Turkish vegetable dishes recipes. What is the national cuisine, traditional dishes and food in Turkey? Let's start cooking sims

Turkish cuisine is replete with all sorts of dishes with unique flavors and can make even the most fastidious gourmet hungry. An abundance of meat dishes, recipes from seafood and vegetables, sweets and pastries for every taste win the hearts (or rather, stomachs) of travelers who find themselves in the country every year. Many Turkish dishes are quite high in calories, because meat, olive and butter, flour and rice are often among their main ingredients. Food is fried and baked in the oven, and many desserts are deep-fried.

Of course, there are in the country National dishes and for adherents healthy eating, which are prepared on the basis of vegetables, legumes and dietary meat. To learn all the subtleties and secrets of Turkish cuisine, we decided to conduct our own gastronomic investigation.

Turkish breakfast

Kahvaltı is what breakfast sounds like in Turkish. The name comes from the words "kahve" (coffee) and "altı" (before), which can be roughly interpreted as "food before coffee". A real Turkish breakfast can truly be called royal, because it is more like a buffet than a standard set of morning dishes. Food in Turkey on the morning table is beautifully arranged into special dishes, where there are:

Although the word Kahvaltı suggests drinking coffee, as a rule, Turkish people drink several glasses of freshly brewed black tea with breakfast, which has a high invigorating effect. And a couple of hours after a morning meal, you can enjoy a cup of strong Turkish coffee.

First meal

Turkish national cuisine offers a rich selection of first courses, among which there are various soups. Soup in Turkey is a slightly different food than we used to think: it is usually a thick substance of ground ingredients and more like a puree soup. And in Turkish there is no expression “eat soup”, because here they “drink” it, so don’t be surprised if a barker from a local restaurant offers you to “drink excellent soup”. The most popular in Turkey are such first courses as:

Lentil soup

Many types of legumes are grown in the country, among which lentils (red, yellow, green) have won great love. It was red lentils that became the main component of the famous national soup, which, according to different recipes may be supplemented with onions, carrots and potatoes. This dish is necessarily seasoned with red pepper flakes and lemon juice.

Shifa Chorbasy

Translated from Turkish, the name of this dish means "healing soup", and there is a reasonable explanation for this. Chowder consists of ingredients rich in vitamins, and it is customary to use it in winter to prevent and treat colds. The main components of chorbysy schiff are red lentils, celery, onions, carrots, parsley, red and black peppers.

In traditional Turkish cuisine, a special dried mixture of flour, yogurt, red peppers, onions and tomatoes is often used to prepare first courses. This ingredient gives the soup an original taste and density. Tarkhana milk soup is especially respected here, in which, in addition to the mixture, tomato paste, garlic and butter are added.

Meat dishes

Although red meat is quite expensive in Turkey, the Turks simply adore it, so many national dishes of Turkish cuisine are prepared from meat products. The abundance of such foods allows you to diversify the daily diet with food from beef, lamb, veal and lamb, as well as chicken and turkey. Among the culinary delights that you should definitely try when visiting the country, you can highlight:

We all know such a dish of oriental cuisine as kebab, which means fried meat. In Turkey, there are many versions of this dish, each with its own unique recipe. Perhaps the most famous type of kebab is doner kebab, for the preparation of which the meat is fried on a spit, and then cut into thin pieces and mixed with onions, lettuce and tomatoes, after which it is flavored with seasonings and dressings and twisted into pita bread. In fact, this is the same as shawarma, but in Turkey this concept is not used.

Among other versions of kebab it is worth noting:

1. Adana kebab. The recipe for this dish comes from the city of Adana, and its main ingredient is minced meat, which is grilled and served with rice, vegetables, greens and thick lavash.
2. Iskander kebab. The thinnest slices of red meat fried on a spit are served on pieces of thick pita bread laid out on a plate and complemented with vegetables and herbs. Such a meal necessarily includes yogurt, a special tomato sauce, and, if desired, can be poured with melted butter.
3. Shish kebab. This Turkish dish is a kebab served with rice and roasted peppers.

In Turkish cuisine, pilaf is often referred to as plain white rice boiled in water or chicken broth with the addition of butter or olive oil. Such a dish is not always served with meat and may contain chickpeas, vegetables, or small noodles. Of course, pilaf is often served with chicken, lamb or beef, whose pieces are separately fried along with onions.

If you are a fan of non-standard cuisine and do not know what to try in Turkey, then be sure to order kokorech at the restaurant. Such food is prepared from the intestines of young sheep, in which the offal of the animal is wrapped - the liver, heart, kidneys and lungs. All these ingredients are roasted on a spit, seasoned with spices, then finely chopped and laid out on a crispy bun.

