Gondi are ubiquitous in Persian-Jewish households, but “go to 10 different houses and you’ll taste 10 different gondis,” says Nilou Ghalchi. Hers are made with ground coriander, cumin, and turkey. Serve them as an appetizer alongside pickles and a plate of fresh herbs. 

This "festive" hamin is a labor of love, with steak stuffed with rice and sewn shut, hunks of beef, white beans, bread dumplings called kuklas, and eggs you can sneak out of the pot in the morning for breakfast.

Sometime after moving to Brazil from Morocco, Esther Weyl’s community replaced chickpeas in their Shabbat dafina with flour dumplings called cafe de massa. Like all traditional Shabbat stews, this one is meant to cook overnight, so plan accordingly.

This recipe for cheese-filled vareniki from Portland-based chef Bonnie Frumkin Morales is a project that’s best approached with the help of a friend or loved one.

In the Polish town of Lodz, Becca Gallick-Mitchell’s great-grandmother Esther often made her mother’s kreplach recipe for Shabbat dinner before the Holocaust. Today, Becca makes a version with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving.

Classic Ashkenazi matzah ball soup gets a Mexican update in this recipe with chiles, avocado, cilantro, and lime.

Kubbeh, also known as kibbeh, is a style of dumpling that typically features ground meat wrapped in semolina, bulgur, or rice. It can be fried, or served in broth like it is in Pnina Shasha's Iraqi family.

Hailing from the Nash Didan Jewish community near the borders of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Azerbaijan, these meatballs are made with a mix of ground beef, pork, and basmati rice. In Danielle Colen’s family, chefte can even be enjoyed cold the next morning, sliced into rounds.  

The typical bulgur wrapping for these kibbeh are swapped for rice and matzo meal during the holiday. If it’s your custom to not eat kitniyot during Passover, save this recipe for another time.

“My Friday afternoon chicken soup and galuska memories with my mom and grandma are some of my best memories,” Julia Silverberg Nemeth says. Her mother, who was a survivor, hid their Jewish identity from Julia her entire life.

Georgian khinkali are most often plump dumplings with thick skins, but this recipe from Danielle Rehfeld Colen’s family yields more delicate dumplings in a garlic-laced chicken broth. 

Angela Josephsberg-Achsen’s kreplach are so popular in her family that she has to hide them when her grandchildren come over for the holidays, so they aren’t devoured before the meal.

This classic matzo ball soup recipe produces a flavorful broth, chunks of chicken and vegetables. Be sure to cook the matzo balls separately in water to keep the broth clear.

Don’t mistake this as just a soup and gondi recipe. It’s a full meal that “is the classic Shabbat dinner in much of Iran,” explains Persian Jewish culinary expert Tannaz Sassooni. 

Uzbek manti, like these ones from Bukharian cook Svetlana Davydov, are typically large and plump. The filling for these manti is simple: salt, pepper and onion.

Filled with meat, these little dumplings, which are sometimes referred to as Russian ravioli, were enjoyed across the former Soviet Union. This recipe comes from Bukharian cook Svetlana Davydov who grew up in Uzbekistan.

Growing up in what was then Czechoslovakia, Donna Steinhorn recalls her mother Magdalena making strapačky, a potato based dumpling that’s reminiscent of gnocchi. Donna likes to top them with a dollop of farmers cheese and a mound of onions.

In Yonit Naftali's family, nearly everything and everyone was lost during the Holocaust. After the war, her grandmother said one of the few things she had left were memories of her mother's recipes including these dumplings.