For this Kurdish twist on a comfort food favorite, cabbage leaves are rolled around a chile-and-mint-seasoned meat and rice mixture and cooked in tomato sauce tart with sumac. The time you spend assembling the rolls is rewarded in leftovers that only get better with time in the refrigerator. I learned how to make this at Omayra, a women-run café in Diyarbakır that closed a year after my visit. Owner Gülseren’s cabbage roll recipe called for beef, but lamb will work too. You will need cheesecloth or a large paper coffee filter to strain the sumac from the water, and parchment paper to lay over the cabbage rolls as they cook. Figure on 4 or 5 rolls per main-dish serving. Serve warm or hot, with pickles.—Robyn Eckhardt, author of Istanbul & Beyond
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