Sujuk is a Turkish sausage with lard made from beef or mutton meat, the main difference of which from other sausages is the method of its preparation. Sujuk is not smoked or boiled, but dried and seasoned abundantly with various spices. You can’t eat such sausage raw, so it is always fried in a pan. Sujuk is often added to scrambled eggs, toast or spread on white bread.

Fish meals

The country is washed by the waters of the Mediterranean, Black, Marmara and Aegean seas, rich in various types of fish and marine life. Undoubtedly, this fact big influence to the national cuisine of Turkey, where seafood dishes such as:

vegetable dishes

If you think that the national dishes of Turkish cuisine cannot do without meat or fish, then you are mistaken. There are many different dishes, the main components of which are vegetables. An example of this is the famous Turkish dish dolma, which is an analogue of the Greek sarma. It is prepared from grape leaves stuffed with rice and vegetables. You can try it in almost any restaurant.

Among the vegetarian food in Turkey there is also the imam bayaldi dish, which is eggplant stuffed with vegetables. Eggplant dressing is prepared from onions, green peppers, tomatoes, garlic and herbs, richly seasoned with spices and tomato paste. All this is baked in the oven and served with bread and yogurt.

Unsweetened pastries

Most of the national dishes of Turkey are consumed with pastries: bread, pita bread, all kinds of buns and cakes. In the restaurant, before the main meal is brought to you, a basket of fresh baked goods and sauces will be put on the table, both of which are offered absolutely free. Many types of pastries are full-fledged individual dishes.

Simit is a sesame round bun, hard and soft, usually eaten for breakfast. You can eat it both in its pure form, and cut it in half and fill it with cheese, vegetables and sausage. This inexpensive national pastry is in great demand and is sold in special stalls and bakeries.

Borek is a delicious Turkish pastry with different fillings, which is presented in three versions:

• Su beregi, made from thinly rolled unleavened dough (yufka) with cheese fillings; oily
• Kol beregi, baked from puff pastry stuffed with potatoes or minced meat
• Homemade berek is made from yufka with lor cheese, chicken, minced meat, potatoes and vegetables

If you don't know what to eat in Turkey, then Börek is undoubtedly the No. 1 candidate.

Often, soups and meat dishes in Turkish cuisine are served with pita - a piping hot cake that literally melts in your mouth. Sometimes pita is supplemented with cheese, vegetables, sausage, chicken and cutlet fillings, in which case it becomes a separate dish.

Another national culinary delight, which is simply a crime not to try, was gozleme cake made from the thinnest dough, in which various fillers are wrapped in the form of minced meat, potatoes, hard cheese and lor cheese (an analogue of cottage cheese). As a rule, gozleme is fried on both sides in butter and served with tomatoes and lettuce.

Snacks

Cold and hot appetizers in Turkey are called meze and are served on the table before the main courses. Among these foods special attention deserve:

This cold appetizer is a thick sauce based on yogurt and white cheese, to which garlic, olive oil, mint and walnuts are added. The sauce goes well with freshly baked tortillas, but is also suitable for dressing vegetables and meat.

Hummus is quite popular not only in Turkey, but also in Europe, but here an additional specific ingredient is used in the recipe. This food has the consistency of a pâté, which in the Turkish version is made from chickpeas with tahini paste obtained from sesame seeds. Such an appetizer is flavored with garlic, olive oil, lemon and served cold.

One of the features of Turkish cuisine is the fact that the Turks use unusual products to prepare salads. It can be pasta, peas and beans. Piyaz is a national salad, the main components of which are beans and eggs, complemented by herbs, olives, onions, tomatoes, tahina and olive oil. The salad is rather unusual in taste, but worth a try.

Ajily ezme

Vegetable spicy sauce made from garlic, tomatoes, peppers, onions, tomato paste and lemon is the most delicious Turkish appetizer that can be eaten simply with bread or complement it with meat dishes.

Sweets

Among the national food of Turkey, there are many sweet desserts made both from dough and based on sugar or honey syrup. The undisputed leaders here are:

A delicacy made on the basis of sugar syrup originated in Turkey several centuries ago, when the cooks at the court of the Sultan decided to impress their owner with a new gourmet dish. So the first Turkish Delight with rose petals was born. Today, this dessert is presented in a variety of fruit variations with the addition of pistachios, walnuts, peanuts, coconut flakes and other ingredients.

No less popular Turkish sweet, which is made from puff pastry, soaked in honey syrup and complemented with a variety of nuts. In Turkey, you can find baklava in boxes, but it is better to try the product in pastry shops, where freshly prepared dessert is sold by weight.

