EAT IN ASIA / Food destinations / Turkey - turkey food
TOP 12 traditional Turkish dishes
Travelling in Turkey is a culinary adventure. A wonderful number of great meat and vegetable dishes awaits you at every corner. Starting with simplest kebabs and pidas through more sophisticated casseroles and ending on unique clay kebabs, this journey is a feast for all your senses. Aromatic herbs, well grilled lamb and beef meats, fresh vegetables and brilliant mezze cannot disappoint the fussiest tastes.
Before going to Turkey don’t forget to make a research on their cuisine to be able to choose your musts or allow yourself to follow your intuition or listen to the waiter’s suggestions.
To help you find your way, we gathered twelves dishes or sets of dishes that you should definitively try. Why we chose them? The answer is easy – they allowed us to indulge ourselves in the Turkish atmosphere and enjoy the pleasure of tasting different things. The only thing is, that the Turkish cuisine is dominated by meat meals. They just love meat in any form and include it in almost every dish. Even if it is basing on vegetables, do not be mislead by it. If you are a vegetarian, better ask in advance whether the dish includes or not any kind of an animal product. As a chicken or beef broth is often used for any kind of stews and fries, you might be surprised ordering your vegetarian food. Actually, it is easier to find a pure halal food, what is obvious, than be hundred percent sure, that your meal is vegetarian. I would even not mention vegan options. So, be careful and bear it in mind if you wan to avoid a mistake.
1. Mezze
Mezze or a starter is something you cannot omit. Sharing a set of small appetizers with your friends is unforgettable. Wonderful flavors, different textures, a mix of colors and freshness. These words describe Turkish mezze in the best way. Eaten with a traditional flat bread, pide or a regular white bread these cold or warm (rarely) starters are a great option to start your every meal and raise your appetite. Choose a range of small plates and enjoy their tastes before your main course comes, or just order them as a quick bite accompanying a delicious Turkish ayran or beer.
Select from a wide range of mezzes such as hummus, haydari, stuffed grape leaves, spicy tomato dip, aubergine spread, pembe sultan, chilli salad or şakşuka.
2. Pide
If you had to compare pide to anything you know, it would be pizza. Pide is a kind of a Turkish pizza served in an oval shape. This flat bread is filled with different kind of meat, vegetables, cheese and herbs. Usually you will get chicken, beef or lamb if you select a meat version. You might also find pide with minced or chopped meat and sausages. Then a lot of aromatic herbs and vegetables like onion, tomatoes, peppers or carrot. Sometimes an egg topping is added that makes this Turkish pizza even more fascinating.
3. Testi
Testi is the best of all. You cannot leave Turkey without trying it. It is just a feast and a whole ceremony of ordering and eating it. Actually, all kind of Testi Kebabs base on the same way of preparing and serving it. Known also as a clay or a pottery kebab, Testi Kebab is a meal cooked and served in a terracotta pot. Chopped meat parts mixed with vegetables are cooked in a clay pot that is chopped at the top. The lower part of the pot has a thin groove, that is later used to be cut off. The pot is served by waiters on a round tray full of charcoal. Then the fire is lit, and the pot is being heated again. After a couple of minutes, the waiter hits around the lower part of the pot and finally makes the bottom of the pot fall down and at the same time allowing the meal to fall out of the pot. Flames, fire and naturality make this meal an exceptional experience. An ideal evening spectacle!
4. Urfa Kebap
A mild version of the Adana kebap. Prepared from a minced beef or lamb meat mixed with garlic, herbs, onion, some spices and salt. Urfa kebap has little pepper so it is an ideal option for all disliking hot dishes. The minced meat mixture is packed around a long spade or better call it a skewer. Then it is grilled until it reaches a semi dark color. Usually it is served with rice or bulgur and with fresh or grilled vegetables. Very often it comes with a small part of a flat bread and one, long, grilled green pepper.
5. Tavuk Etli Fajita
Although it might be mixed with a Mexican fajita, the Turkish one is completely different. It is often served as a plate meal and not served on small tortillas or on any other kind of a bread. According to your preferences it can be either very hot and spicy or a mild one. Mixed vegetables with chopped chicken, beef or lamb meat are grilled on a pan in the oven. Bell peppers, spicy hot peppers, onion, garlic, eggplant and a lot of wonderful herbs are well combined with larger meat chops and deeply grilled on a pan. When served, it is extremely hot, the oil on the pan is sizzling and the whole meal is steaming. Extremely hot, extremely spicy (if you choose the hot version) and extremely tasty!
