My great-aunt Victoria (Toya) Levy was an incredible woman. Born in Baghdad in 1922, she moved to Israel with her husband in 1950 to start a new life. They lived in a tiny house surrounded by fruit trees that they planted in the small town of Yavneh, where Toya dedicated her life to helping children from broken families.
She was an amazing cook — and a generous one, too. Shortly after we got married, my husband and I spent a day with her to learn the secrets of Iraqi Jewish cooking from the best.
That day, Toya taught us how to make tbeet, a Shabbat dish of stuffed chicken with rice cooked overnight, and kubbeh batata: potato fritters stuffed with ground beef. In her tiny kitchen, she also taught us to make meatballs in a dried apricot and tomato sauce. Of all the dishes, this was the only one that my grandmother never made and so I was not familiar with it. Yet its flavors stuck with me. The simple ingredients — sour dried apricots, tomato, lemon juice, raisins and just a few spices — somehow made a dish much greater than the sum of its parts. The meatballs were so tender and rich, and the sauce was sweet and sour, a combination that Iraqi Jews love.
My great-aunt Toya passed away years ago. I had somehow forgotten this wonderful recipe and when I tried to research the dish, I found different versions of it in almost every Iraqi and Iraqi Jewish cookbook I searched in. The dish was called mishmishiya or kofta mishmishiya (“mishmish” means apricot in both Arabic and Hebrew), ingryieh (a name that I saw only in a Jewish cookbook) or margat hamidh-Hilu. Interestingly, all the Jewish versions included meatballs, while Islamic recipes used stew meat. I assume this had to do with the cost of ingredients and the fact that most Jewish recipes were written by Iraqi Jews who moved to Israel, where stew meat was much more expensive than ground beef.
According to Nawal Nasrallah’s “Delights From the Garden of Eden,” which researches the ancient cuisine of Iraq, the roots of this stew can be traced back to the Babylonian and Assyrian days (19th-6th centuries B.C.). A similar recipe, called mishmishiya, is also documented in Al-Baghdadi’s book “Kitab al Tabikh” from Medieval Baghdad. It calls for fresh apricots of a sour variety. Back then, of course, tomatoes from the New World were not available and, in fact, the original mishmishiya was also known as the “white stew.” Since Jews were living in Iraq from the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C., I feel a real connection to this humble stew’s long history.
Of all the recipes I found, my great-aunt Toya’s version is the best. Her apricot meatballs have become a family favorite; the 2,000-year-old dish from worlds away lives on, now with our kids.
Dried apricots are available all year long, but I still think this dish is most suitable for a summer dinner. The apricots, with their bright color and flavor, mirror sunny summer days, not to mention the fact that this easy and fast recipe is perfect for those of us who want to spend as little time as possible over the stove when temperatures outside are soaring.
Iraqi meatballs in sweet and sour apricot-tomato sauce
Course: Main courseCuisine: Iraqi, Jewish, IsraeliDifficulty: Easy4
servings20
minutes30
minutes50
minutesMeatballs in dried apricot and tomato sauce has a sweet and sour flavor that’s loved by Iraqis. I got the recipe from my grandmother’s cousin, Victoria Levy z”l, almost thirty years ago.
Happy to share such a wonderful dish.
The original sauce included raisins, which I chose to omit, but you can add those for extra sweetness.
The recipe can be adapted for Passover by replacing the bread with matzo meal, see instructions below. The cardamom in the recipe is considered Kitniyot (legume,) so feel free to omit it from the recipe if you avoid Kitniyot during the holiday.
Note
The recipe calls for dried apricots with no added sugar. They are available at specialty supermarkets such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. If you’re using sweetened dried apricots, reduce the sugar in the sauce to 2 teaspoons.
The original recipe included raisins in the sauce, which I chose to omit, but you can add those for extra sweetness.
Store the cooked meatballs in a sealed container in the fridge for up to four days.
The recipe can be adapted for Passover by replacing the bread with matzo meal, see instructions below. The cardamom in the recipe is considered Kitniyot (legume,) so feel free to omit it from the recipe if you avoid Kitniyot during the holiday.
INGREDIENTS
2 slices of bread (like challah or ciabatta) OR ½ cup matzo meal
1 lb. ground beef
1 cup chopped Italian parsley
1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- For the sauce
¼ cup olive oil
1 diced yellow onion
¼ cup tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried mint or ¼ cup chopped fresh mint
¼ teaspoon cardamom (see note above)
1 tablespoon sugar (see note above)
1½ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon white pepper
1½ cups water at room temperature
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon paprika
1 cup (4 oz.) non-sweetened dried apricot (see note above)
¼ cup golden raisins (optional, I do not use)
Cooked rice for serving, optional
DIRECTIONS
- Remove crust from bread, put in a small bowl and cover with water. Let bread soak the water for a couple of minutes, then squeeze water out of the bread and transfer to a mixing bowl. If you’re using matzo meal, mix the matzo meal with ¼ cup water, let stand for a minute and transfer to a mixing bowl.
- Add ground beef, parsley, onion, salt and pepper to the mixing bowl with the bread or matzo meal. Use your hands to mix for a couple of minutes. Shape the mixture into 1½ inch meatballs and arrange on a tray. Set aside.
- Use a skillet, a braised or a pot that are wide enough to place all the meatballs in one layer, if possible. Put skillet on medium-high heat, add oil, and when oil is hot add onion and saute until golden, about 6 minutes. Add tomato paste, mint, cardamom, sugar, salt and white pepper, mix and cook for another minute. Add water, lemon juice and paprika and bring to boil, then reduce the heat and cook on low simmer for 5 minutes. Taste sauce and adjust salt and sugar to taste.
- Add meatballs to the skillet and spoon sauce over them. Scatter the apricots and raisins (if using) between the meatballs. Bring back to boil on medium-high heat, then reduce heat to low simmer (you want to see small bubbles forming in the sauce,) cover and cook for 15 minutes. Gently flip the meatballs and cook for another 15 minutes until meatballs are cooked through.
- Serve over rice. Meatballs keep in a sealed container in the fridge up to 4 days.
Is this freezeable?
Can this be frozen?
I’ve never tried freezing this dish, but I think it should be fine. The apricots may change their texture a bit, but it should still be ok. Let me know if you do!
When does the mint go in
The mint goes in with the rest of the spices together with the tomato paste (in the middle of step 2.) hope you enjoy the recipe!
I made this last night and it was delicious. I added a bit too much lemon juice so it was more sour than I wanted, next time I will cut back on the juice. This is definitely a keeper recipe!! 🙂
Thank you! I’m so glad to hear! I wish Toya would still be with us so she could see how much people love her food.
Hi Vered,
Have you had opportunities to adapt recipes for gluten free and dairy free eaters? We have friends who are vegan and others with gluten & dairy allergies and it makes it difficult to entertain them together.
Also, which brand of plant-based meat do you recommend?
Thank you.
That so kinds complicated indeed! But for this recipe specifically, you can use gluten free bread or breadcrumbs in the meatball mix. The sauce will be fine. Make more of the sauce and use it with premade vegan meatballs n a separate pan. My favorite is the Impossible brand.
I don’t have a recipe for make your own vegan meatballs, but if you can find a good one, you can just use those in this sauce.
I hope this is helpful!
I’m thinking about this for passover have you ever substituted the soaked bread for something like bread crumbs or in this case matzo meal
Thanks for your question, Beth! You can definitely substitute the bread with matzo meal in this case. Use ½ cup matzo meal instead of the 2 slices of the bread.
I will actually add this option to the recipe now so others can do it as well. Thanks! And happy Passover.