Lokma - sweet balls of dough, fried in oil and sprinkled with sugar or honey syrup. Quite simple to prepare, but very tasty national food, which all guests of Turkey should try. Like baklava, this is a very sweet, sugary dessert, so you won’t be able to eat a lot of it.

Tulumba is a sweet that largely repeats lokma in its preparation method, but differs from it in an oblong corrugated shape.

Soft drinks

Turkey has its own national drinks, which have a unique taste and intricate way of preparation.

Turks drink black tea always and everywhere. This drink is usually consumed one hour after a meal. In Turkey, they usually drink locally produced tea, which is concentrated on the shores of the Black Sea coast. To prepare Turkish tea, a special two-tier teapot is used, in the upper section of which tea leaves are poured, subsequently poured with boiling water, and the lower section is diverted under hot water.

In this state, the kettle stays on low heat for 20-25 minutes, after which the tea is poured into small tulip glasses. At one sitting, the Turks drink at least 5 glasses of this strong invigorating drink, which is always served hot: after all, the kettle remains on the gas throughout the entire tea party.

Coffee is the second most popular soft drink in Turkey. The inhabitants of this country like to drink finely ground boiled coffee, which is prepared in a Turk or cezve (in Turkish). Such a fairly strong drink is served in miniature cups. After the coffee is drunk, it is customary to wash off the bitter aftertaste with a sip of cool liquid. Therefore, in restaurants, next to a cup of coffee, you will definitely be given a glass of water.

This useful fermented milk product consumed in Turkey during lunch and dinner. It is made on the basis of yogurt with the addition of water and salt and is not subjected to the gasification process. Rustic ayran with foam is especially appreciated here. The drink is an excellent addition to meat dishes and easily replaces the notorious soda and packaged juices for Turks.

Alcoholic drinks

Despite the fact that Turkey is a Muslim state, the country has its own national alcoholic beverages.

A common Turkish drink is raki vodka, which is made from anise. The drink has a specific grassy taste and may vary in alcohol content (from 40 to 50% pure alcohol). Before drinking, raki is diluted with water, after which the transparent drink acquires a milky hue. As a rule, vodka is drunk in small sips and eaten with spicy food.

Sharap in Turkish means wine. Turkish winemakers today offer a wide range of white, red and rosé wines. It is noteworthy that in Turkey this drink has to enter into fierce competition with Chilean manufacturers, who are gaining more and more popularity in the local market. Among Turkish brands you will not find sweet and semi-sweet versions, all drinks are dry. The top quality wine brands here are Doluca, Sevilen Premium and Kayra.

Fruit and berry wines are very popular in Turkey - from pomegranate, mulberry, cherry, melon, etc. Such drinks are characterized by a weak strength, and in their assortment there can be both sweet and semi-sweet versions. In any tourist wine shop, you will definitely be allowed to try various types of wine, but the price tag is also indecent, so it is best to buy wines in city supermarkets.

Street food in Turkey

It is very popular in the country to eat in small cafes and buy takeaway food, so eateries here are found literally at every step. Street food in Turkey is represented by national dishes, which do not take much time to prepare:

pide and lahmacun

Lahmacun is a large round cake made of thin dough, on which minced meat with finely chopped vegetables is laid out. It is cooked in a special clay oven and served with lemon and salad. One lahmajun flatbread costs about $1-1.5. Pide is also cooked in clay ovens from a strip of already thicker dough, and the filling here can be either minced meat or pieces of meat, hard cheese or an egg. The portions are huge, so one pide can be quite enough for two. The cost of this street food, depending on the filling, ranges from $ 2-4.

Doner kebab

We have already described this dish above, it remains only to say that doner kebab is sold on almost every corner and is inexpensive. One serving of this national dish with chicken will cost $1.5, with beef - $2.5-3.

What is really worth trying in Turkey is chi kofte. You will hardly find such food in other countries. This dish looks like minced meat patties, but in fact it is made from small bulgur, olive oil, tomato paste and spices. The chef mixes these ingredients, rubs the resulting mass by hand for several hours until it cooks from the heat of the hands. Cutlets are served on pita bread or in lettuce, necessarily sprinkled with lemon and seasoned with pomegranate sauce. The price of this pleasure is only $ 1 per serving.

Finding fish among Turkey's street food is not so easy: dishes like balyk-ekmek are usually sold in coastal areas, and not on city streets. And if you want to try fresh seafood, then it's better to go to trusted restaurants.

