Kofta

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Middle Eastern and South Asian meatballs

title: "Kofta" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["urdu-language-words-and-phrases", "arab-cuisine", "assyrian-cuisine", "balkan-cuisine", "south-asian-cuisine", "central-asian-cuisine", "middle-eastern-cuisine", "meatballs", "kofta", "middle-eastern-grilled-meats"] description: "Middle Eastern and South Asian meatballs" topic_path: "general/urdu-language-words-and-phrases" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kofta" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Middle Eastern and South Asian meatballs ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Koofteh_tabrizi.jpg" caption="Iran"] ::

Kofta is a family of meatball or meatloaf dishes found in South Asian, Central Asian, Balkan, Middle Eastern, North African, and South Caucasian cuisines. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced meat—usually beef, chicken, lamb or mutton, camel, seldom pork, or a mixture—mixed with spices and sometimes other ingredients. The earliest known recipes are found in early Turkish cookbooks and call for ground lamb.

There are many national and regional variations, as well as vegetable and uncooked versions. Shapes vary and include balls, patties, and cylinders. Sizes vary from that of a golf ball to that of an orange.

Etymology

In English, kofta is a loanword from the Hindi-Urdu कोफ़्ता / and Persian کوفته kofta meaning pounded meat. The earliest extant use of the word in the Urdu language is attested in Mulla Nusrati's ʿAlī Nāma (1665). It was first used in English in Qanoon-e-Islam (1832), and then by James Wise in 1883. The languages of the region of the kofta's origin have adopted the word with minor phonetic variations. In other languages, similar foods are called croquettes, dumplings, meatballs, rissoles, and turnovers.

History

The ancient Roman cookbook Apicius included many meatball-type recipes.

The first appearance of recipes for kofta are in the earliest Arab cookbooks. The earliest recipes are for large ground lamb meatballs triple-glazed in a mixture of saffron and egg yolk. This glazing method spread to the West, where it is referred to as "gilding" or "endoring". Koftas moved to India; according to Alan Davidson, Nargisi kofta was served at the Mughal court.

Koftas are found from the Indian subcontinent through Central Asia, the Middle East, the Balkans, and northern Africa. Koftas are found in the traditional cuisines of Armenia, Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Turkey. Kofta is also a popular dish among Kurdish people and Assyrian people. In Turkey, it is "a preferred offering at communal gatherings of all kinds", according to Engin Akın. In Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is, along with dolma, lavash, harissa, kebabs, and pahlava, a dish of "clearly symbolic ethnic significance" often argued over by gastronationalists attempting to claim it as one of their own country's traditional dishes that has been co-opted by the other country.

Cooking methods

Meat is mixed with spices and often other ingredients such as rice, bulgur, vegetables, or eggs to form a paste. Often added into the kofta mixture are nuts, cheese, or eggs. They can be grilled, fried, steamed, poached, baked, or marinated, and may be served with a rich spicy sauce or in a soup or stew. Koftas are sometimes made from fish or vegetables or even cottage cheese rather than red meat. Some versions are stuffed with nuts, cheese, or eggs. Generally the size can vary from the "size of an orange to the size of a golf ball", although tabriz köftesi, the largest, average 20 cm in diameter. They can be shaped in various forms including patties, balls, or cylinders. A Levantine version, pronounced kafta /ˈkɑːftə/, is typically made with minced beef or lamb, mixed with onion, parsley, and spices. It can be shaped into cylinders, patties, or balls, and grilled, baked, or pan-fried, served with sauces, dips, or flatbreads.

Variants

-- Variants include , a Levantine dish made from pita bread that is stuffed with kufta and then grilled. In Iranian cuisine there are Koofteh Berenji, Koofteh Hamedani, Koofteh Nar, Koofteh Tabrizi and Koofteh Shirin-e Kermanshahi variants. Azerbaijani cuisine has Tabriz köftesi, with an unusually large diameter of some 20 cm.

Bulgarian cuisine has Tatarsko kyufte, a Tatar version. Greek cuisine has Tomatokeftedes, a vegetarian version with tomatoes. Çiğ köfte is a Turkish and Armenian version made with bulgur and raw meat.

-- In the Indian subcontinent, variants include Kofte chawal, with meat or vegetable balls in a curry sauce, served with rice. Variations use different ingredients for the balls, such as paneer, bottle gourd, chicken or mutton. Other Indian versions are Malai kofta and Nargisi kofta with a hard-boiled egg wrapped in the kofta mixture. Historically, Pishtha meatballs were mentioned in a Sanskrit text on medicine, the Sushruta Samhita.

