Turkish Style Potato Salad (Türk Usulü Patates Salatası)

 

Here is a simple, light and delicious potato salad: Turkish style.  There is no mayonnaise or eggs in it, but if you would like it a little creamy, both ingredients can be added. Instead of green onions dried red onion and instead of green garlic a garlic clove can be used. The green onions and green garlic are from my small garden so I preferred to use them. The pictures show more green onions and garlic than what the recipe calls for. The last minute, I decided not to use them all in the recipe and left them for other types of salads. For two medium potatoes, I think the amount of the greens is perfect. Enjoy!

2 medium russet potatoes

½ cup chopped green onions & green garlic (3 green onions and 1 green garlic)

2 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tsp sumac

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp salt

¼ cup olive oil

Place the whole potatoes with skin in a sauce pan and fill water to cover them. Boil for about 45 minutes or until tender. This can be checked with a fork.

Let them cool. Peel the skin. 

Cube the potatoes and place in a deep bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and toss. Enjoy alone as a snack or a side dish. 

Dried Red Pepper Salad (Kuru Kırmızı Biber Salatası)

This recipe has been waiting to be published for a few months now and finally I got the chance to publish it. Due to my busy work schedule it has been very difficult to keep up with my blog in the past year or so but I will try to keep it going as long as I can. I do have many more Turkish recipes and can’t wait to share them with my readers.

This recipe was not very labor intensive and tastes delicious so I thought it is perfect for another post. When my mother last visited me, she made a dried red pepper salad for us. She used sliced dried peppers which she had brought from Turkey that had thin skin. I very much enjoyed it and wanted to try it myself. Since the dried red peppers I purchased had tough skin, I decided to remove the flesh from the skin before preparing the salad. Although the texture was different, the taste was very close to my mother’s salad.

This can be enjoyed as a side with a variety of entrees. A cup of plain yogurt also would go well with it. Enjoy.

1/3 lb dried red peppers (any kind)
¼ cup parsley (chopped fine)
1 large clove garlic (chopped fine)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
Water for boiling


Boil half pot of water. Soak the dried peppers covered for 30 minutes in the hot water. Run through cool water and drain. With a sharp knife, slit each pepper lengthwise on a cutting board. Remove and discard the seeds. Gently, remove the flesh of the pepper from the skin by running the knife from the top portion of the pepper towards the end. The flesh of the pepper will most likely stick to the knife, so remove carefully and place in a bowl. Repeat this until all the peppers are cleaned and removed from the skin.

If the skin of the peppers is thin you may slice the peppers instead of going through the trouble of removing the flesh from the skin. If the skin is tough, it is best to remove and only use the flesh.

Add the garlic, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil and salt to the bowl with the peppers. Mix well and serve at room temperature.

Note: This salad can be served as a paste in sandwiches. It goes especially well with chicken sandwiches.

Tomato Salad (Domates Salatası)

A refreshing salad for the summer, this salad was frequently made by my mother when I was growing up since fresh tomatoes were abundant. My mom usually used shallots in the salad, but since I had only green onions on hand, I used them up. The salad is succulent and delicious.

4 medium firm tomatoes
4 green onions (or 1 small shallot)
¼ cup fresh mint (chopped)
½ tsp sumac
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon

Dice the tomatoes and slice the green onions/shallots. Place in a bowl and add mint, sumac, salt, olive oil and lemon juice. Toss and serve.

Beet and Carrot Salad (Pancar ve Havuç Salatası )

If you are into food and travel you most likely will want to check out what the city you are going to has to offer in terms of food. I know from my own experience that when I visit a new country, one of the first things I do is check out the local food of the city I am visiting online. However, sometimes the information on the internet is not enough or it is in a different language. Now there is a new website called ‘Mycitycuisine.org’ that allows people to contribute and introduce their own local cuisine to the world. A contributor to a Wiki project contacted me and asked if I would announce that Mycitycuisine is currently looking for contributors. Since I really liked this project I wanted my readers to know that they can contribute to this website. What a better way to introduce your local cuisine? If you would like more information, go to:

http://www.mycitycuisine.org/wiki/Main_Page

Now a little of background on my recipe… The thought of eating raw beets was not appealing to me so my weekly incorporation of beets into our diets this past year included only roasted, steamed or boiled beets. However, recently I found out my uncle has been cooking with beets too and he shared a very simple salad recipe that includes raw beets and carrots. Knowing that my uncle has a good taste, I decided to try it out. Last week, I made this salad with deep red beets and carrots and the result was incredible. The only difference from my uncle’s recipe is that I added the radish and tomatoes for garnish. Here it is…