Conclusion

Turkish cuisine can rightfully be considered a national treasure. The abundance of its dishes allows not only to taste various dishes, but also to get acquainted with original, previously unknown recipes. And the taste qualities of seemingly familiar food will completely change your idea of ​​​​the culinary possibilities of the Turkish people.

Appetizing video: street food in Turkey.

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Turkish cuisine is a symbiosis of traditions from different peoples of the world. Over the centuries, it was formed under the influence of the cultures of the Middle East, Asia Minor and Central Asia and the Mediterranean. The most popular dishes of local gastronomy are meat dishes, the king of which can be called kebab. Turkey has more than a dozen different types kabab, and their recipe differs depending on the region.

Tourists with a sweet tooth will be pleased with a myriad of traditional sweets - Turkish delight, halva, baklava - for every taste and pocket.

Every traveler should try Turkish coffee or tea in Turkey from small cups resembling glasses, a simit bagel, stuffed mussels in Turkish style, and lahmajun - a kind of pizza.

Let's take a closer look at these dishes...

The culinary culture of society is always inextricably linked with the way of life of the people. National cuisine necessarily reflects the traditions and customs of the people, culinary preferences develop and change along with the development of society, and therefore it is not surprising that modern Turkish cuisine, which has absorbed and retained the best of the many centuries of existence of various civilizations on Turkish soil, today is able to surprise even the most spoiled gourmet.

Many centuries ago, the Turks, like many other nationalities, led a nomadic lifestyle, dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry. Moving through the vast expanses of Central Asia, they met various animals and new plants characteristic of other regions, and over the centuries, the national Turkish cuisine was enriched not only with new products, but also with new ways of cooking.

In the Ottoman Empire, food has always been elevated to a cult. In the Istanbul palace in the 17th century, there were about 13,000 chefs at any one time, and each of them specialized in cooking only one dish. Every day, 10 thousand people dined in the palace, and the city nobility received baskets of food from the palace as a sign of special disposition.

Not only Islam with its restrictions (prohibition of pork and alcohol consumption, fasting in Ramadan, etc.) had a strong influence on Turkish cuisine. At different historical times in Turkish cuisine, as in all Turkish culture, other peoples who lived in Turkey left their mark: Persians, Greeks, Assyrians, Seljuks, Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Armenians ... Therefore, modern Turkish cuisine can be considered part of Mediterranean cuisine - in some ways it is similar to both Greek and Balkan.

The Turks have learned how to properly store food, thereby introducing variety into their diet during the winter months. As a result of this evolution, today Turkish cuisine offers us such a variety of dishes that even the longest trip is not enough to taste them all.

A feature of Turkish cuisine is that it is impossible to single out one dominant dish in it, such as pasta in Italy or sauces in France - the national Turkish cuisine is distinguished by the diversity and originality of the menu. Due to the great abundance of the dishes on offer, variations of their recipes that reflect regional characteristics, and their original taste, Turkish cuisine is, according to connoisseurs, the third place among all the national cuisines of the world, second only to French and Chinese.

Most Turkish dishes are a healthy and well-balanced combination of ingredients. Dolma and sarma (these are stuffed vegetables), lentil soups, meat with vegetables, rice or wheat groats (bulgur) and, finally, yogurt, which is served with almost all these dishes - this menu will appeal to everyone. Meat stewed with vegetables in Turkish cuisine is always served with rice or wheat groats pilaf.

Turkish pastries are made from unleavened or yeast dough, which may include eggs, milk, yogurt, vegetable oil and flour, and sometimes spices and seasonings are added. Turkish cuisine usually uses meat, cheese or vegetables seasoned with aromatic herbs to stuff products made from such dough.

Yogurt-based soups in Turkish cuisine are made from various grains with the addition of meat and legumes, they are also very tasty and healthy. Various types of legumes are combined in dishes with meat, vegetables and cereals. Pilaf in Turkish cuisine is cooked with meat, chicken, fish and vegetables. Vegetable pilafs are often served as a side dish, and it is customary to serve them with airan (yogurt diluted with water) or tzatzik. Juicy and fragrant kebabs are cooked with vegetables and served with vegetable pilaf, Turkish bread and ayran.

And, of course, the top of the culinary traditions of Turkish cuisine are desserts, without which Turkish cuisine is simply unthinkable. The main desserts in Turkish cuisine are fruits and berries, which are eaten fresh and dried and are used to make jams and preserves. And the famous oriental sweets - baklava, lokma, mukhallebi, marmalade, Turkish delight, halva, marzipan ... The list of desserts of Turkish cuisine is endless!

