Turkish national dishes - What you must try. What to try in Turkey: traditional cuisine and food Ottoman cuisine

Turkish cuisine is attractive because it intertwines Mediterranean, Arabic, Indian, Caucasian and Middle Eastern culinary traditions. In the Ottoman Empire, food was a cult and is now given a lot of attention. In this amazing country, breakfast, lunch and dinner are an important part of life, so Turks eat leisurely, savoring every bite. A family lunch or dinner in honor of an event can last for hours. The table is full of delicious dishes, and the topics for leisurely conversations are inexhaustible.

But you and I don’t necessarily need to prepare dozens of dishes to surprise our loved ones with Turkish delicacies. It’s enough to make a kebab in the oven, bake eggplants with spices or prepare baklava, and you can already expect applause for your culinary talent! What traditional Turkish dishes can we prepare at home without spending all day in the kitchen?

Meze - a delicious start to lunch

Turkish cuisine was formed under the influence of Islamic traditions, so the cooking process is clearly regulated by certain rules. All food is divided into permitted (halal) and prohibited (haram), which includes, for example, pork.

A typical Turkish meal begins with cold and hot meze appetizers, the purpose of which is to increase appetite. Meze includes salads, pickles, pickled vegetables, eggplant appetizers, vegetable caviar, olives, cheese, hummus, yogurt cream with feta cheese and herbs, falafel, fish, shrimp and bereks - small puff pastries that fit several fillings between thin layers of dough. Meze is served in restaurants, cafes, snack bars and entertainment venues as a mandatory addition to alcohol.

Eggplant mutabal appetizer

This delicious appetizer is spread on unleavened flatbread and sprinkled with herbs. To prepare it you will need 2 eggplants. Wash the vegetables well and pat dry with a paper towel. Brush the eggplants with olive oil and pierce them in several places with a fork.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake the eggplants for half an hour until soft. Cool, remove the skin, mix in a blender along with 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp. l. sesame paste (tahina) and 1.5 tsp. lemon juice. While grinding, gradually add 2 tbsp to the blender. l. Greek yogurt. Salt the resulting puree and season it with cold-pressed olive oil to taste.

Serve the appetizer in a bowl, sprinkled with herbs and drizzled with oil - it looks very beautiful and, as a rule, is eaten first!

Soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner

The first courses in Turkish cuisine are so delicious that after trying at least one of them, you will immediately understand why Turkish gourmets are ready to enjoy soups from morning to evening.

In winter, they usually prepare hot lentil soup merdzhimek chorbasy, tomato soup, garlic soup from beef or sheep offal ishkembe chorbasy. In summer in Turkey, you can’t do without a refreshing stew called djadzhik made from ayran, cucumbers and herbs, which, in fact, is served with pilaf in winter. Shekhrieli yeshil merjimek chorbasy - green lentil soup with vermicelli - and yayla - rice-mint soup with a sour-spicy taste are very popular. Turks love unusual combinations and often season soups with lemon juice, egg and mint.

Tarhana is a very popular soup preparation made from sun-dried tomatoes, ground into powder, red or green pepper powder, onions and flour. In winter, just add this mixture to water, season with tomato paste, and the soup is ready!

Turkish lentil soup

Each Turkish housewife prepares lentil puree soup in her own way, and all options are good. We will share one of the recipes with you.

Place 1.5 cups of well-washed red lentils, 2 diced potatoes and carrots, and a finely grated onion into a saucepan. Pour cold water over the ingredients and cook for about 30 minutes over medium heat - by this time the products should become soft.

Now add 1 tbsp to the soup. l. tomato paste, 1 tsp. butter, a pinch of cumin and salt, 2 pinches each of thyme and dried mint. Beat the mixture well with a blender, put it back on the heat, bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes over low heat.

Drizzle lemon juice over this delicious soup and season with fresh herbs. You can cook it in meat broth and add pre-fried meatballs to it at the end of cooking.

Land of meat abundance

Do not limit yourself to eating in restaurants (especially hotel and/or tourist ones). Try street food in small cafes and food stalls.