4 medium red beets
4 medium carrots
4 green onions
4 medium radishes
1 tomato
1 lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt

Wash and scrub the beets thoroughly and peel the rough parts of the skin. Follow the same process for carrots. Do not peel the carrots unless the skin is unpleasant. Shred the carrots and beets. Chop the green onions put on top of the salad. Add the salt, olive oil and squeeze the lemon. Toss well. Place in a salad plate and garnish with radish and tomato slices.

Turkish Beet Salad (Pancar Salatası)

Beets never made it to my shopping cart during grocery shopping until this past fall. I had eaten beet slices on salads or as a side dish at restaurants and in dormitory cafeterias during college and the flavor never was desirable to me so I never thought about using them in my cooking. One day this past fall, I read an article about the health benefits of beets which convinced me to try this nutritionally very powerful vegetable.

After the first purchase, the flavor was definitely was much better than what I had eaten before. I believe what was provided in the dorms or restaurants came out of a can instead of recently being pulled out of earth. I bought the organic beets as I do with almost all our produce and meats and they tasted pretty good. Beets have an earthy flavor and I think they are an acquired taste. Since the fall, I have been purchasing them almost every week. I boiled, steamed or roasted them and created wonderful salads alone or with other vegetables. Before the beet season is over, I wanted to share a traditionally Turkish beet salad recipe. Hopefully I will recreate and share the other ones to at another date.

For those of you who hate beets, you may want to try them again with an open mind and you may change your mind.


4 medium red beet roots
1 cup plain yogurt
1 garlic clove (chopped)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice
½ tsp salt (adjust to your taste)
¼ tsp dried mint

Discard stems of beets and wash and scrub the roots. Steam in a pot or pan for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and leave covered for another 30 minutes.

Once the beets are cooled dry with paper towel. Grate beets with skin on. Grating them using a food processor will be much cleaner than grating manually as the red color of the beets will splash everywhere. Place grated beets in a deep bowl.

Add the rest of the ingredients and toss. Serve cold.

Dandelion Salad (Hindiba Salatası)

The taste of dandelions my mother picked selectively from the weeds from our garden many years ago has been active in my palate since childhood. After developing a curiosity for cooking, the name of this wild weed that tasted superb was a question in my head. I had guessed that it may have been dandelions, but to me dandelions were bitter weeds that are not very tasty. I purchased them every once in a while just because they were extremely healthy. One day, it was confirmed that the unforgotten weed with a delicious taste reminiscent from my childhood was indeed dandelion and I was not cooking it properly. The good taste of this green weed wasn’t being maximized. The secret was the way it was prepared. I remember every single ingredient in that dandelion salad my mother made when I was still a kid so, I decided to recreate it to acquire the same exact taste.

Most of the dandelions that were available to me at grocery stores and the farmer’s market were more mature and hence chewy. Luckily, recently I found young, whole dandelions not separated by the leaves at my favorite grocery store. The dandelions in my memory were cooked as a whole with all the leaves attached since they were young and tender. The salad in this recipe turned out to be almost free of the bitter taste and very appetizing.

2 bunches dandelions (approx. 2 lb)
3 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp red pepper flakes
½ tsp paprika
¼ cup olive oil
2 ½ tbsp pomegranate molasses

Wash dandelions thoroughly and cut off the roots. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil the dandelions for 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and run cold water over the cooked greens to stop the cooking process. Cool and drain. Gently squeeze the dandelions to remove excess water and place in a bowl. Add the garlic, olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes, paprika and the pomegranate molasses. Toss and serve at room temperature.

Note: If the leaves are tough, they should be discarded as they will be chewy. Young dandelions should be picked.

