Turkish cuisine is full of all kinds of dishes with unique tastes and is able to arouse the appetite of even the most fastidious gourmet. An abundance of meat dishes, seafood and vegetable recipes, sweets and pastries for every taste win the hearts of travelers who find themselves in the country every year. Many Turkish dishes are quite high in calories, because among their main ingredients there is often meat, olive and butter, flour and rice. Food here likes to be fried and baked in the oven, and many desserts are deep-fried.
TURKISH BREAKFAST
Kahvaltı – this is how “breakfast” sounds in Turkish. The name comes from the words “kahve” (coffee) and “altı” (before), which can be interpreted roughly as “food before coffee”. A real Turkish breakfast can truly be called royal, because it looks more like a buffet than a standard set of morning meals. Food in Türkiye on the morning table is beautifully decorated in special dishes, where there are:
Sliced vegetables. Fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and herbs, rich in essential vitamins, are an integral part of the morning meal here.
CHEESES
The abundance of varieties amazes the gastronomic imagination: cheese, hard, curd, with mold, cheese Erzurum cheese jivil, rustic and etc.Cheeses rightfully considered a national treasure in Turkey.
OLIVES
This product is presented here in various variations: on the table you can find black and green olives, with and without a stone, salted and peppered. Turkish olives are of high quality and rich taste.
HONEY
The production of this delicacy is highly developed in the country, but pine honey is especially appreciated, which is undoubtedly worth trying and including in your breakfast.
EGGS
Turks eat eggs in any form, both boiled and fried. Scrambled eggs here like to cook in butter, and boiled eggs are often flavored with olive oil and red pepper.
Sausages and fried sausages. Since pork food is taboo in the country, sausages are made from chicken, turkey and beef. Sausage cuts and sausages fried in olive oil often become a guest on the morning Turkish table.
TURKISH JAM
Turkey is a real berry and fruit paradise, so it is not surprising that there are numerous types of jam in the local breakfast — from strawberries, raspberries, mulberries, oranges, cherries, figs, etc.
TURKISH BREAD
If you happen to visit Turkey, we advise you to try white bread. Always fresh and fragrant, only from the oven, it has an incomparable taste and is an important component of the Turkish breakfast. Although the word Kahvaltı implies drinking coffee, as a rule, Turks drink several glasses of freshly brewed black tea at breakfast, which has a high invigorating effect. And a couple of hours after the morning meal, you can enjoy a cup of strong Turkish coffee.
FIRST COURSES
Turkish national cuisine offers a rich selection of first courses, among which there are various soups. Soup in Turkey is a slightly different dish than we used to think: it is usually a thick substance of ground ingredients and more like mashed 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, can 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 “medicinal soup”, and there is a reasonable explanation for this. Chowder consists of vitamin-rich ingredients, and it is customary to use it in winter for the prevention and treatment of colds. The main components of the chorbysa shifa are red lentils, celery, onions, carrots, parsley, red and black pepper.
Milk Tarkhan Soup
In traditional Turkish cuisine, a special dried mixture of flour, yogurt, red pepper, onions and tomatoes is often used to prepare the first dishes. This ingredient gives the soup an original taste and density. Tarkhan milk soup enjoys special honor here, in which, in addition to the mixture, tomato paste, garlic and butter are added.
Meat dishes
MEAT DISHES
Although red meat is quite expensive in Turkey, Turks simply adore it, so many national dishes of Turkish cuisine are prepared from meat products. The abundance of such dishes allows you to diversify your daily diet with food from beef, lamb, veal and lamb, as well as chicken and turkey. Among the culinary delights that are definitely worth trying when visiting the country, you can highlight:
Kebabs
KEBABS
We all know such a dish of oriental cuisine as kebab, which means fried meat. There are many versions of this dish in Turkey, each of which has its own unique recipe. Perhaps the most famous kind of kebab is a doner kebab, for 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 this concept is not used in Turkey.
Adana kebab. The recipe of this dish is made from Adan city, and its main ingredient is meat porcelain, which is cooked on Mangala and served with rice, vegetables, greenery and thick lava.
Iskander-kebab. The naitonnest slices of red meat fried on the vertel, are served on a plate with pieces of thick lavash and are supplemented with vegetables and green. Such a bushing necessarily includes yogurt, special tomato sauce, and, if desired, can be poured with melted butter.
Shish kebab. This dish of Turkish cuisine is a barbecue, which is served with rice and baked pepper.