The cuisine of Iberian Jews scattered across the Mediterranean after the 1492 expulsion, blending Spanish, North African, Turkish, and Levantine flavors.
What it is
Sephardic Jewish cuisine traces back to medieval Iberia, where Spanish and Portuguese Jews developed a cooking tradition shaped by Islamic Andalusian and Christian Iberian influences. After the 1492 expulsion, communities settled across the Ottoman empire — Salonica, Istanbul, Izmir, Sarajevo — and around North Africa, adapting the cuisine to each new home. Mizrahi Jewish cooking from Iraq, Iran, and Yemen overlaps significantly.
How it tastes
Olive oil rather than schmaltz; rice and bulgur rather than potatoes; eggplant, tomato, and pomegranate rather than cabbage and beet. Spices run warmer — cinnamon, saffron, cumin — and the sweet-and-savory pairings of Andalusian and Persian cooking show through.
Signature dishes & techniques
Hamin — the Sephardic answer to cholent — slow-cooks chickpeas, rice, eggs, and meat together. Bourekas, savory phyllo pastries stuffed with cheese or potato, are the universal Sabbath breakfast in Israel. Sabich, a Baghdadi-Jewish sandwich of fried eggplant, egg, hummus, and amba mango pickle, became a Tel Aviv street-food star.
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Jewish (Sephardic) starts with J and ends with C. Browse other cuisines along the same letter.
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