1. Turkish breakfast (kahvalti)

Turkish bread or toast, butter, jam, chocolate and/or honey, olives, hard-boiled eggs, the most delicious tomatoes in the world, cucumbers, several types of cheese, and, of course, coffee or tea. Turkish breakfast (kahvalti) is considered one of the best in the world and is served in many restaurants, cafes, hotels and guesthouses. There are no restrictions for kahwalti, so each owner brings something of his own to this wonderful tradition.

Turkish breakfast (Kahvaltı). Photo credit: mincelik, Flick

2. Menemen

The Turkish version of scrambled eggs for breakfast is an omelet mixed with stewed vegetables. Very tasty with warm pita bread) Menemen can be easily found in the menus of cafes and small restaurants, and is often offered as an addition to the Turkish breakfast.

Menemen. Photo credit: Serious Eats

3. Simit

The most popular baked goods sold everywhere in Turkey. Known since the 16th century. Probably, the popularity of this sesame bun is due to the fact that it can be a complete breakfast or snack.

Simit. Photo credit: abdulah Tırınk, Flick

4. Chorba

Typically, Turkish soups (chorba) are thick and rich, based on lentils or tomatoes. Try traditional chorba made from lentils and rice (ezogelin çorbası, ezo-gelin) or just from lentils (mercimek çorbası, mermesik - chorbasi), chicken soup (tavuk suyu çorbası, tavuk-sayu), fish soup (balık çorbası, balyk chorbasi) or fermented milk soup with mint (Yayla çorbası, yayla chorbasi).

Mermesik - Chorbasi. Photo credit: yemek

5. Manti

Manti (manti) is a Turkish version of dumplings that are prepared with lamb or beef and either boiled or fried. Served with spicy sauce based on natural Turkish yoghurt. Considered the national dish of Turkey.

Turkish Manti. Photo credit: frodnesor, Flick

6. Meze

Cold Turkish appetizers - salads, stuffed peppers and tomatoes, pickles, olives, dolma and sarma, small seafood such as mussels and squid, hummus, sauces, etc., etc. Appetizers are usually served before main courses.

Meze. Photo credit: Jenny Guo, Flick

7. Dolma and sarma

Dolma and sarma are two dishes based on spicy rice with onions. Dolma - vegetables (pepper, zucchini or eggplant) stuffed with a mixture of rice, currants, spices, cinnamon, nuts and minced veal (optional). Salma is a more ascetic version, grape leaves stuffed with spicy rice. Both dishes are often served as meze (cold appetizers).

Yaprak Sarma. Photo credit: Waseem Asmar, Flick

8. Kebab

Kebab in Turkey is meat cooked over an open fire, served with vegetables and sauces. Each region of Turkey prepares kebab differently. Often kebab is named after the area in which it is prepared. Be sure to try the kebab, which is cooked in clay pots.

The most popular kebab option, which is definitely worth trying, is shish kebab (Şiş Kebap) - lamb fried on skewers, served with vegetables and pita bread (practically our kebab)

The real gastronomic pride of Turkey is Iskander kebab, a variant invented in Bursa in the 19th century by Iskander Efendi. In this version, lamb is cut into thin slices, stewed in tomato sauce and served with yogurt and pita bread.

Adana kebab is also a classic. It is prepared from minced lamb, grilled and served, again with vegetables and pita bread.

Shish-Kebab. Photo credit: Matt Holden F, Flick

Photo credit: Brian Hammonds, Flick

9. Kefte and Chi Kefte

Along with kebab, kefte is a traditional and beloved dish in Turkey that is prepared almost everywhere. Essentially, these are meat balls. They are served on street stalls accompanied by pita and salad.

Chi Kefte (Çiğ köfte) is a vegetarian version of kefte, which in appearance is very similar to regular meat kefte, but is made from bulgur, tomato paste and spices.

Chi Kefte. Photo credit: jechstra, Flick

10. Imam Baildi

The history of this dish goes back to the Ottomans. The name Imam Bayildi is translated very funny - stupefied imam. The swoon item is an eggplant stuffed with a vegetable mixture of onions, garlic and tomatoes. There are also modern variations with meat fillings. Delicious with traditional pilaf butter rice.

