country Essentials · 12 foods
Azerbaijan Essentials
A considered first route through Azerbaijan: the foods that carry its everyday habits, celebrations, ingredients, and memory.
Explore all Azerbaijan foods →THE
ESSENTIALS
The complete shortlist
12 foods to know.
Each selection includes the reason it belongs here—so this is a guide, not just a pile of names.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani Plov
Plov
Saffron rice served apart from its garnish, over a crust of bread — dozens of named versions exist.
Sheki, Azerbaijan
Piti
Lamb and chickpeas baked overnight in a clay crock in Sheki, drunk as broth then mashed with bread.
Azerbaijan
Dushbara
Düşbərə
Lamb dumplings folded small enough that a hundred fit a bowl, with vinegar and dried mint at the table.
Azerbaijan
Lula Kebab
Lülə kabab
Hand-minced lamb slapped onto a flat skewer and slid straight into lavash with sumac onion.
Azerbaijan
Qutab
Paper-thin dough folded over greens or lamb, cooked on a domed saj and brushed with butter.
Azerbaijan
Dovga
Dovğa
Hot yogurt soup thick with herbs, stirred one way throughout so it never splits.
Azerbaijan
Narsharab
Narşərab
Pomegranate juice reduced to a near-black sweet-sour sauce, spooned over grilled fish, meat and vegetables.
Baku, Azerbaijan
Baku Pakhlava
Bakı paxlavası
Eight layers, walnut and cardamom, cut in diamonds and glazed with saffron for Novruz.
Sheki, Azerbaijan
Sheki Halva
Şəki halvası
Rice-flour vermicelli layered with hazelnut and saffron syrup, made only by a few Sheki families.
Lankaran-Astara, Azerbaijan
Lavangi
Ləvəngi
Chicken or Caspian fish stuffed with walnut and sour plum paste, from Lankaran and the Talysh.
Lankaran, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani Tea
Çay
Lankaran black tea in a pear-shaped armudu glass, taken with jam rather than sugar stirred in.
Azerbaijan
Yarpaq Dolmasi
Yarpaq dolması
Unusually small vine-leaf rolls leaning on fennel, recognised by UNESCO as a national tradition.