Baku, August 5, AZERTAC
The Euronews TV Channel has broadcast a report showcasing Azerbaijan’s rich culinary heritage, with a particular focus on Düşbərə and Gürzə, among the country’s most celebrated traditional dishes.
The article headlined “Delicious dumplings: The evolution of delicacies enjoyed all along the Silk Road to Spain” underlines the significance of these dishes in Azerbaijani cuisine.
In the kitchens of Azerbaijan section, the author highlights: “In Azerbaijan, the dumpling takes on two particularly distinctive forms: Düşbərə and Gürzə.
At first glance they may seem modest, but both are celebrated for the precision and care they demand. Düşbərə are famously tiny—delicate parcels of dough filled with minced lamb and served in a fragrant broth/soup—so small that tradition says dozens should fit onto a single spoon.
Gürzə, by contrast, is slightly larger and hand-pinched along the top in a braided fold said to resemble a snake, their name echoing the local word for a viper.
Both dishes rely on simple ingredients—fine dough, seasoned meat, herbs and broth—but their true character lies in the technique and patience required to shape them, where the skills are often passed from generation to generation in Azerbaijani kitchens.
Today, chefs continue to honour these traditions while adding their own interpretations, keeping these beloved dumplings at the heart of the country’s culinary identity.
Chef Ilkin Akbarzadeh is President of the Baku Culinary Association and has a substantial following of over 60 000 on Instagram. He explained why dumplings are an intrinsic part of Azerbaijani heritage.
“Dumpling, this is part of our traditional cuisine, the heritage cuisine in Azerbaijan.”
“I think probably, many of these dumplings are coming from Asia, from China, and after some kind of transformers for every culture, every people, and all regions,” he says.
All the types are made with flour, Akbarzade notes:
“I mean the dushbarar, kingels and the gurza, and different types of this type of food was cooked from the dough and stuffed with meat.”
He says the consumption of dumplings happens in the colder months: “Usually in our culture, people eat it in winter time. For energy, for the health, for cold weather, you're heating the whole body, and that usually representing this food in the winter, in our culture.”
There are many versions of meat or vegetables wrapped in dough in Azerbaijan, including dushbara, kutabs and gurza. The renowned chef says that the way to eat dusbara, which is used in a broth is “in the one spoon, 13 on the 15 pieces of the small dushbaras.”