A European traveling in Turkey will definitely notice how slow the Turks are in relation to food. A typical lunch in Turkey can last 4-5 hours. Turks never eat alone or snack on the go. Every lunch in Turkey can seem like a real oriental feast to a tourist, and it does not matter where exactly you dine - in an expensive restaurant or a small cafe, visiting a simple Turk or in the house of a local rich man - delicious Turkish cuisine dishes prepared with skill and love from the freshest and highest quality products appear on the table, as in an oriental fairy tale, surprising with their variety and tempting aroma.

Bourekas or in other words “cigara berek” is a puff pastry product made in the shape of a cigar and stuffed with white cheese and herbs.

By the way, if you literally translate the name of this dish from Turkish, you get “Crack in the stomach” (tur. Karnıyarık)

Among the main snacks - dolma (grape leaves stuffed with rice and minced meat), boreki, fried zucchini, eggplant. Eggplant is a separate song, local restaurateurs and housewives love it so much. Eggplants are fried, baked in the oven, stewed, served as an appetizer, side dish, and often the main dish. They are served alone or with other vegetables, as well as bread, yogurt, meat, or variations of all of the above.

Very popular soup (in Turkish « chorba» ), especially lentil and yogurt-based soup. Turkish soup with offal is also good. The main distinguishing feature of national soups is their consistency - as a rule, we are talking about thick soups (mashed soups).

Must try imam bayaldy - a delicious dish of baked eggplant stuffed with tomatoes, sweet peppers and herbs, with the addition of garlic paste, onions, nuts and spices. Served cold or slightly warm. According to legend, the imam, who tasted this delicacy, experienced such bliss that he fainted (hence the name of the dish).

Eating duck embryos at speed (DO NOT ENTER impressionable) The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

Traditional Turkish cuisine is a whole philosophy, which consists not only in the preparation of many dishes, but also in communication. This is a kind of ritual that lasts for hours and includes both a beautiful table setting and a variety of dishes.

Turkish cuisine can be called a mix of the best Balkan, Caucasian and traditional cuisine Islamic peoples, but it has its own unique features.

Since Turkey is a Muslim country, pork is not common here; dishes from lamb, fish, beef and poultry are cooked mainly on an open fire. Seasonings are used, but in moderation, compared, for example, with Indian cuisine. Chefs try not to change the main taste of the dish by adding spices.

Characteristic dishes for Turkish cuisine are pilaf, doner, kebab, dolma, berek, gozleme, various cheeses, such as feta cheese, and sweets: baklava, Turkish delight, pishmaniye.

A variety of salads dressed with olive oil, lemon or yogurt are very popular (by the way, grated vegetable soups based on yoghurt). And, of course, bread. In Turkey, it is not customary to eat "yesterday's" bread, only fresh bread is valued here and dozens of its varieties are baked depending on the region.

The most famous soft drinks in Turkey are ayran, yogurt, tea and coffee. If you want to try something stronger, order the popular raki alcoholic drink. It is quite strong (45-50%), so it is usually diluted with water.

Many masterpieces of traditional Turkish cuisine have been known beyond its borders for several centuries. It is interesting that when they talk about such familiar products as tea, coffee, bread, ice cream or sweets, but with the prefix "Turkish", a special oriental flavor is immediately felt.

The national cuisine of Turkey is much richer than the seemingly huge selection of dishes that are offered even in the most expensive status hotels in the country, so you should not judge Turkish dishes by the hotel food system.

Do you want to know what are the features of the feast in Turkish? Choose from our list of national dishes of Turkey the one that attracts you the most and come to Turkey to try it.

TOP 10 Turkish dishes you must try

1. - an analogue of the stuffed cabbage we know, only grape leaves are used instead of cabbage leaves, and minced meat is prepared from lamb.

2. Shekerpare- soft shortbread soaked in sugar syrup, in the middle of which an almond is added.

3. Gözleme- a thin flatbread with a variety of fillings: cheese, potato, meat; served only hot.

4. Baklava (baklava)- a dessert made of many layers of the thinnest puff pastry with the addition of walnuts, pistachios or hazelnuts, poured with honey syrup.

5. Salep- a warming drink and an excellent anti-cold remedy with a creamy taste, which includes orchid root and cinnamon.

6. writing- the most delicate dessert, the taste of which resembles cotton candy, but is so unusual that it defies description.

7. Sujuk- hard dried sausage with the addition of red pepper, cardamom, garlic and nutmeg.

8. - a pie made from thinly rolled puff pastry with a variety of fillings (cheese, herbs, minced meat, spinach).

