Turkish food, from a Pakistani kitchen
Pakistani and Turkish cooking are distant cousins. Both grew up under Persian and Central Asian influence, both love kebabs, pilaf, yogurt and syrup-soaked sweets, and many words are shared: pilav and pulao, köfte and kofta, şerbet and sharbat, helva and halwa. So Turkish food tastes new but never strange to a Pakistani palate. The differences are what make it exciting: more olive oil and butter, fewer ground spices, and far more fresh vegetables and herbs.
What makes it Turkish
- Pastes instead of masala. Many dishes get their colour and depth from tomato and red pepper paste, , fried briefly in butter, rather than from a long with ground spices.
- Pul biber and sumac. Mild, fruity red pepper flakes and a sour red berry spice are sprinkled on almost everything.
- Yogurt with everything. As a sauce over mantı and eggs, whisked into ayran, or spooned beside kebabs.
- Butter at the end. Butter sizzled with pepper and poured over the top, the Turkish version of a .
- Olive oil vegetables. dishes like imam bayıldı are cooked gently and served at room temperature.
Cooking it in Pakistan
Every recipe here includes notes on finding ingredients locally. In short: tomato paste replaces most salça, paprika mixed with crushed red chili stands in for , samosa patti replaces , fine seviyan replaces , coarse dalia can replace , and anardana makes a quick . Paneer and feta stand in for Turkish white cheese. Bigger supermarkets and online stores now sell bulgur, sumac and filo too.
Where to start
If you’re new to Turkish cooking, start with mercimek çorbası, made with the same masoor daal you already have, menemen for breakfast, and izgara köfte with şehriyeli pilav for dinner. For a weekend project, try lahmacun or mantı, and finish with a glass of Turkish tea and a square of baklava.
A note on halal
All the recipes here are halal. Turkish food is overwhelmingly built around lamb, beef, chicken, vegetables and dairy, so nothing has been adapted or removed to make that true.