Instagram star Ruhama Shitrit brings flavors of Israel to her US home
The recipe developer didn’t expect to raise her kids in America, but after 18 years, cooking is how she infuses them with their heritage
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
In the days following the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, food blogger Ruhama Shitrit felt frozen, unsure what to post or say on her popular Instagram home-cooking account.
Three days later, Shitrit posted an Israeli flag with a prayer for her home country. The Boston-based food blogger lost some Instagram followers — and later gained more — but didn’t regret her statement.
She also needed to find a recipe to prepare and share in those painful days following the Hamas massacre, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage by terrorists.
“I opened my pantry and I saw ptitim,” said Shitrit, referring to the tiny balls of toasted pasta also known as “Israeli couscous,” created in Israel in the 1950s and as familiar as falafel. “I didn’t plan it, it was all from here,” she said, pointing to her gut.
The one-sheet pan recipe of cubed chicken and ptitim went viral, liked and commented on by some 30,000 followers, said Shitrit. She wrote and spoke in that post about cooking as therapy and of the need to make delicious comfort food that connected her to her homeland.
It was a quintessential Ruhama post and meal, exuding the very real warmth, authenticity and accessible recipes that Shitrit’s followers have come to rely on over the last few years.
Shitrit was already a popular food blogger before October 7, having left her previous career as a teacher in 2018 and transitioning into full-time food blogging.
In the weeks and months after the Hamas terrorist attack, Shitrit kept on posting recipes accompanied by her Hebrew-accented English voiceovers around four times a week.
As she continued gaining followers, Shitrit realized that Ruhamasfood — the title of her Instagram account, where she describes herself as a Boston-based mom of four and recipe creator in love with Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food — was actually about much more than just food, especially during the wave of anti-Israeli and antisemitic hatred on social media.
“This is my page, I’m cooking Israeli food and bringing the good of Israel to my followers,” said Shitrit. “I’m using my page and my position as a food blogger to express feelings and cook with a smile.”
Shitrit said she wasn’t much of a home cook when she moved to Boston with her family 18 years ago.
Prior to the move, Shitrit and her husband Yossi were young parents living in Haifa and often eating meals with her Iraqi-born parents, weekday meals of chicken and rice and the many courses of a Friday night dinner.
The Shitrits then moved to the US for what was intended to be two years, when Yossi’s tech company offered him a position in Boston.
At the time, they had two small children, and Shitrit taught Hebrew in two Jewish schools in the heavily Jewish suburbs of Boston, where she got to know local families and their children.
She wanted her kids to still be Israeli and familiar with Israeli food, which Shitrit identified with her upbringing in Tirat Hacarmel, a town north of Haifa where her father was once mayor.
“I wanted my kids to have that same feeling of approaching the house and smelling something cooking on the stove,” she said. “I needed to bring Israel to America.”
She began preparing foods she hadn’t cooked before, making challah on Fridays, oven-baked chicken schnitzel and ptitim or the quintessentially Israeli “orange” soup made from pumpkin, sweet potatoes and carrots.
As she cooked her way through the Israeli kitchen, Shitrit also discovered American produce and flavors. Now she loves Brussels sprouts and knows how to adjust American tomato paste to her Israeli palate.
“I love what I have here and there,” said Shitrit of her traditional Jewish life in Boston that channels her Israeli background, “and I try to bring it all together in my recipes.”
Shitrit’s recipes are distinctly Israeli with Moroccan and Iraqi flavors, whether it’s her quick version of tomato-based matbucha salad, plenty of sheet-pan chicken and rice dinners or a quicker version of Iraqi t’bit, chicken stuffed with rice. She leans into American habits, too, by offering one-bowl meals like tofu shawarma and baking her schnitzel rather than frying it.
She began posting on social media during the coronavirus pandemic, when her sons suggested she share pictures and videos of her home-cooked meals.
Shitrit now has a wide and varied following of some 500,000, including home cooks in Iran, American Muslims, college students and busy parents, and Israeli food bloggers and influencers as well, who often comment with exclamation points and hearts on any new Ruhamasfood post.
Shitrit appreciates the attention, but what motivates her is the desire to help people — usually by showing them what to make for dinner every night, as well as talking straight about herself, her family and her homeland.
She’s still learning her influencer tricks, and for now does it all herself, from the photography and recording to posting and recipe development.
Every recipe includes Shitrit’s voiceover, her still-distinct Israeli accent and trademark exclamation each time she tastes a finished dish, with a little swivel of her hips, a wave of her fork, a wide smile and “Wow!”
“I treat the page like it’s my work,” said Shitrit. “I start thinking about Rosh Hashanah recipes in July, and my kids are eating Rosh Hashanah food in the summer. But sometimes I just cook from my heart, I open the fridge and there’s a nice cabbage and I work from that.”
Shitrit has plenty of plans for the future, as she thinks about developing a cookbook and appearing on cooking shows, and continues presenting cooking demonstrations at community centers and synagogues.
“I’m so grateful for what’s happening. It’s a lot of hard work,” said Shitrit, who peppers her speech with Hebrew and the occasional thanks to God. She’s even sometimes known to end a cooking demonstration by singing “Am Yisrael Chai” with the crowd.
“Always stay true to yourself,” said Shitrit. “That’s my mission.”
Amba-Tahini Cauliflower
Roasted cauliflower topped with amba-tahini sauce and sumac onion
Ingredients:
1 whole fresh cauliflower with the leaves
1 teaspoon of salt
Water to cover the cauliflower
Seasoning for the cauliflower
1 teaspoon of flaky salt
5 tablespoons of olive oil
Amba-tahini sauce ingredients
½ cup of tahini paste
½ teaspoon of salt
Juice from ½ lemon
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon of Amba
½ teaspoon of turmeric
⅓ cup of cold water
Put all the ingredients in a small food processor and process it to a smooth sauce.
If the sauce is too thick, add water. If it’s too liquid, add tahini paste.
Garnish with sauteed sliced onion sprinkled with sumac and chopped cilantro leaves.
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 450°F / 230°C.
2. In a large pot, place the whole cauliflower and cover with water.
3. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and boil the cauliflower.
4. Cook in boiling water for around 10 minutes on medium heat, until it’s fork-tender.
5. Drain the water, dry the cauliflower, and place it in an oven-safe pan.
6. Season with flaky salt and olive oil and massage the cauliflower with your hands.
7. Roast in the oven at 450°F for 15 minutes.
8. Switch oven setting to broil at 450°F for 7-8 minutes until the cauliflower’s top turns golden brown.
9. Pour the amba-tahini sauce on top of the cauliflower, add sauteed sumac onion and chopped cilantro.