Lobster Sauté (Sotelenmiş Istakoz)

Although I do not cook lobster often, this was the first time I cooked a lobster with spices rather than just steaming. Using ingredients commonly used in Mediterranean cooking, the lobster turned out to be very flavorful and light. It was still tender after being steamed and sautéed in oil.

The sautéed lobster can be a delicious ingredient for a sandwich as well being served as a salad, side dish or main dish. We ate it with rice pilaf and steamed vegetables.

1 whole steamed lobster
2 tbsp white onion
1 garlic clove (chopped)
2 tbsp fresh parsley
1 tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp paprika
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp white vinegar
½ tsp salt

Cut whole lobster in half lengthwise and remove meat from the tail and claws of the lobster. A cracker will be needed to remove meat from the claws. Roughly chop the meat. Set aside.

Heat olive oil on medium heat. Sprinkle paprika, black pepper and salt on the oil. Add garlic and onions. Sauté until onions are translucent. Pour vinegar. Add the lobster pieces along with the parsley and sauté for 1 minute. Serve warm or cold with potatoes, rice or bulgur pilaf.

Green Bean with Olive Oil (Zeytinyağlı Taze Fasülye)

In my opinion, cooking vegetables in season makes a big difference in the taste of a dish. I try to purchase vegetables and fruits in season because I believe they are fresher and taste better. One of those vegetables that I prefer in season is green beans. There are already a few other green bean recipes posted on Turkish Food Passion and here is one more! It’s light, delicious and healthy green which is usually eaten cold or at room temperature. It can be served as a salad, appetizer or a side dish.

1 lb green beans
2 large ripe tomatoes (peeled and sliced)
2 shallots (sliced)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp salt
¼ cup water
¼ tsp ground black pepper

Remove the ends of the beans and cut in thirds. Heat olive oil in a large pan. Sauté garlic and shallots until shallots are transparent. Add beans to the pan and mix. Cook for 5 minutes stirring a few times. Add salt, black pepper, vinegar and water. Arrange the tomatoes on top of the beans and cook for 30 minutes on medium heat. Lower heat and cook another 30 minutes. Let it cool and serve cold.

Eggplant Salad (Patlıcan Salatası)

Today, I almost published a delightful, new cake recipe that I came up with last week. However, the pictures of the cake could have turned out a little better, so I will have to make this cake again sometime soon since there is no more cake now to photograph again. Instead, I will leave you with a common Turkish appetizer; eggplant salad. Since the summer has started to show its signs in most places, the markets are now full of seasonal vegetables, such as eggplant which is widely employed in Turkish cooking.

This salad is mainly served as an appetizer, but I don’t always follow rules, so eat it as you wish. You may eat it as an appetizer, as a side dish or even as a main meal.

4 medium eggplants
2 Anaheim peppers
3 small tomatoes
1 shallot (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (chopped)
¼ cup parsley (chopped)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 ¼ tsp salt
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp ground black pepper

Puncture the eggplants and peppers with a knife. Place in a baking tray along with the tomatoes and broil until both sides of each vegetable are soft.
Remove and cool. Peel eggplant, tomatoes and peppers and dice after removing the seeds from the peppers.
Heat olive oil in a medium pot. Add the shallots and garlic until onions are transparent. Add the diced eggplants, green peppers and tomatoes. Stir and add salt, red pepper flakes and ground black pepper and cook on low for about 30 minutes. Just before removing from heat, add the chopped parsley and stir. Cool and refrigerate for at least five hours before serving. Enjoy with a warm piece of bread as an appetizer, salad or side dish.

Artichoke Salad (Enginar Salatası)

Here is a light and tasty salad with one of the most work intensive vegetables. Artichokes taste wonderful, but cleaning out the outer, tough leaves to reach the edible part takes some time. This is one of the reasons why I choose not to cook with artichokes often. In addition, you buy two huge artichokes and end up with a little edible part. I do not purchase frozen or canned vegetables, so when I want to cook with artichokes I buy them fresh and go through the hassle of cleaning them and deciding which leaves are edible and which are not. Therefore, I have only cooked with artichokes only several times. Do you like cooking with fresh artichokes?


