This popular street food in Israel grew out of an Iraqi Shabbat breakfast spread featuring eggs cooked overnight in t’bit, fried eggplant, pickles, and amba. 

“We can’t really talk about Sephardic cuisine, especially that from Morocco, without mentioning almoronía,” explains Hélène Jawhara Piñer in her book “Jews, Food and Spain.” The eggplant casserole with chicken traces back to a thirteenth century cookbook. 

When Nathalie Ross was growing up, her mother’s older sisters Tante Rosy and Tante Becca would make boyos — flaky, hand-rolled Sephardic pastries — with handrajo, an eggplant and tomato filling.

In Lisa Capelouto’s family, savory Sephardic stuffed pastries called pastelikos are a key part of their desayuno (Shabbat breakfast) spread, but they also make excellent appetizers. This recipe from her mother Vivienne is filled with a mixture of eggplant, parsley, and tomatoes.

Levana Lowenstein makes these Sephardi pastries called borekitas for Shabbat breakfast alongside long cooked brown eggs, yogurt, and rice pudding. When filled with cheese, they are also a perfect treat for Shavuot.

Recipes like this one where eggplant is swapped in for liver were popular during a period of austerity in 1950s Israel when many ingredients were hard to come by. This rendition comes from chef Asaf Doktor's Polish grandmother.

This simple eggplant salad that’s topped with bits of raw onion comes from Miri Polachek’s Romanian grandmother Ema and her mother Sara, who died in Auschwitz. It’s best made during the summer when eggplants are at their peak.

This smoky eggplant dip from Esther Weyl’s Moroccan-Brazilian community is served at Shabbat lunch. An egg yolk and olive oil give it a creamy richness. 

Chef Annabel Rabiyah’s project Awafi Kitchen celebrates the recipes of her father’s Iraqi heritage, like this one, through pop-ups and cooking classes. “We wanted to see our family’s food featured in the public sphere,” she says.

There are countless variations of stuffed eggplant. This version comes from Robina Shapiro. Her family's style of cooking is an amalgam of influences learned from hopscotching between Iraq, Iran, and Israel.

Ron Levy-Arie’s grandmother was raised in Plovdiv, Bulgaria but her family fled to Tel Aviv in the early 1940s when she was a teenager. Throughout her life, she continued to make dishes from Bulgaria and the Sephardi kitchen, like this eggplant casserole with lots of cheese.  

Persian tachin is a beloved Shabbat dish in Arielle Nir’s family, made golden with saffron and bright with barberries. Their Shabbat table blends Moroccan and Persian traditions, with abundant stews, salads, and, most often, tachin.

As Michal Shamir is quick to explain: “This is not the traditional Bulgarian kyopolou. The traditional salad is usually made with peppers, raw onions, and garlic.” This riff on it comes from her grandmother Savta Sara.

This recipe comes from Annette Fromm's family who are Romaniote Jews — though Annette prefers the term Greek-speaking Jews — who arrived in Greece over 2000 years ago. Annette explains that the recipe, which may remind you of a vegetarian moussaka is unique to the community. 

Like recipes for classic French ratatouille or Sicilian caponata, the vegetables in Nechama Rivlin’s guvetch are sauteed separately, yielding a richer and more nuanced flavor.

Even during winter, Amy Dell’s mother Kitty fires up the backyard grill to char eggplants for baba ghanoush that the family eats as part of their dip spread on Shabbat. If you don’t have a grill, don't worry. This recipe can be made in an oven or on a gas stovetop. 

“We like everything sour, so I add a lot,” says Nilou Ghalchi, scooping frozen sour grapes from the freezer. She keeps them on hand to make joojeh bademjan, a tender, silky chicken and eggplant stew.

Chef Nir Mesika first learned to prepare zaalouk, a Moroccan dip with roasted vegetables, from his mother Yaffa, whose mother Mazal was born in Casablanca. “Zaalouk remains a central part of my culinary identity today,” Nir shares. 

Flavored with tangy preserved lemon, this deliciously silky eggplant is a favorite of the women in Léa Karsenty's family. Peeling and salting the eggplants before frying is key — and don’t skimp on the oil, either. 

This flaky savory pastry is named after the Ladino word for rag, but don’t allow that to turn you off. Serve it with a salad for a light meal or as part of an appetizer spread.

Etty Leon’s family in Athens isn’t religious, but her grandmother Yvet is determined to pass down recipes that have long been part of Sephardi tradition like this eggplant and feta pie. 

Israel’s late first lady Nechama Rivlin learned this Sephardic recipe from the family of her husband, Israel’s 10th president, Reuven Rivlin. Before frying the eggplant slices, Nechama would salt them and let them rest on the windowsill to draw out excess moisture, which helps them absorb less oil during frying.

Slices of eggplant are wrapped around rice infused with rosewater and saffron in this show stopping recipe from Orly Elyashar’s grandmother. It makes an excellent vegetarian main dish. 

While this dish’s name comes from the Persian words for eggplant and garlic, Jennifer Ophir says it’s inspired by her family’s Afghan, Persian, and Bukharian roots. It’s simple, but flavorful. Be sure to grill the eggplant well, so it takes on a smoky flavor. 

This simple eggplant recipe is inspired by cookbook author Rottem Lieberson's Persian grandmother Hanom, who cooked elaborate feasts for holidays.