Recipe index
Turkish recipes for home cooks
These are home versions of dishes you will meet all over Istanbul. Every recipe is written to be cooked in a regular home kitchen, and every one is written with US measurements, so a cup means a cup and nothing needs converting from grams.
We have run food tours in Istanbul since 2013, in groups capped at ten, and these 33 recipes cover what this city actually cooks. Soups that open the meal. Olive-oil vegetables served cool. Pilafs, milk puddings, and one famously stretchy ice cream.
Start anywhere. If you want the easiest wins first, menemen, red lentil soup, and şakşuka are the three we would hand a first-timer.
Soups
Soup opens most Turkish meals, and Istanbul has whole shops that serve nothing else. If you learn one, learn red lentil.
- Turkish red lentil soup smooth, gently spiced, the everyday default
- Ezogelin soup the heartier cousin of lentil soup
- Tarhana soup built on a fermented yogurt and grain base
- Turkish tomato soup the Turkish take on a bowl you already know
- Chicken and vermicelli soup light, brothy, the sick-day standard
- Ayran aşı soup a cold yogurt soup for hot weather
- Tripe soup (işkembe çorbası) the late-night bowl, finished with garlic vinegar
Meat mains
The center-of-the-table dishes, mostly lamb and beef, plus one swordfish skewer that earns its spot here.
- Lahmacun thin flatbread with a spiced meat topping
- Stuffed peppers with meat (dolma) peppers filled with a meat and rice stuffing
- Lamb with white beans (etli kuru fasulye) slow-simmered, the great Turkish lunch dish
- Pasha's kofta (Hasan Paşa köftesi) meatballs baked under mashed potato
- Hünkar beğendi braised meat over smoky eggplant purée
- Char-grilled swordfish shish kebab the one fish on this list, straight off a skewer
Vegetable and olive-oil dishes
The biggest section, which says a lot about how Turkey actually eats. Meze, salads, pickles, olive-oil vegetables served cool, and the two pilafs no table goes without.
- Şakşuka fried eggplant in garlicky tomato sauce
- Fried eggplant and green peppers summer frying, with a yogurt-garlic sauce
- Okra with olive oil a classic zeytinyağlı, served cool
- Stuffed dried eggplant sun-dried shells, refilled and simmered
- Stuffed zucchini flowers fiddly, seasonal, worth it
- Hot ezme salad the spicy chopped salad from kebab houses
- Muhammara a red pepper and walnut dip
- Radish salad (turp salatası) sharp and crunchy, good next to fish
- Onion relish (soğan piyazı) the onion pile that belongs beside kebab
- Turkish pickles (turşu) brine your own jar at home
- Turkish rice (pilav) the buttery pilaf under every stew
- Rice pilaf with chickpeas the street-cart pilav, home edition
Breakfast and breads
Two recipes that cover the morning table's two moods, the savory skillet and the sweet jar.
Desserts and drinks
Syrup, milk puddings, halva, the famously stretchy ice cream, and a cold cherry drink to wash it all down.
- Baklava layered, syruped, and doable at home
- Almond pudding (keşkül) a silky milk-and-almond pudding
- Chicken breast pudding (tavuk göğsü) yes, chicken, and yes, it works
- Semolina halva (irmik helvası) toasted, buttery pan halva
- Turkish ice cream (dondurma) the famously stretchy one
- Sour cherry drink (vişne) the ruby-red cooler sold across Turkey
Taste the originals first
A recipe gets you most of the way. Eating the dish in Istanbul gives you the reference point to cook toward. We have run small-group food tours here since 2013, capped at ten guests, with free cancellation up to 24 hours, and you will go home knowing exactly what your menemen should taste like.
See the toursQuestions we hear a lot
Do these recipes use US measurements?
Yes. Every recipe is written in US kitchen measurements, cups and tablespoons rather than grams, and each one is written for a regular home kitchen.
Which Turkish recipe should I make first?
Menemen, red lentil soup, or şakşuka. All three are everyday dishes in Istanbul, and all three recipes are short and forgiving.
Do you have a guide I can read offline?
Yes, our free Istanbul food guide PDF is at /free-istanbul-food-guide/. It covers what to eat in the city itself.