Caveos di Aman – a Bulgarian Purim recipe

A delicious salad of noodles, olives and eggs with a lemon and poppy-seed dressing, caveos di Aman is a traditional Bulgarian dish served on the festival of Purim.

Purim food – not just hamantaschen

While we tend to think of hamantaschen when we think of Purim food, there are many other tasty traditions from Jewish communities around the world.

In Alsace, the local Jews enjoyed lebkuchen hamohns – gingerbread hamans – while oznei haman – ‘haman’s ears’ – are deep fried pastries enjoyed in Italy, Israel and various Sephardic communities.

What many of these dishes have in common is that they encourage us to ‘eat’ our enemy. That is, to consume some part of the villainous Haman in edible effigy. We destroy him utterly, leaving only crumbs behind.

Caveos di Aman

I recently came across the recipe for Caveos di Aman – Haman’s hair – in Claudia Roden’s Book of Jewish Food. She traces this dish to Bulgaria, where it was a Purim speciality.

Bulgarian Jewish cuisine

Bulgaria is located on the Eastern side of the Balkans. It borders Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. The original Jewish community is thought to be around 2000 years old, and the ruins of a number of synagogues dating to the second century have been unearthed.

In the 15th Century, persecuted Ashkenazi Jews from Bavaria and Sephardic Jews from Spain, both sought refuge in Bulgaria. Over many years, Jews also arrived from across the Ottoman empire, of which Bulgaria was a part.

As a result Bulgarian Jewish food has been influenced by both Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions, as well as local Balkan, Greek and Turkish dishes. It is a unique and diverse culinary tradition comprising many mouthwatering recipes.

Eating Haman’s hair

In this traditional Purim recipe for Caveos di Aman, Haman’s hair is represented by long noodles, such as spaghetti or vermicelli. The noodles are dressed in a lemon and olive oil vinaigrette, tossed with olives, and garnished with hard boiled eggs.

Symbolic Purim food

There is a great deal of symbolism behind these ingredients. The long noodles represent Haman’s hair, as the name of the dish – caveos di Aman – indicates. Eggs feature in numerous Purim foods, where they typically represent Haman’s eyes, or sometimes his whole body.

Eggs and olives also both share a ’round’ shape, which is often associated with mourning. They represent the cycle of life, and are typical choices for a meal of remembrance. In this case, we are not mourning Haman (as if!) but rather taking a moment to lament and remember the many misfortunes of Jewish history.

As least in this one instance, we were spared! And now, let’s eat!

Poppy seeds

In researching caveos di Aman, I also came across one version of the recipe that adds poppy seeds to the dish. Unfortunately, the recipe wasn’t in English, and I couldn’t really understand the explanation for this addition!

However, seeds are often eaten on Purim. Legend has it that Queen Esther ate only vegetarian foods during her stay in the royal palace, so chick peas, poppy seeds and sesame seeds are often added to menus in her honour.

Haman’s infestation…

In addition, these tiny seeds are sometimes used to represent Haman’s fleas – eeeewwww!

This is apparently the symbolism behind the Persian Purim cookies called nanbrangi or naan berenji, which are decorated with poppy seeds, and Syrian sesame seed candies called simsemiya.

Of course poppy seeds are also a very traditional filling for that most Purim of pastries – hamantaschen.

So I’ve added a few tasty poppy seeds into this pasta dish. Whether or not you think of them as fleas in Haman’s hair is up to you!

Ingredients in Caveos di Aman

Caveos di Aman – a delicious Purim dish

Fresh and tasty, this fabulous and traditional Purim salad fills you up with lovely carbs and a good dose of protein from the eggs.

It’s vegetarian and also parve, so a great addition to a Purim Seuda menu if you’re offering a range of items for people to choose from.

Caveos di Aman is also terrific in a packed lunch box! If you have to work or attend school on Purim, you can still enjoy a fun symbolic lunch on-the-go. Add some cut up veggies and a hamantaschen for dessert and you’re all set!

A delightful Purim recipe

So, while the metaphor that caveos di Aman employs is pretty grim – The Purim villain’s greasy, flea-ridden hair, ugh! – the dish itself, like Purim, is a delight.

To learn more about the festival of Purim, click here.

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📖 Recipe

Caveos di Aman – Bulgarian Purim noodles

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Fine noodles with a lemon and poppyseed dressing and sliced olives, garnished with hard boiled eggs and parsley. A Bulgarian Purim tradition!

5 from 5 votes

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Course Appetizer, Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine European, Jewish

Servings 4

Calories 428 kcal

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

• 2 eggs (see note)
• 300 g thin noodles e.g. spaghetti, vermicelli or capellini
• 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon, juice only
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 tablespoon sliced black and green olives
• chopped parsley or chives to garnish (optional)

Instructions

 

• First, boil the eggs. Bring a pan of water to the boil, carefully lower in the eggs, then simmer for 9-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and plunge into ice-cold water to stop the cooking and prevent a grey ring from forming around the yolk.
• Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to the timing on the packet. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop them sticking together.
• Make the dressing by whisking together the olive oil, lemon juice and poppy seeds. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Put the cooled noodles in a bowl and pour over the dressing. Add the sliced olives and toss everything together to combine. Transfer to a serving dish or plate.
• Peel the hard boiled eggs. Slice into wedges and arrange around the noodles. Sprinkle over the chopped parsley or chives, if using.
• Serve at room temperature. Caveos di Aman can be prepared a few hours ahead and refrigerated if required.

Notes

Some Jewish people have the tradition of only boiling an odd number of eggs – I have written about the reasons why in this article about egg and onion. If you want to cook more than two eggs, you can use the remaining hard-boiled eggs in potato salad, an Israeli breakfast, or kedgeree, among other things.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Caveos di Aman – Bulgarian Purim noodles

Amount per Serving

Calories

428

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

16

g

25

%

Saturated Fat

 

3

g

19

%

Trans Fat

 

0.01

g

Polyunsaturated Fat

 

3

g

Monounsaturated Fat

 

10

g

Cholesterol

 

82

mg

27

%

Sodium

 

161

mg

7

%

Potassium

 

225

mg

6

%

Carbohydrates

 

58

g

19

%

Fiber

 

3

g

13

%

Sugar

 

2

g

2

%

Protein

 

13

g

26

%

Vitamin A

 

151

IU

3

%

Vitamin C

 

3

mg

4

%

Calcium

 

65

mg

7

%

Iron

 

2

mg

11

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Keyword egg, lemon, lokshen, noodles, olive

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

More Purim recipes that aren’t hamantaschen

More European delicacies

If you love European flavours, why not try:

• Liptauer cheese – a tangy Central European cheese-based dip
• Romanian pasta latkes
• Arbes – simple but delicious Ashkenazi seasoned chickpeas
• Alsatian gingerbread men – Lebkuchen Hamohns – for Purim