Imam Baildi. Photo credit: Steel Wool, Flick

11. Lahmakun and Pide

Lahmacun and pide are two variants of “Turkish pizza”. Lahmakun is a flat crispy flatbread stuffed with meat and spices. Pide is a more advanced version with different kinds of topping and curled edges. Both options are quite popular as local fast food.

Lahmacun. Photo credit: Ahmet Tanju, Flick

Photo credit: a dash of zest, Flick

12. Borek and Gözleme

These delicacies are most often filled with meat or a mixture of spinach and cheese. The basis for borek (börek) is puff pastry. Borek is baked in different ways - in portions, in large pieces, in rolls. The basis for Gözleme is lean dough in the form of a flatbread. A special chic is borek or gozlemek, cooked in traditional ovens or over low heat. Very Turkish pastries, be sure to try them!

Gözleme. Photo credit: Jamie / droolworthy, Flick

13. Balik Ekmek

Balik Ekmek - literally translated as fish sandwich. Baguette, fried or grilled fish fillet, onion, salad. Simple, cheap, colorful and very tasty. For the best fish sandwiches, look for street restaurants under the Galata Bridge.

Fish sandwich. Photo credit: Dormiveglia, Flick

14. Mussels Dolma

Mussels Dolma (Midye Dolma) is a popular street food on the streets of Bodrum and. It consists of mussels with spicy rice. They are often stuffed right next to the mussel tray. The seller stuffs and serves the mussels until the stop sign on the buyer's side)

Dolma mussels. Photo credit: JuliaInTurkey, Flick

15. Kumpir

Kumpir (kumpir) - baked potatoes in their jackets, with butter and cheese and a variety of fillings to choose from.

Potatoes Kumpir. Photo credit: Jason Wong, Flick

Turkish cuisine is varied and very vibrant; it is not without reason that it is one of the three most popular and delicious cuisines in the world. Stunning combinations of different tastes, an abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits, methods of heat treatment in which products do not lose their beneficial qualities make Turkish cuisine not only incredibly tasty, but also beneficial to our body.
We present to you the top 10 Turkish dishes that you should definitely try when you come to Turkey. Without tasting these works of national cuisine, acquaintance with Turkey will be incomplete, because traditions in cooking are as important for understanding the essence of the country as its historical attractions.

Let's start our acquaintance with Turkish cuisine with kebab. This is a traditional oriental kebab made from minced meat. The main meat when preparing kebab is lamb. A prerequisite is the addition of fat tail fat, which gives the kebab a characteristic taste and also makes the minced meat fattier. One of the most famous kebab preparations in Turkey is Adana kebab. In this dish, minced meat is threaded onto special wide skewers and fried over an open fire. Adana kebab is served with a salad of pickled onions and herbs, thin pita bread and a slice of lemon.

Doner kebab is no less popular. This is a unique method of cooking meat, in which large pieces of beef are strung on a vertical spit, 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 dripping from the cooking doner. The dish is topped with tomato sauce and served with Turkish yoghurt.

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

A dough dish often served for breakfast. The thinnest layers of dough are laid in layers, and minced salted cottage cheese, spinach or fried meat is added between them. All this is poured with a sauce made from milk and eggs. Borek is baked in the oven until crispy and served hot. A sweet version of borek is also possible, when regular sugar is placed inside instead of filling. Children especially love sweet borek, devouring the crispy flatbreads with pleasure. A very popular version of this dish is called Cigar Borek. In this case, the dough is rolled into a cigar shape, with filling inside: feta cheese, potatoes or minced meat. Borek cigar is fried in a frying pan in olive oil.

Flour dishes, without which Turks cannot imagine their life. Simit is the most common street food and an essential part of the Turkish breakfast. Early in the morning in any city you can hear the inviting cries of the Turkish bagel simit seller offering his goods. Fresh hot simit, sprinkled with sesame seeds, is sold right on the street from special carts. They offer it with processed cheese and tea.
Lahmacun is a kind of Turkish pizza. The main difference between this dish and traditional pizza is the thinly rolled dough. The filling for lahmajun is minced meat with tomatoes, herbs and bell peppers. Serve lahmacun with plenty of parsley and lemon. The product is so thin that it can be rolled into a roll, putting greens and sweet onion salad in the middle.