For Boiling Artichokes:

2 large artichokes
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt
For Salad Dressing:
Juice of ½ lemon
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil

Fill a large pot with water. Add juice of 1 lemon and 1 tsp salt in the water. In the mean time, wash and trim the artichokes. Remove the hard ends of the leaves and add the artichokes to the cold water so they do not take a brownish color.

Boil the artichokes for 30 minutes. Remove and cool. Remove the hard outer layers of the artichoke and select the softer parts of the leaves and the hearts. Place in a plate. Sprinkle with salt and red pepper flakes. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Enjoy with pasta.

Fried Vegetables (Sebze Kızartması)

The summer is almost here and what is better than a meal with summer vegetables? This summer vegetable salad which is made frequently in our household in Turkey is filling and very tasty. Since this salad is made with fried vegetables, I rarely make it, but when I do, I prefer using olive oil. Sometimes, I broil the vegetables instead of frying however it tastes best when the veggies are fried. The only missing vegetable in this dish is green, long peppers which adds a slight hotness to the salad. Other vegetables can also be used such as cauliflower and okra. Enjoy with your choice of veggies.


2 medium eggplants
2 zucchinis
3 medium potatoes
3 tomatoes
2 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
¼ cup flat leaf parsley (chopped finely)
1 tbsp salt
½ tsp ground red pepper
Juice of ½ lemon
1 cup olive oil

Scrape off the skin of the zucchinis and peel the eggplants in stripes.

Cut the zucchinis lengthwise in half. Place each half flat bottom side down on a cutting board and slice.

Put the sliced zucchinis in a small bowl.

Cut the eggplants in half and follow the same process of slicing as the zucchinis.

Place in a separate bowl with cold water and a dash of salt to prevent discoloration.

Peel the potatoes and cut in half similar to the zucchinis and eggplants.

Place in a separate bowl with cold water in order to prevent them from turning brown.

Cut the tomatoes in quarters lengthwise and set aside.

Heat olive oil on medium heat in a large non-stick pan. In the mean time, prepare a large bowl with 5-6 folds of paper towel in it to absorb the oil.

Drain the eggplants and salt them. Add a batch of the eggplants to the pan. Turn over once they become soft or start to get a hint of brownish color. When they are slightly brownish on both sides, remove from pan and place on the bowl with paper towels.

Next, drain and salt the potatoes to the frying pan. Fry until the bottom side of the slices get a light brownish color. Turn over until the other sides of the potato take a golden color. Remove and add on top of the fried eggplants in the bowl.

Next, sprinkle salt to the zucchinis and fry until the zucchinis are soft and take a slight golden color. Add in the bowl with the potatoes and eggplants.

Place the tomato slices in the remaining oil and fry until the skin of the tomatoes separate from the flesh. Place in the bowl with the other vegetables.

Remove the paper towel carefully from the bowl. Sprinkle with ground red pepper. Add the chopped parsley and garlic. Squeeze the lemon and mix the ingredients in the bowl until the lemon, parsley, garlic and red pepper are integrated with the vegetables. Adjust salt according to taste. Serve with flat bread and plain, cold yogurt.

Purslane Salad (Semizotu Salatası)

Purslane is a wild, edible, succulent weed that is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. The nutritional richness of this vegetable was not known to me until recently, when I read an article about its nutritional facts. It tastes a little sour and kind of salty and with gooey substance inside its green leaves which are small and clustered around its pinkish stem. Purslane is perfect for culinary uses prior to blooming flowers. It is usually picked from gardens where it grows wild.

Since I was very little girl, purslane was always on the menu in the summers as a side dish, usually in the form of ‘cacık’, yogurt with purslane and garlic. Turkish cooks use purslane for salads, cacık, sauté (similar to spinach) and even soups. I have not had the chance to experiment with different recipes of purslane, however my two favorites are: purslane salad and cacık with purslane.