6. Imam Bayildi
One of a rarely found Turkish vegetarian dishes Imam Bayildi is a grilled, stuffed eggplant served with a thick yoghurt and rice or bulgur. Eggplant is stuffed with chopped and fried vegetables. These include onion, tomato, carrot and garlic. All of them are mixed and put inside the eggplant that finally is also grilled in oil. Served lukewarm or hot comes with semi-sour yogurt that nicely mixes with the oily eggplant taste.
7. Kaşarlı Köfte
Kaşarlı Köfte is a dish composing of a set of small, round or oval meat balls topped with a small piece of cheese. Grilled meat with melted cheese on top is served with rice and a small set of fresh vegetables. Rice with chickpea, bulgur or French fries are an additional side-dish. This mildly spicy meal is full of herbs and Arabic spices. With grilled or fresh tomatoes and peppers it is often served on an extremely hot sizzling plate.
8. Et Kavurma
Et Kavurma is a traditional Anatolian dish that consists of chopped lamb or beef meat mixed with a lot of mild spices and some vegetables. It is served in a red, mildly spicy sauce, some fresh vegetables like tomatoes and onion slices. Pairing it with bulgur or a traditional pilav is a great too.
9. Köfte Güveç
Köfte Güveç is a combination of Kaşarlı Köfte and Et Kavurma. What means that minced meat balls are served in a red sauce and with side dishes like grilled or fresh vegetables, flat bread or pilav. This slightly spicy dish is better known as a meat casserole with grilled vegetables and melted cheese. Köfte Güveç is served on a sizzling pan or a in a hot pot. Well grilled lamb or beef meat is formed in small balls. The meat is mixed with traditional Turkish herbs and spices and then topped with cheese. All are indulged in the oily tomato sauce that you can enjoy even only with bread.
10. Beyti Sarma Kebabı
Known as a meat rolled kebab, Beyti Sarma Kebabı is very popular around the whole Turkey. Especially it is liked in Istanbul as Urfa Kebap and Adana Kebap are. Beyti Sarma Kebabı is more or less a regular meat wrap cut in smaller pieces and placed in a circle form on the plate. chicken, lamb or beef meat, chopped or minced is well grilled and rolled in the tortilla like wrap. Then the roll is grilled on both sides and sprinkled with nigella and sesame seeds. As a regular dish it is paired with rice, fresh vegetables and yoghurt. A composition of grilled meat and tortilla with the freshness of crunchy vegetables makes this dish something unique. Relatively light, mild in taste but still aromatic, Beyti Sarma Kebabı is something you should not miss during your trip.
11. Et Güveç
Translated as a Meat Casserole, Et Güveç is one of the most popular Turkish dishes. Chopped beef, chicken or lamb meat is served in a red, semi-spicy sauce with vegetables and served with rice, bulgur or with a flat bread. Potatoes, tomatoes, onions, peppers, eggplant or carrot chops are steamed in the meat sauce and mixed with basic spices and herbs like salt, pepper, garlic and chili.
12. Döner Kebap
Who doesn’t know it? Döner Kebap served on a plate is what you might expect from your previous experiences. Chicken or beef slices, cut of the regular big kebab are put on the plate and served with the most typical side-dishes like baked potatoes, French fries or rice. Then, expect also to get some fresh vegetables like tomatoes, cucumber and onion slices and lettuce. Try Döner Kebap in Turkey, if you want to compare it with what you know and to be sure how the genuine Döner Kebap should taste like.
Turkish cuisine is full of other dishes and meal sets, so do not limit yourself only to these selected above. Try, taste and enjoy the degustation in different parts of Turkey, as same dishes might be different in taste in different regions.
Read also about other countries' traditional and TOP dishes. Try Croatian (Ćevapčići - a Croatian alternative to a regular burger? (Part 1) and Pljeskavica - a Croatian alternative to a regular burger? (Part 2)), Japanese (A traditional Zen Buddhist dish - Goma Dofu), Mexican (19 Best Mexican food to try in Mexico) and Hungarian (TOP 10 Most popular Hungarian dishes) ones!
Author: Beti – A passionate traveler and lover of Asian cuisine, especially Thai and Japanese dishes, Bernadeta brings her culinary and cultural experiences to life in her writing. Beyond her travels, she’s an avid technology enthusiast with a deep interest in data processing, merging her love for exploration with analytical insights.
Photographer: Adalbert – An aficionado of computers and photography, Adalbert captures the essence of diverse cuisines with a discerning eye. A connoisseur of rich flavors and particularly fond of meat-based dishes, he combines his technical skills with his passion for the culinary arts in every shot.