Unlike traditional pilaf as we understand it, in Turkey pilaf (or pilaf, as it is called here) is prepared not from rice, but from wheat cereal. Often, chickpeas nout are added to the dish, and then it turns out noutlu pilav; eggplants - Patlyjan pilyav; tomatoes - Domates Pilyav and even fish - Khamsi Pilyav. Basically, pilaf in Turkish cuisine serves as a side dish to the main dish. Pilaf is usually served with yogurt.

Bean stew is a dish that is eaten with equal pleasure in the homes of the rich and the poorest families. The beans are soaked overnight and then stewed with tomato paste, onions and spices for about two hours. Chicken beans are most often served 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. Nowadays manti is made using machinery, but previously the entire female part of the family gathered to make this dish. Up to a thousand small “dumplings” were prepared at a time! Manti is served with yogurt sauce with garlic, and the dish is 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 noteworthy - in the form of a woman's fingers. As they say in Turkey, the thickness of the sarma should not exceed the size of “a young girl’s little finger.” Sarma is a rather hot and spicy dish, as befits an appetizer, the main purpose of which is to stimulate a good appetite.

Bakhlava is the calling card of the East. It is impossible to travel from Turkey without taking with you a box of this amazingly delicious sweet. The thinnest weightless dough is laid in numerous layers, sprinkled with various types of nuts and filled with sweet syrup. The calorie content of this dish is simply off the charts, but there is no way to resist trying at least a piece of the dessert that melts in your mouth.

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

Turkish recipes can be found

The national cuisine of Turkey is very diverse and original. Its formation was influenced by the fact that Turks, Armenians, Persians, Greeks, Assyrians and many other peoples lived on the territory of this country, each of which left its own unique mark on the culinary history of the state. The list includes such popular delicacies as pilaf, kebab and baklava. You will find their recipes in today's article.

Main nuances

Native Turks turn every meal into a kind of ritual. All dishes are served in a certain sequence. Any meal begins with snacks, which include stuffed vegetables, olives and various pickles. After them, soups, fish or meat dishes and dessert appear on the table.

Vegetables are often used for cooking. Eggplants are especially popular. They are served marinated, stuffed, baked, stewed, steamed or fried. Also, the local population likes to generously add it not only to side dishes, but also to various sauces.

Meat is highly valued in Turkey. It is consumed in any form, but most often it is grilled or fried in a frying pan. Milk occupies a special place in the national cuisine of this state. It is used to make amazing cheeses, delicious desserts and incredibly healthy yoghurts.

Turkish eggs

This interesting dish vaguely resembles a traditional omelette. It has an extraordinary taste and is ideal for a family breakfast. Before preparing one of the many Turkish national dishes, check in advance that your kitchen has everything you need. In this case you will need:

• 8 chicken eggs.
• 100 grams of butter.
• 100 milliliters of broth.
• 150 grams of chicken liver.
• A couple of tomatoes.
• Salt and spices.

Washed and dried chicken liver is fried in butter. As soon as it acquires a golden hue, it is poured with broth, pre-mixed with chopped tomatoes. Beaten salted eggs are also added there. The future omelette is baked in the oven at standard temperature. Before serving, the finished dish can be topped with tomato sauce.

Lentil soup

This is one of the most popular Turkish national dishes. It is prepared from simple budget ingredients sold in any supermarket. To pamper your family with this soup, stock up on everything you need in advance. This time you will need:

• 3 liters of drinking water.
• A couple of tablespoons of tomato paste.
• 1.5 cups red lentils.
• A tablespoon of flour and ground paprika.
• Salt, aromatic spices and vegetable oil.

The washed lentils are poured with cold water and placed on the stove. As soon as the liquid boils, remove the foam that appears from its surface and leave to simmer over minimal heat.

Pour a little vegetable oil into a separate saucepan, heat it and fry the wheat flour there. After a few minutes, add tomato paste, a little water, basil and oregano. Mix everything well and leave on the stove. After a couple of minutes, add a little more water and send the resulting frying to the pan with lentils. All this is salted, seasoned with mint and almost immediately removed from the burner. The finished soup is ground through a sieve and poured into plates. Squeeze a little lemon juice into each serving.

