Sabich, or sabih, is a pita bread sandwich or laffa (Iraqi pita) filled with fried eggplants, haminados eggs, Israeli salad, parsley, amba, tahini sauce and zhug.
▶It is a staple of Israeli cuisine, following the Iraqi Jewish immigration to Israel. Its ingredients are based on a traditional quick breakfast of Iraqi Jews.
▶It is said to have been first sold in Israel in 1961 on Uziel Street in Ramat Gan. The restaurant was run by “Sabich” Tzvi Halbi and Yaakov Sasson.
▶Another theory is that sabich is an acronym of the Hebrew words “Salat, Beitsa, Yoter Ḥatsil” meaning “salad, eggs, more eggplants.”
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 25 Minutes
- Portions: Person
- Cooking methods: Frying
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 4 pita (or laffa)
- 1 eggplant
- 4 haminados eggs (or boiled eggs)
- to taste parsley
- 3.4 oz amba
- to taste tahini
- 1.8 oz zhug (or another hot sauce)
- 1 onion
- to taste salad
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 cucumber
- 1 onion
- 1 lemon
- to taste coriander
- to taste salt
Steps
Fry the eggplant slices.
To recreate the same color of haminados eggs, you can boil them with coffee leaves, tea, and/or onion peels.
Prepare the Israeli salad with: sliced tomatoes, sliced onion, sliced cucumber, coriander, and season with lemon juice and salt.
Fill each pita or laffa with: eggplants, sliced boiled eggs, parsley, Israeli salad, amba, tahini, zhug, and onion.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
What are haminados eggs?
Eggs cooked in hamin, the Jewish stew of the Sabbath.
What is Amba sauce and how is it prepared?
A pickle mango-based sauce. To prepare it: blend 60g of pickled mango with 20ml of water, 20ml of vinegar, salt, and chili pepper.
What is zhug and how is it prepared?
Sahawiq (in Arabic: سحاوق), also pronounced as skhoog, shug, zhug or schug is a spicy sauce very popular as a condiment in Yemen, Israeli cuisine, and other Middle Eastern countries. Skhug is made with hot peppers, parsley, coriander, garlic, and various spices. Skhug adom (red) is made with red peppers, while skhug yarok (green) uses green peppers. To prepare the green one: blend green chili peppers with coriander, 1 garlic clove, cumin, and olive oil. In Israel, skhug is simply referred to as hakharíf, “the spicy”, and is a very common condiment in shawarma shops.
What is laffa?
Laffa, also known as lafa or Iraqi pita, is a large, thin bread of Iraqi origin. It is a simple bread, traditionally vegan and baked in a tannur (tandoor) or taboon oven. It is often used to wrap falafel, kebab and shawarma, for dipping hummus, matbucha and other sauces, or with shakshouka and other dishes. Laffa is similar to many typical tandoor breads of Asia and the Middle East, like naan and pita. However, laffa is unique because it doesn’t form a pocket like pita and is much thicker and chewier than naan.