File:MalaiKofta.jpg|Malai kofta, a dish common in the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent File:Koofteh tabrizi.jpg|alt=Three eight-inch meatballs in sauce|Iranian Tabrizi kofta include yellow split peas and potatoes, as well as minced meat. File:Kofte Chawal from India.jpg|alt=Sauced meatballs with rice|Kofte chawal from India (vegetarian kofta made with bottle gourd), served with rice File:Mixed grill - Khan el-Khalili - Cairo, Egypt.jpg|Egyptian koftet el hati on a mixed grill platter, served with tehina File:Cuisine arménienne - Sini Kofte (à gauche) et deux Mitchougov Kofte (à droite).jpg|Armenian types of kofte File:Orkh-Oruq.jpg|Orkh, Armenian kofta made with meat and bulgur served in cylindrical shapes File:NargisiKofta.jpg|Nargesi kofta, a popular dish in Lucknow and Karachi File:Mercimekkoftesi.jpg| Mercimek köftesi, Turkish plant-based kofta made with lentils and bulgur

References

References

  1. (1994). "A Gourmet's Guide: Food and Drink from A to Z". [[Oxford University Press]].
  2. (2023). "kofta". [[Oxford English Dictionary]].
  3. (18 August 2011). "kofta". [[Oxford University Press]].
  4. Nuṣratī, Mullā. (1665). "ʿAlī Nāma".
  5. (June 1993). "kofta". Urdu Dictionary Board.
  6. Shurreef, Jaffur. (1832). "Qanoon-e-Islam". [[Parbury, Allen, and Co.]].
  7. Wise, James. (1883). "Notes on the Races, Castes and Trades of Eastern Bengal". [[Harrison and Sons]].
  8. Herbst, Ron. (2015). "The deluxe food lover's companion". Barron's.
  9. Sally Grainger, ''Cooking Apicius: Roman Recipes for Today'', Prospect Books, 2006, {{ISBN. 1-903018-44-7, p. 17-18
  10. Brown, Ellen. (2020). "Meatballs : the ultimate cookbook". Cider Mill Press.
  11. Davidson, Alan. (2014). "The Oxford Companion to Food". Oxford University Press.
  12. Tsaturyan, Ruzanna. (23 June 2017). "A culinary conflict in the South Caucasus".
  13. Dea, Cynthia. (2015-03-09). "Where to Find the Best Meatballs in Los Angeles".
  14. (December 1997). "Indian Food Tradition A Historical Companion". Oxford University Press.
  15. Fatima, Bushra. (2015-06-30). "Pakistanis' love for the succulent kofta curry".
  16. "Chiftele {{!}} Traditional Meatballs From Romania".
  17. Akın, Engin. (2015). "Essential Turkish cuisine : 200 recipes for small plates and family meals". Stewart, Tabori & Chang, an imprint of Abrams.
  18. Edelstein, Sari. (2010). "Food, Cuisine, and Cultural Competency for Culinary, Hospitality, and Nutrition Professionals". Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
  19. Petrosian, Irina, and David Underwood. Armenian Food: Fact, Fiction & Folklore. University of California Press, 2006.
  20. Abdel Fattah, Iman Adel. (5 December 2013). "Bites Fil Beit: Koftet el Gambari – Shrimp kofta".
  21. Başan, Ghillie. (2021). "The Turkish cookbook: exploring the food of a timeless cuisine". Lorenz Books.
  22. Başan, Ghillie (2021). ''Making Levantine Cuisine: Modern Foodways of the Eastern Mediterranean''. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-7548-3515-8.
  23. (22 June 2025). "Levantine Kafta Recipe".
  24. (27 Aug 2025). "We learned how to make Yafo's arayes in Charlotte — now you can make them, too". The Charlotte Observer.
  25. (29 August 2020). "طرز تهیه کوفته و انواع آن در شهرهای ایران".
  26. "Татарско кюфте".
  27. Aglaia Kremezi and Anissa Hellou, 'What's in the Name of the Dish' in Richard Hosking (ed.), ''Food and Language: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooking 2009'' (London: Prospect Books, 2010) 206
  28. (2012-07-01). "Assessment of microbiological quality of cig kofte (raw consumed spiced meatball): Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella". Food Control.
  29. (27 August 2017). "Malai Kofta Recipe".

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urdu-language-words-and-phrasesarab-cuisineassyrian-cuisinebalkan-cuisinesouth-asian-cuisinecentral-asian-cuisinemiddle-eastern-cuisinemeatballskoftamiddle-eastern-grilled-meats