Baklava

This dessert is very popular not only among the local population, but also among numerous tourists. Like all other recipes for Turkish national dishes, this option requires the presence of a certain set of components. Therefore, before starting to work with the test, check whether you have at hand:

• 250 grams of butter.
• Egg.
• 300 grams of powdered sugar.
• Half a kilo of wheat flour.
• 200 milliliters of milk.
• Cinnamon, salt and walnuts.
• A glass of water and sugar.
• A tablespoon of honey.

Like many other national Turkish dishes, photos of which can be seen in today’s publication, baklava is prepared using the simplest technology possible. In a bowl filled with sifted wheat flour, add a pinch of salt, melted butter and warmed milk one by one. Knead everything well until a fairly stiff, but at the same time elastic mass is obtained. The finished dough is placed in a plastic bag and left for half an hour.

In the meantime, you can work on the rest of the products. The nuts are crushed using a meat grinder and combined with cinnamon and powdered sugar. The present dough is divided into twelve approximately identical balls. Each of them is rolled out into a thin layer, greased with butter, sprinkled with nut filling and rolled into a roll, tucking the edges inward. The resulting pieces are placed on a baking sheet. Their surface is greased with yolk. The products are baked at two hundred degrees for about a quarter of an hour. Then the temperature is reduced to 160 0 C. The baklava is coated with butter and returned to the oven. After fifty minutes, it is transferred to a deep vessel, filled with syrup consisting of water, sugar and honey, and left for six hours.

Pilaf

This is one of the simplest and most satisfying Turkish national dishes. It is prepared from inexpensive and easily available ingredients. To create it you will need:

• 700 grams of chicken.
• 1.5 cups long rice.
• A couple of tablespoons of pine nuts.
• Half a kilo of tomatoes.
• 3 tablespoons butter.
• Onion.
• A handful of parsley, basil and dried cranberries.
• Salt and spices.

Place the washed and dried chicken in a thick-bottomed frying pan that already contains butter. As soon as it is browned, add onion half rings to it and continue to fry. A few minutes later, pine nuts and tomatoes rubbed through a sieve are sent there. Almost immediately, washed cranberries, chopped herbs and rice are placed in the pan. All this is filled with water, covered with a lid and cooked until the liquid is completely absorbed. Before serving, pilaf is decorated with basil.

Lula kebab

This is one of the many culinary masterpieces for which Turkish cuisine is famous. The national dishes of this country are known far beyond its borders. Therefore, you don’t have to go to Turkey to try lula kebab. You can prepare it in your own kitchen. To do this you will need:

• A kilo of lean lamb.
• 100 grams of bell pepper.
• 200 g fat tail fat.
• 25 grams of wheat flour.
• 75 g garlic.
• 100 grams of parsley.
• 150 g tomatoes.
• 0.25 kg of onions.

The flour is soaked in a small amount of hot water and squeezed out. Lamb, pepper and fat tail fat are ground in a meat grinder and sent to the refrigerator. After an hour, the minced meat is salted, seasoned with spices and carefully threaded onto skewers. Fry lula kebab on smoldering coals, not forgetting to turn it over periodically. It is served with a sauce made from chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic and parsley.

Turkish coffee

This aromatic invigorating drink leaves a pleasant aftertaste. It is prepared according to several different recipes (photos of Turkish national dishes can be found while reading this article). To brew real strong coffee, you will need:

• A couple of teaspoons of sugar.
• Ground coffee.
• A teaspoon each of cinnamon and vanilla.
• Cardamom pod.
• Carnation.
• 200 milliliters of water.

Ground coffee is poured into a preheated cezve. Cold water is poured there and the vessel is placed on the stove. The drink is kept on low heat for half an hour, without allowing it to boil. During the cooking process, sugar, herbs and spices are added to the cezve. The finished coffee is poured into cups and served to the table.

Revani

This delicious dessert is also one of the Turkish national dishes. It is a delicate pie soaked in lemon syrup. To prepare it you will need:

• 3 eggs.
• A glass of flour, semolina and sugar.
• 200 milliliters each of vegetable oil and yogurt.
• A packet of baking powder.

To prepare the syrup, prepare in advance:

• 3 glasses of water.
• Juice of half a lemon.
• 3 cups sugar.

