Vegetarian Recipes from a Turkish Kitchen: Sebze – We love Turkey; the Turkish people and, of course, the superb Turkish food. We’ve had many wonderfully enjoyable trips to Turkey over the years. Friends of ours, who had a yacht based in Turkey for many summers, told us that they effectively became vegetarian when there. There are so many fabulous vegetables available, and at prices just a smidgeon of what we have to pay in the UK, it makes sense to enjoy them and not have to worry about storing meat or fish. When I found Sebze, by Özlem Warren, I was excited to share it with you.
‘Sebze’ translates as vegetables in Turkish and this cookbook is a bountiful collection of scrumptious, practical and varied vegetarian recipes celebrating Turkey and her food. Inspired by thousands of years of rich and diverse culinary heritage, the dishes in Sebze invite you to embrace the vibrancy and simplicity of Turkey’s cuisine, such as Stuffed Flatbreads, Menemen, Baked Fig and Feta, Meze and Baklava, with recipes that are easy, seasonal and sustainable – not to mention utterly delicious.
Özlem Warren is a respected teacher of Turkish food, who has taught at cooking schools in the US, as well as Kent and Divertimenti Cookery Schools in the UK. In 2019, she published Özlem’s Turkish Table, which won the 2020 Gourmand Award in Food Heritage. @ozlems_turkish_table. She’s a passionate and skilled advocate for her national cuisine and shows us how to make meals that we want to – and can – cook. Sebze is the perfect introduction to Turkish food for the home cook. It’s published by Hardie Grant at £28 for a beautifully illustrated hardback book, with photography by Sam Harris.
Here are a couple of tasters for you to try:
Nohut Piyazı Chickpea Salad with Sumac Onions Serves 4–6 (GF V)
1 medium red onion, halved and thinly sliced
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground sumac (use more if you are a fan!), plus extra to serve
2 x 400 g (14 oz) tins pre-cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans) (discard any loose skins)
2 medium, ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
1 red (bell) pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
3 spring onions (scallions), trimmed and finely chopped
small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
FOR THE DRESSING
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
juice of 1⁄2 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
This is a delicious variation of the much-loved Turkish bean salad, Fasulye Piyazı. I love the earthy flavour of nohut (chickpeas/garbanzo beans) and they are fantastic paired with tangy sumac-infused onions in this refreshing, nutritious salad. As a matter of fact, citrussy sumac rubbed into the red onion slices is a key ingredient and makes this salad special for me – please do the rubbing with your hands, so that the sumac infuses well, for maximum flavour.
Place the red onion slices in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and the ground sumac, then rub into the onion slices with your hands really well. This will soften the onions and make them more palatable, and will also help the tangy sumac infuse the onions.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then combine with the onions. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, peppers, spring onions and parsley, and combine well.
FOR THE DRESSING, mix the extra-virgin olive oil and lemon juice in a small container. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the dressing over the salad and combine well. Transfer to a serving plate and serve with an extra pinch of ground sumac sprinkled over.
Tip: If you prefer to use dried chickpeas, you need to soak them in cold water overnight. Drain and put them in a pan with plenty of fresh water, and cook for about 1 hour, or until tender, adding salt towards the end of the cooking time. Drain and set aside in a bowl, to be used in this salad.
Kuru Kayısı Tatlısı/ Poached Dried Apricots in Light Syrup with Clotted Cream
Serves 8–10 (GF VO)
This is a light, delicious and easy dessert for entertaining. Türkiye (Turkey) is one of the largest producers of apricots (kayısı). They are grown in abundance during the summer months, and some of the yearly harvest is dried in the sun to be enjoyed all year round. Malatya, a city in the southeast, is particularly famous for the quality of its dried apricots, which are exported all over the world. When I was a child, we lived in Elazığ, a city next to Malatya, and my father would bring home cases of juicy apricots after work. We would eagerly wait for my father’s return and the apricots would soon disappear. Poaching dried apricots in light syrup brings out their beautiful fragrance and they are luscious served with cream.
150 g (5 oz/2⁄3 cup) granulated sugar
450 ml (15 fl oz/13⁄4 cups) hot water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
250 g (9 oz) soft dried apricots
85 g (3 oz/1⁄3 cup) Turkish thick cream (kaymak) or clotted cream (or plant- based clotted cream)
2 tablespoons crushed pistachios
Combine the sugar and hot water in a medium pan and bring to the boil. Stir constantly until the sugar dissolves, then reduce to a simmer. Pour in the lemon juice and add the dried apricots, and poach for 20 minutes over a low– medium heat. The apricots will plump up and the syrup will thicken, infused with the apricots’ beautiful fragrance. Leave to cool. Once cool, gently open the split of the apricot and fill each with about 1⁄3 teaspoon kaymak or clotted cream. Place the stuffed apricots on a serving dish, spoon the syrup around them and sprinkle with crushed pistachios to serve.
Prepare ahead: You can poach the dried apricots in syrup 1–2 days ahead. Once cool, keep in a container, covered, in the refrigerator.
Variation and leftovers: Instead of clotted cream, you can stuff the dried apricots with 85 g (3 oz/2⁄3 cup) chopped walnuts for a plant-based feast. Leftovers can be enjoyed for breakfast or you can serve the leftover syrup as a light sherbet drink, with ice cubes and fresh mint in small glasses.
The Seasoned Gastronome