9. Simit- a popular type of Turkish pastry from sweet dough, also known as "Turkish bagel".

10. Syutlach- Oven-cooked milk-rice pudding with a delicate vanilla flavor, served as a dessert in small bowls.

When you arrive in Turkey, forget about fast food chains. National Turkish cuisine is delicious and varied. In the menu of Turkish cuisine you will find a mixture of Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Balkan culinary traditions.

Therefore, it is so difficult to narrow down all the variety to a short list of what you should definitely try in Turkey from food. But I still tried to highlight the main and most delicious dishes that the Turks cook and eat at home and in restaurants.

Turkish breakfasts

Turkish breakfast food is a bit different from European. Instead of coffee, it is customary to drink tea in the morning. Often, a vegetable plate with chopped tomatoes and/or cucumbers is served for breakfast. They eat white bread, but recent times Healthy food trends have also reached Turkey, now you can choose cereal bread made from rye or other cereals for breakfast.

White cheese similar to feta, old cheese ( kaş ar peyniri), olives or black olives ( zeytin), butter, honey, jam, scrambled eggs or boiled eggs ( yumurta) are the main components of a Turkish breakfast.

You can also eat tomorrow sucuklu yumurta and bö rec. Sucuklu yumurta is a dried beef sausage with garlic and spices (red pepper, cumin and sumac). Sujuklu fried in a pan with eggs, it turns out greasy, but very tasty. Bö rec(burek or burek) – it is a thin sheet of dough stuffed with cheese, minced meat and/or vegetables, fried or baked.

minimen/menimen (Menemen) - very tasty Turkish omelet. Fried onions and peppers are stewed with tomatoes, and then poured over with eggs, sprinkled with herbs and ground pepper.

© foodista / flickr.com / CC BY 2.0

National Turkish vegetable food

A lot of vegetables are grown in Turkey, which is noticeably reflected in local dishes. If you are a vegetarian, then it is important for you to know that Turkish dishes that do not put meat are called zeytin yağ lı cooked on olive oil. As a rule, these dishes are served cold. Here are the best vegetable dishes in Turkey:

• Sarma (Yaprak Sarma) - grape leaves stuffed with rice, onion and spices (mint, currant, pepper and cinnamon).
• Dolma (Dolma) - Stuffed with rice, onions and spices, fresh or dried eggplants, peppers, tomatoes or zucchini.
• Taze Fasulye- beans or chickpeas (chickpeas) stewed with tomatoes or tomato paste and onions.
• Jajik (cacı k) - Refreshing Turkish soup. It is prepared from finely chopped cucumbers, sour cream, garlic and mint. On a hot summer day, it is served with ice cubes.

The Turks are very fond of meat, and therefore all of the above dishes, except for the last soup, can also be found in the meat version.

Turkish meat dishes

• Karnyyaryk (Karnı yarı k) - fried eggplant with minced meat, onion, parsley, garlic and tomato filling. This dish is a must try. To make sure it good quality pay attention to the eggplant. The dark color of the skin should not be transferred to the peeled pulp, and the meat should not be dark and dry.
• Lahmacun (Lahmacun) - Turkish pizza with meat, onions and spices on thin puff pastry. Served with tomatoes and salad. Many people prefer to squeeze lemon juice over the lahmacun, roll it up and eat it like a Mexican taco. Authentic Turkish street food.
• Kuru Fasulier (Kurufasulye) - dry beans. Turks just love beans. This national dish of Turkish cuisine is usually served with slices of dried beef ( pastı rma), rice (sade pilav), pickles and sauerkraut turş u.

© ruocaled / flickr.com / CC BY 2.0

The most famous national dishes of Turkish cuisine

• Kebab (Kebap) - this is meat, impaled on a skewer and fried on coals - everyone knows shish kebab. Usually lamb, beef or chicken are fried. Turkey has a huge number of varieties of kebab, I advise you to try the popular Iskander kebab.
• Dener (Dö ner) - shawarma or shawarma. This is meat fried on a spit with lettuce, local herbs and spices.
• Jacket (Kö fte) - cutlets or meatballs of various shapes and sizes. Minced meat is lamb or lamb with boiled bread, onions and spices. The most popular meatball dish is Izgara Köfte. In it, the meat is grilled along with green peppers, dry red pepper parsley and served with rice or bread.
• Manti (Mantı ) - very tasty Turkish dumplings. The ingredients are simple dough, meat (beef or lamb), onion, salt and pepper.

© hewy / flickr.com / CC BY 2.0

Popular Turkish dishes for garnish

Pilav (Pilav) - in the national Turkish cuisine, there are many options for preparing pilaf. This is not exactly pilaf, although it is based on rice, and these two words are consonant. The most popular pilaf in Turkish cuisine is sade pilav. It's just rice boiled in water. vegetable oil and small şehriye noodles. Usually rice is mixed with eggplant, chickpeas, meat or liver pieces and, of course, spices: cinnamon, pepper, thyme, cumin and even almonds.