The eggs are combined with yogurt and sugar, and then beaten, gradually adding semolina, flour, baking powder and vegetable oil. The finished dough is poured into a mold with high sides and sent to the oven. Bake the dessert at one hundred and fifty degrees for at least forty minutes. The cooled pie is cut into portions and poured with hot syrup consisting of water, sugar and lemon juice.

Eggplant Istanbul style

This savory snack is also one of the national dishes of Turkish cuisine. It is so easy to prepare that even a novice cook can make it without any problems. It contains:

• 3 large eggplants.
• Medium head of onion.
• 3 fresh tomatoes.
• Medium carrot.
• 150 grams of celery root.
• Sweet bell pepper.
• A clove of garlic.
• A bunch of parsley.
• A pinch of ground dried thyme.
• Salt, spices and vegetable oil.

Eggplants are cut lengthwise and soaked in cold salted water. After half an hour, they are washed, dried and fried on the inside in vegetable oil. The browned pulp is separated from the skin and crushed.

Peeled carrots and celery are boiled until half cooked and cut into small cubes. The pepper is baked in the oven, the skin and seeds are separated and crushed. All this is combined in one vessel. Fried onions, chopped tomatoes, salt, aromatic herbs and chopped garlic are also added there. The resulting mass is placed in eggplant boats and baked at standard temperature.

Turkish cuisine is a symbiosis of traditions of different peoples of the world. Over the centuries, it has been 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. There are more than a dozen different types of kabab in Turkey, and their recipes differ depending on the region.

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

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

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

The culinary culture of a 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 preserved the best over the long centuries of the existence of various civilizations on Turkish soil, today can surprise even the most spoiled gourmet.

Many centuries ago, the Turks, like many other peoples, led a nomadic lifestyle, dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry. Moving across 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 methods of cooking.

In the Ottoman Empire, food was always elevated to cult. In the Istanbul palace in the 17th century there were about 13 thousand cooks at a time, and each of them specialized in preparing only one dish. Every day, 10 thousand people dined in the palace, and the city nobility, as a sign of special favor, received baskets of food from the palace as a gift.

Not only Islam with its restrictions (the ban on eating pork and alcohol, fasting during Ramadan, etc.) had a strong influence on Turkish cuisine. At different historical times, in Turkish cuisine, as in the entire Turkish culture, other peoples who lived in Turkey also 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 learned to properly store food, thereby adding variety to 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 would not be enough to try them all.

The peculiarity of Turkish cuisine is that it is impossible to single out one dominant dish, such as pasta in Italy or sauces in France - the national Turkish cuisine is distinguished by the diversity and uniqueness of the menu. Thanks to the great abundance of dishes offered, variations in their recipes, reflecting regional characteristics, and their original taste, Turkish cuisine, according to experts, occupies third place among all 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 cereal (bulgur) and, finally, yogurt, which is served with almost all of these dishes - this menu will appeal to everyone’s taste. In Turkish cuisine, meat stewed with vegetables is always served with rice or wheat 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. To fill products made from such dough in Turkish cuisine, meat, cheese or vegetables seasoned with aromatic herbs are usually used.

Yogurt-based soups in Turkish cuisine are prepared 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 prepared with meat, chicken, fish and vegetables. Vegetable pilafs often serve as a side dish, and it is customary to serve them with ayran (yogurt diluted with water) or tzatzik. Juicy and aromatic kebabs are prepared with vegetables and served with vegetable pilaf, Turkish bread and ayran.

And, of course, the pinnacle 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 or dried and from which jams and preserves are prepared. And the famous oriental sweets are baklava, lokma, muhallebi, marmalade, Turkish delight, halva, marzipan... The list of desserts of Turkish cuisine is endless!

A European traveling through Turkey will definitely notice how leisurely the Turks are when it comes 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 doesn’t 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 dishes of Turkish cuisine, 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 with their aroma.

Burekas or otherwise “cigar börek” 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” (Turkish: Karnıyarık)

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

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

Be sure to try it imam bayaldi – a delicious dish of baked eggplant stuffed with tomatoes, sweet peppers and herbs, with the addition of garlic paste, onions, nuts and spices. Serve cold or lukewarm. According to legend, the imam who tried this delicacy experienced such bliss that he fainted (hence the name of the dish).

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