Lavash
Paper-thin unleavened flatbread, blistered and scored in the tradition of the hearth.
Step-by-step →Feast · Syunik
GHAPAMA
Ղափամա
A whole pumpkin filled with rice, dried apricot and walnut, baked until it caves in on itself.
2 hours
Total time
Serves 8
Yield
5
Steps
Step by step
HOW IT IS MADE
- 01
Hollow the pumpkin
Cut a lid from the top and scrape out seeds and strings, leaving walls about two centimetres thick. Keep the lid.
- 02
Half-cook the rice
Boil the rice in salted water for five minutes only, then drain. It finishes inside the pumpkin.
- 03
Layer the sweetness
Fold the rice with dried fruit, walnuts, cinnamon, honey and melted butter. Spoon it in loosely, no more than three-quarters full.
- 04
Bake with the lid on
Set the lid back, wrap the pumpkin loosely in foil and bake at 180°C for 90 minutes, until a knife slides through the wall without resistance.
- 05
Carry it to the table whole
Bring the pumpkin out intact, cut it open at the table in wedges and let everyone take flesh and filling in the same spoonful.
At a glance
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Energy
- ≈ 340 kcal per serving
- Preparation
- 30 min hollowing and filling
- Cooking
- 1 h 30 min baking
- Season
- October to January
- Occasion
- New Year, Christmas, weddings — carried to the table with a song
Cook's notes
GET IT RIGHT
- Choose a squat pumpkin with a flat base — round ones tip in the oven.
- Half-cook the rice before filling; raw rice leaves crunch at the centre.
- Rub the inside with butter and honey before filling for a caramelised wall.
- Cover with foil for the first hour, then bare it so the skin glazes.
Variations
Savoury ghapama
Filled with rice, lamb and onion instead of dried fruit — the older village form.
Small ghapama
Individual portions in mini pumpkins, 45 minutes at 180 °C.
Questions
ASKED IN THE KITCHEN
Which pumpkin works best?
A dense, sweet variety such as kabocha or musquée de Provence. Watery Halloween pumpkins collapse.
Why is there a song about it?
The folk song "Hey Jan Ghapama" is sung as the dish is carried in — it is a celebration dish first, food second.
History & Culture
WHY THIS DISH
Ghapama belongs to winter, to Christmas and New Year tables and to weddings, where its arrival is announced with the folk song 'Hey Jan Ghapama' — a round of verses sung while the pumpkin is carried in and cut.
It reflects an old highland pantry: fruit dried on rooftops in September so that midwinter could still taste of apricots. Sweet and savoury sit in the same dish without apology, an approach older than the split between courses.
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