The first time I tasted kubaneh was many years ago. Vered—my aunt by marriage—brought me a piece that her late mother, Sarah, of blessed memory, had baked. I still remember being stunned by the contrast: impossibly soft dough on the inside, with a delicate crispness on the outside. A bread that felt almost magical.
Over the years, I was lucky enough to taste her father Shmuel’s lahoh as well, and that’s when I truly fell in love with Yemenite baking. A cuisine that takes something as simple as flour and water and turns it into something extraordinary. Something worthy of great respect.
Then came baker and author Uri Scheft, who changed the way many of us looked at kubaneh. In his beautiful cookbook, Breaking Breads, the traditional loaf appeared transformed into delicate spirals that bloomed like flowers from a baking pot. Suddenly this humble bread had a new elegance.
The kubaneh here is a meeting point between those two worlds. It carries something of the old and something of the new. Fresh herbs and garlic make it festive and special, while the shaping technique is borrowed from Scheft’s version without losing the spirit of the classic kubaneh I first tasted from Sarah and Shmuel.
And how wonderful it is, having all those influences together in one pot.
I’m including my how-to video as a helpful visual guide (the text is in Hebrew, but you have the recipe right here).
- A huge, huge thank you to Tal Sivan-Ziporin for filming and editing the video. You must run to follow her on Instagram.
- A huge thank you to Or Fermon who prepared the kubaneh here in the video and constantly pushes us to go higher.
- Did you make it? Don’t forget to share the photos with me on Instagram
- The recipe is based on Uri Sheft’s classic recipe with alterations and upgrades.