Pilav from bulgur (Bulgur Pilavı) - it looks like this Turkish dish is just a bowl of boiled rice, but in fact it is wheat. Most often it is cooked with fried onions, green peppers, tomato paste and mint.

Fried vegetables– fried eggplants, green peppers and zucchini with tomato sauce or sour cream - one of the best dishes. There are a lot of options for Turkish food from fried vegetables, choose any combination to your taste.

Mujver (Mü cver) - zucchini, eggs and flour - that's the whole composition of delicious Turkish potato pancakes. Mujver is cooked with white cheese, green onions and mint, lightly fried in olive oil and served as a side dish.

Meze (meze) - a set of snacks that are often served along with raki or other alcoholic drinks. Restaurants that specialize in serving meze are called meyhane. Most often, the waiter will come to the table and present all the options of meze on a large dish, and you can choose according to your taste.

Sweet Turkish Desserts

© shutterferret / flickr.com / CC BY 2.0

Künefe (Kü nefe) is a traditional Arabic cheese pastry. Unsalted cheese is placed between two layers of dough made from a simple mixture of water and flour. Kunefe is served warm and soaked in syrup. Top dessert sprinkled with pistachios. The feel and taste are very unique. Crispy dough on one side, soft cheese soaked in sweet syrup on the other.

Baklava (Baklava) - another Turkish dessert with a simple set of ingredients (dough, nuts and syrup), but very tasty. The decisive factor is how thin the dough layers are. Walnuts, hazelnuts or pistachios will be in your baklava - depends on the region where you try it.

Street food in Turkey

Street food culture is very common in Turkey. In Istanbul, small stalls with street food are poked around every corner. Most often, these are the national dishes of Turkey, which you are already familiar with from this article. I decided once again to put the names separately, so that you know what you can have a cheap snack in the course of your acquaintance with Turkey.

hot food

Kebab and doner(barbecue and shawarma) are the main representatives of Turkish street food.

Borek- flatbread with various fillings: ı spanaklı bö rec(with spinach) peynirli bö rec(with cheese), kı ymalı bö rec(with minced meat) and patatesli bö rec(with potato).

Pide ( pide ) - stuffed dough boat. Kaş arlı pide(with cheese) and Sukuklu pide(with cheese and hot sauce) - the most popular types of pide.

Pizza Lahmacun (Lahmacun)

Mizir (MIsIr )– boiled or grilled corn on the cob. It is salted or sprinkled with spices and sold during the summer months.

chestnuts ( Kestane )– and in winter, instead of corn, stalls with roasted chestnuts appear everywhere.

Balyk ekmek ( Bal ı k ekmek ) - literally translates as "fish in bread", which is what it is. In front of your eyes, the seller fries the fish and puts it in a big bun

© nifortescue / flickr.com / CC BY 2.0

cold street food

Simit ( Simit ) - Crispy, round salty bagel covered with sesame seeds. There are 2 main sim options: sokak simit- sold on the streets, very crispy and pastane simit- sold in stores, softer.

Achma ( A ç ma )– a round bun, one might say - a donut. Very tasty but oily.

Pogacha ( Po ğ a ç a ) - Delicious crumbly biscuits. There are options without filling - sadeor with stuffing: peynirli – cheese, kı ymalı - chopped meat, zeytinli- Sliced ​​olives.

Carefully

As you wander the streets of Istanbul or other cities, you will stumble upon these two Turkish dishes more than once. They are very tasty, but they must be bought with care on the streets, bathed in the sun.

• Dolma from mussel (Midye dolma) - stuffed mussels. They are very tasty, I advise you to eat them in restaurants.

Kokorech ( Kokore ç )– grilled sheep giblets (intestines, heart, etc.) with lots of spices. A very popular snack after a stormy night or with alcohol. From the outside, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish where the shawarma is, and where the kokorech is. Fortunately, shawarma is cooked on a vertical spit, and kokorech on a horizontal one.

Turkish cuisine is diverse and very bright, it is not for nothing that it is one of the three most popular and delicious cuisines in the world. Stunning combinations of different flavors, abundance fresh vegetables and fruits, methods of heat treatment, in which products do not lose their useful qualities, make Turkish cuisine not only incredibly tasty, but also beneficial to our body.
We present you the top 10 Turkish dishes that you should definitely try when you come to Turkey. Without tasting these products of national cuisine, acquaintance with Turkey will be incomplete, because cooking traditions are just as important for understanding the essence of the country as its historical sights.

