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Kishk libanais

Name: Kishk libanais
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: LB
Ingredients: 300 g kishk powder (dried fermented bulgur-yogurt powder); 1.5 litres cold water, divided; 6 cloves garlic, minced; 60 g unsalted butter; 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste; 1/4 tsp chili flakes or Aleppo pepper (optional); 1 tsp dried mint (optional); 4 slices toasted pita bread, to serve

10m

Prépa

30m

Cuisson

Portions

Facile

Difficulté

Soupe rustique de montagne à base de boulgour et de yaourt fermentés et séchés, mijotée avec de l'ail et du beurre doré.

#lebanese#soup#fermented#winter#comfort-food#mountain-food

Portions

6portions

Ingrédients

Nutrition

calories260

protein9g

carbs32g

fat12g

fiber3g

Par portion

Étapes

Dissolve the kishk

Put the kishk powder in a large bowl and whisk in about 500 ml of the cold water, a splash at a time, until you have a completely smooth paste with no lumps. This is the step that decides the soup: any lump that survives here will never dissolve once the pot is on the heat.

300 g kishk powder
500 ml cold water

✅ C'est prêt quand : the paste is smooth and pourable, with no dry crumbs left

Thin and pour

Whisk in the remaining cold water until fully smooth, then pour everything into a heavy-bottomed pot.

1 litre cold water, remaining

Cook, stirring constantly

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Make the garlic butter

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Finish the soup

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Serve hot

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Dissolve the kishk

300 g kishk powder
500 ml cold water

✅ C'est prêt quand : the paste is smooth and pourable, with no dry crumbs left

Thin and pour

Whisk in the remaining cold water until fully smooth, then pour everything into a heavy-bottomed pot.

1 litre cold water, remaining

Cook, stirring constantly

This step is part of Foodie Premium. Subscribe to unlock the full method, cooking mode and every recipe in the library.

Make the garlic butter

This step is part of Foodie Premium. Subscribe to unlock the full method, cooking mode and every recipe in the library.

Finish the soup

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Serve hot

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History & Culture

The Story Behind the Dish

📍 Mountain villages of northern Lebanon and Mount Lebanon📅 Ancient preservation tradition, long before refrigeration🍲 LB

Kishk began as a way to carry the richness of summer milk through the cold mountain winter. Each autumn, families fermented yogurt with bulgur wheat for days, then spread it in the sun to dry before grinding it into a tangy, shelf-stable powder that could last for months without spoiling.

Turned back into food, kishk became soup: just stir the powder with water and simmer. It thickens into something between a porridge and a soup, savory and faintly sour, and a spoonful of garlic sizzled in butter on top is what makes it unmistakably Lebanese.

⭐ Why It's Famous

Tangy, warming and deeply savory, kishk soup tastes of thrift and ingenuity — the dish mountain families built to survive winter, now kept alive for its flavour alone.

💡 Fun Fact

Making kishk was traditionally a communal autumn task: neighbours and family would gather for days to ferment, dry and grind the batch together before the first snow.

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