"Five fingers": boiled meat over wide noodle sheets with onion gravy — Kazakhstan’s dish of honor, eaten by hand.

Where does Beshbarmak come from?

Beshbarmak is a Kazakh dish from Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Can Beshbarmak be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?

Yes. This Beshbarmak recipe includes ingredient substitutions to make it vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, or egg-free — including several of those at once, such as gluten-free and dairy-free together.

How long does Beshbarmak take to make?

About 150 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 120 minutes cooking), serving 6.

Beshbarmak — a Almaty, Kazakhstan recipe

Name: Beshbarmak
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 120 min
Total time: 150 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Kazakh
Ingredients: 3 lbs lamb or beef on the bone; 3 cups all-purpose flour (for the noodle sheets); 3 onions, thickly sliced; 2 bay leaves; 1 tsp black peppercorns; about 1 cup water; 1 tsp salt (dough); a handful parsley, chopped

Asia → 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan → Almaty

Beshbarmak

Kazakh · medium · serves 6

prep 30 min · cook 120 min

~697 cal · 63g protein · 25g carbs · 35g fat (estimated, per serving)

🍽️

Platter of wide noodles topped with boiled meat and onions

🇰🇿 Almaty

Beshbarmak crowns every Kazakh celebration: the meat is boiled slow, the broth becomes both noodle-cooker and gravy, and the eldest guest is served first. The name announces the correct utensils — all five of them, on each hand.

Sign in to save recipes to your book and leave reviews.

Make it yours

Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.

🥕 Vegetarian

🌱 Vegan

🌾 Gluten-Free

🥛 Dairy-Free

🥜 Nut-Free

🥚 Egg-Free

Ingredients

Serves 6 —

•

3 lbs lamb or beef on the bone

•

3 cups all-purpose flour (for the noodle sheets)

•

3 onions, thickly sliced

•

2 bay leaves

•

1 tsp black peppercorns

•

about 1 cup water

•

1 tsp salt (dough)

•

a handful parsley, chopped

Instructions

1

Simmer the meat with bay and peppercorns, skimming, 2 hours until it falls from the bone. Keep every drop of broth.

2

Knead flour, salt, and water into a stiff dough; rest, then roll thin and cut into wide diamond sheets.

3

Simmer the onions in a ladle of broth with black pepper until soft and sweet — this is the tuzdyk gravy.

4

Boil the noodle sheets in the meat broth 3–4 minutes.

5

Layer noodles, torn meat, and onion gravy on one great platter. Cups of hot broth (sorpa) on the side. Hands, not forks.

Almaty celebration tradition.

Ratings & reviews

Sign in to rate this recipe once you’ve cooked it.

No reviews yet — be the first to cook it.

🌏 While it simmers — know your destination

📍

Almaty. Where beshbarmak means "five fingers" — the proper cutlery.

🗺️

Kazakhstan. Nomad hospitality measured in heaped platters.

🌍

Asia. From street-cart woks to slow monastery kitchens.

The story behind this dish is up top — worth a read while the pot works.

👩‍🍳

Richard Moore & Kelsey Tucker

Recipes cooked, tested, and researched by the creators of Spin the Globe. How we build our recipes →