Let's start our acquaintance with Turkish cuisine with kebabs. This is a traditional oriental kebab made from minced meat. The main meat in the preparation of kebab is lamb. A prerequisite will be the addition of fat tail fat, which gives the kebab a characteristic taste, and also makes the minced meat fatter. One of the most famous kebabs in Turkey is Adana kebab. In this dish, minced meat is strung on special wide skewers and fried over an open fire. Adana kebab is served with pickled onion and herb salad, thin pita bread and a slice of lemon.

Doner kebab is no less popular. This is a peculiar way of cooking meat, in which large pieces of beef are strung on a vertical skewer, slowly rotating around its axis. The fried meat is cut into very thin strips and served in freshly baked bread. A variant of Doner kebab is Iskender doner - a favorite dish of both the Turks themselves and numerous tourists. For Iskender doner, strips of meat are placed on pre-prepared bread, soaked in oil and fat flowing from the prepared doner. The dish is topped with tomato sauce and served with Turkish yogurt.

Another very common meat dish in Turkey is kefte. These are national cutlets made from a mixture of lamb and ground beef. In addition to meat, ground onion and a large amount of spices are added to minced meat for kefte. Minced meat is formed into small flat cutlets, which are fried on the grill. Kefte is served with a salad of pickled sweet onions and herbs.

A pastry dish often served for breakfast. The thinnest layers of dough are stacked in layers, and minced meat from salted cottage cheese, spinach or fried meat is added between them. All this is poured with a sauce of milk and eggs. Borek is baked in the oven until crispy and served hot. A sweet version of the borek is also possible, when instead of the filling they put inside regular sugar. Sweet borek is especially loved by children, eating crispy cakes with pleasure. A variant of this dish called Cigara Borek is very popular. In this case, the dough is rolled up in the form of cigars, putting the filling inside: feta cheese, potatoes or minced meat. Borek cigar is fried in a pan in olive oil.

Flour dishes, without which the Turks cannot imagine their life. Simit is the most common street food and a must for Turkish breakfast. Early in the morning in any city you can hear the calls of the seller of Turkish simit bagels, offering his goods. Fresh hot simit sprinkled with sesame is sold right on the street from special wagons. Here, they offer melted cheese and tea.
Lahmacun is a kind of Turkish pizza. The main difference between this dish and traditional pizza is the thinly rolled dough. As a filling for lahmacun, minced meat with tomatoes, herbs and bell peppers is used. Lahmacun is served with lots of parsley and lemon. The product is so thin that it can be rolled up, putting greens and sweet onion salad in the middle.

Unlike the traditional pilaf in our understanding, in Turkey, pilaf (or pilaf, as it is called here) is prepared not from rice, but from wheat groats. Often, chickpeas are added to the dish, and then you get Knowlu Pilyav; eggplant - Patlyjan Pilyav; tomatoes - Domates Pilyav and even fish - Hamsi Pilyav. Basically, pilaf in Turkish cuisine serves as a side dish to the main course. Pilaf is usually served with yogurt.

Bean stew is a dish that is eaten with equal pleasure in the homes of the rich and in the poorest families. The beans are soaked overnight and then stewed with tomato paste, onions and spices for about two hours. Chicken beans are served most often with boiled rice and yogurt.

Turkish manti, unlike the Central Asian ones we are used to, are small lumps of dough with minced meat. The size of Turkish manti should not exceed the size of a fingernail. Now manti is made with the help of machinery, and earlier the entire female part of the family gathered to sculpt this dish. Up to a thousand small dumplings were prepared at one time! Manti is served with yoghurt sauce with garlic, and topped with melted butter and spices.

One of the most popular and delicious Turkish snacks. Minced rice and meat are wrapped in grape leaves. The shape of the sarma is remarkable - in the form of female fingers. As they say in Turkey, the thickness of the sarma should not exceed the size of the "little finger". young girl". Sarma is a rather spicy and spicy dish, as befits an appetizer, the main purpose of which is to stimulate a good appetite.

Baklava is the calling card of the East. It is impossible to leave Turkey without taking a box of this amazingly delicious sweet with you. The thinnest weightless dough is laid in numerous layers, poured various types nuts and poured with sweet syrup. The calorie content of this dish is simply over the top, but there is no way to resist tasting at least a piece of dessert that melts in your mouth.

Another dessert that belongs to the category of the most delicious meals Turkish cuisine. Soft goat cheese is placed between layers of special dough in the form of vermicelli. All this is fried in a large amount of oil and served hot.

Turkish recipes can be found