistan). Four years later, she returned to Southern Kurdistan after escaping violence associated with uprisings in Iran. Tired of running from unstable and violent governments oppressing the Kurdish people, Baban eventually came to London with her husband in 1997. There, in 2019, she opened Nandine, where she now serves traditional Kurdish dishes inspired by memories of home.
Lining the restaurant’s wooden shelves were jars filled with dried Kurdistan delicacies such as sumac, qazwan (coffee made from the seeds of a wild pistachio tree) and black basil. And on a table lay a brilliant spread of colourful foods specially prepared for Newroz: salads of watercress, rocket, mint, spring onion, pomegranate and cucumber; bowls of pickled carrots and cauliflower tinted deep fuchsia from beetroot; piles of nani tiri (flatbread); and a chalice of mastaw (yoghurt drink) topped with dill and young qazwan seeds. In the centre of the feast was a platter stacked high with yaprakh (also called “yaprax”), the Kurdish version of dolmas, stuffed vine leaves that have been tightly packed in a pot and steamed.
Dolmas find a home across the Middle East and Mediterranean regions, particularly with countries rooted in the Ottoman Empire. The precise origins of this popular dish are disputed, with claims ranging from the Ottoman Empire to the city of Thebes on the Nile River. Today, however, Turkey, Greece, Armenia, Iran and Iraq, among other countries, all have their own versions, with spiced rice and meat being among the most popular fillings. Other variations include stuffed apples with grape-flavoured sumac or calamari and mackerel.
Along with their distinct culture and language, Kurds take deep pride in dishes like yaprakh. “Other cuisines talk about dolmas,” Baban said. “But I guarantee you they don’t cook it the same. We have our own names and have been making these dishes for thousands of years before these nations were formed.”
There are different varieties of Kurdish yaprakh, such as “spring yaprakh”, fresh grapevine leaves stuffed with rice, dill, spring onions, turmeric and fresh thyme, cooked with broad beans and served with yoghurt. Swiss chard can be substituted when vine leaves aren’t available. Come summertime, other vegetables are stuffed, too. In her recipe below, Baban uses shallots, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and chard.
Chef Baban uses shallots, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and chard in her dolmas (Credit: Alicia Erickson)
Source: BBC