This purslane was purchased from the Greek farmer at the farmer’s market and this summer was the first time I came across purslane. I had never seen it in the States previously, although when I walk, I see some tiny purslanes coming out of cracks in the sidewalks! If I had a garden, I would be all set for purslane…



1 bunch purslane (about 3 ½ cups when chopped up)
2 green onions (sliced thinly)
1 medium tomato (diced)
1 small green pepper or half of a long pepper (sliced thinly)
1 tsp salt
½ tsp sumac
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
1 ½ tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white vinegar

Remove and discard the thick stems of the purslane. Choose and cut the fresher stems about an inch in length. If some of the purslane is blooming, remove that portion. Wash thoroughly and drain. Place in a salad bowl. Add the tomatoes, the green peppers, salt, sumac, cayenne, olive oil and vinegar. Toss and serve.

Red Cabbage Salad with Tomatoes (Domatesli Kırmızı Lahana Salatası)

First off, thanks to those of you who left comments while I was out. Sorry for posting the comments so late; I was traveling overseas. It’s great to be back, however lots of work was waiting for me at home and at the office! No cooking yet, although I can always count on those recipes that I have accumulated over time. I have been doing that a lot lately and thus have become lazy to photograph my food and write down recipes. I am running out, so I need to make another deposit of recipes to come in handy at times when cooking is not convenient.

This salad deserves a place on the table both in the winter and summer. In the summer, it would be sufficient for a meal all by itself as well as with an entrée, but in the cold winter, I think it would be too light to fill a stomach. If you are a vegetable lover, any time you have this salad, it will be very satisfying.

1 small head of red cabbage
3 firm tomatoes
2 green peppers (cubanelle)
1 small red onion
½ cup fresh parsley chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp sumac
2 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of salt

Cut the cabbage in half and slice each half. Put in a large bowl. Cut each pepper lengthwise, clean out the seeds and slice. Follow the same procedure for the onion by cutting the onion in half and slicing it in thin slices. Dice the tomatoes. Add all the vegetables including the parsley to the bowl on top of the cabbage. Add sumac. Sprinkle with salt, add the olive oil and lime juice. Toss and serve with any meal you like.

Red Bell Pepper Salad (Kırmızı Biber Salatası)

You may be familiar with this type of salad as roasted red peppers are sold everywhere. In Turkey, we spice it up with garlic, parsley and lemon. This can be enjoyed cold as a salad, an appetizer or a side dish. I also like to add these red peppers on sandwiches, especially chicken sandwiches.




3 red bell peppers
1/3 cup fresh parsley (chopped finely)
2 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
1 tbsp olive oil
Juice of ½ lime or lemon
Sprinkle of ground black pepper
Pinch of salt

Turn on oven broiler. If you have a grill, that will work even better. Place the peppers in a Pyrex dish or oven proof tray. Broil each side for about 10 minutes until the skin of the peppers blacken and pull away from the flesh of the peppers. Remove from the broiler and cool.

Once the peppers are cool enough to work with, remove the skins and the seeds. Slice each pepper lengthwise. Add the parsley, garlic, black pepper and salt. Drizzle olive oil and then the lime/lemon juice. Mix well and serve at room temperature or cold as a side dish or a salad.

Farmer’s Market Salad with Turkish Dressing

I am taking a break from regular Turkish food recipes and posting the dishes I made using the vegetables I purchased from the Farmer’s Market last weekend. Let’s start with a salad. This salad incorporates mizuna; a peppery mild salad green with feathery leaves, escarole, red and white radishes, tomatoes and green onions (all purchased from the local farmer’s market). I could have also added cucumbers that I bought at the market but we ate them before the salad was made. If you have them on hand, definitely throw them in.

I had never tasted mizuna or white radishes before. As the name suggests, mizuna is a Japanese salad green and used mainly for salads, but can also be used in soups and noodles. I enjoyed the taste of this green, healthy vegetable. Red radishes are very common in Turkish salads, however not white ones. One noticeable observation was that the red radishes are white inside and the white radishes are red inside. That got my attention, but also created a colorful appearance to my salad.

The integration of all these veggies with the classic Turkish dressing was a perfect match. I will be making this salad again.

20 escarole leaves
20 mizuna leaves
4 white radishes
6 red radishes
3 tomatoes
3 green onions
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp salt

Chop the escarole and mizuna leaves and place in a large bowl. Cut the radishes in half and slice. Slice the green onions and chop the tomatoes. Add to the bowl. Sprinkle salt. Add olive oil and then the vinegar. Toss and serve.