Tag Archives: cucumber

Jul26

Around the World – Turkey: Kısır, Bulgur Salad

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Around the World – Turkey: Kısır, Bulgur Salad
Around the World – Turkey: Kısır, Bulgur Salad

Hey guys!

Today I have a yummy salad recipe for you! Kısır is a Turkish bulgur salad packed with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and lots of herbs! It is very refreshing any delicious!

Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey - Kısır, Bulgur Salad by gingerlemonandspice

I have lots to do today, so I’m a little short about words 😉 Just look at all the yummy pictures and then run to the kitchen and make this yummy salad! That’s what I’ll do at least, as I am invited to a goodbye party this evening and I will make this salad again for tonight.

Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey - Kısır, Bulgur Salad by gingerlemonandspice

It is very delicious, with all the herbs and exotic flavors and healthy as well! it keeps in the fridge for several days, so why not make this ahead and eat throughout the week?

Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey - Kısır, Bulgur Salad by gingerlemonandspice

It is great mixed with lettuce leaves too – I didn’t even need aditional dressing, the bulgur itself has enough flavor!

And if you want to read more about Turkey don’t forget to look for the other posts of this series below after the recipe!

Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey - Kısır, Bulgur Salad by gingerlemonandspice

Have you been to Turkey yourself? Have you enjoyed Turkish food? Do you have any questions about the country or the people? Just leave me a comment below! 🙂

Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey - Kısır, Bulgur Salad by gingerlemonandspice

Kısır, Bulgur Salad
 
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A great salad to feed lots of people! Perfect for an appetizer, main dish or snack.
Author:
Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: Turkish
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 200g fine bulgur (köftelik bulgur - in Turkish Shops)
  • 200ml boiling water
  • 5 green onions
  • 2 pointed peppers
  • 1 red onion
  • 10 small tomatoes
  • 1 cucumber
  • 2 handfull fresh herbs (parsley, dill, mint)
  • 1 tablespoons salca (red pepper paste - in Turkish Shops)
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • Juice of one lemon
  • 5 tablespoons pomegranate syrup (in Turkish Shops)
  • 5 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • a pinch of chili (pul biber spice)
  • optional: lettuce hearts
Instructions
  1. Put the bulgur into a big bowl and pour the hot water on top. Put a lid (or a big enough plate) on top to seal and let sit for 20 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile chop onions, pepper, tomatoes and cucumber into small cubes. Chop herbs very finely. Set aside
  3. Mix bulgur with salca, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and pomegranate syrup very well. Put the vegetables and herbs in and mix.
  4. For serving you can leave the salad in the bowl and decorate with tomatoes and parsley or you can arrange the salad on lettuce leaves!

 Afiyet olsun!!

 

Here are the other recipes I shared during this series:

An Introduction to the new series

Appetizer – Sigara Böreği

Main Dish – Köfte, Cacık & Pirinç Pilavı

Dessert – Künefe

Drink – Ayran

Pastry – Kurabiye

Snack/Fast Food – Lahmacun

Guest Post – Acılı Ezme

 

Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey - Kısır, Bulgur Salad by gingerlemonandspice

Have a great day!

~ Kathrin

Jul23

Around The World: Turkey – Köfte, Cacık & Pirinç Pilavı

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Around The World: Turkey – Köfte, Cacık & Pirinç Pilavı
Around The World: Turkey – Köfte, Cacık & Pirinç Pilavı

Hey there!

Today I have a Main Dish from Turkey for you: Köfte, Cacık & Pirinç Pilavı. It is a classic!

Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey - Köfte, Cacık & Pirinç Pilavı by gingerlemonandspice

But let’s talk a bit about the country first. Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey - Köfte, Cacık & Pirinç Pilavı by gingerlemonandspice

The Republik of Turkey is a transcontinental country located in Europe but mostly in Asia. It is surrounded on three sides by water, the Mediteranean, Aegean and Black Sea. It is a rather big country with only 75 million people living in it, which makes some areas very rural. Turkey has a very rich history. There are a lot of sites from the time of Alexander the Great, the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire. I am not much of an expert in any kind of history but it is very impressive to visit the ancient ruins with or without a guided tour! I love doing that, even if I’m more interested in architecture and lifestyle than in the politics of those times!! 🙂

Around the World, Week by Week: Turkey by gingerlemonandspice

Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey by gingerlemonandspice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well the Republik of Turkey as it is called today was only founded 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, how also was the first president. Until today he is adored by many and you can find his statues and picture everywhere, some men even have tattoes on their arms or cars of his name and signature! 🙂

Most of the people in this country are Turks, but there is also a minority group called the Kurds. Most of the people have Turkish as their mother tounge and their money is the Turkish Lira. The weather varies very strongly in the different parts of the country; it can get really cold like -40°C (-40°F) in winter in some areas but also really hot in summers (always above 30°C/86°F).

So that’s enough of the formal stuff for me by now, I have some more pictures for you to click through to get your own view!

If you got any questions about Turkey or my stay there, or made your own experiences just leave a comment below!! I would love to read about it!!

 

Now on to the food: Meat balls (in Turkish Köfte) can be found in many variations in the Turkish Cuisine. It might even be that every family does them a bit different! What I have here is a very classic recipe for Köfte that can be fryed in a pan or better grilled on a charcoal barbecue!

They are accompanied by the traditional yoghurt dip with cucumbers and garlic called Cacık. It goes with a lot of dishes and can also be found on a Meze (Appetizer) Table! Also I have some rice for you called Pirinç Pilavı. Like with the meatballs there are so many ways of preparing this!

Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey - Köfte, Cacık & Pirinç Pilavı by gingerlemonandspice

 

I found all the recipes for these in one of my favorite cookbooks, ‘Sofralar’ by Orhan Tançgil of the blog ‘KochDichTürkisch’. They also have a lot of videos to the recipes on the blog, so even if you can’t speek German you might find something you like! Hop over and say hi from me!

Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey - Köfte, Cacık & Pirinç Pilavı by gingerlemonandspice

Köfte, Cacık & Pirinç Pilavı
 
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A recipe for yummy turkish meat balls with rice and a yoghurt dip with cucumbers and garlic!
Author:
Recipe type: Main Dish
Cuisine: Turkish
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
Köfte
  • 500g mixed minced meat (lamb and beef)
  • 1 onion
  • 2 slices of stale white bread
  • 1 egg
  • 1 handfull of parsley
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • pepper, pul biber spice (chili flakes)
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • oil for frying
Pirinç Pilavı
  • 60g butter
  • a small handfull of soup noodles (şehriye)
  • 1 cup of rice, washed in a sieve
  • 2 cups of water or chicken stock
  • 1 teaspoon water
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
Cacık
  • 250g süzme yoğurt (turkish yoghurt with 10% fat)
  • 5 tablespoons milk
  • 2 small turkish cucumbers or 1 usual
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 handfull of fresh dill
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • pepper, pul biber spice (chili flakes)
  • olive oil
Instructions
Köfte Mix
  1. Start bei preparing the mixture for the Köfte. Just put the meat, the finally chopped onion and parsley, the spices, the egg, the olive oil and the pressed garlic in a big bowl. Cut the bread in small chunks and add to the bowl too.
  2. Now mix very well! It works best if you use your hands. Form small balls and pat them down flat and set aside on a plate or chopping board. Use wet hands while forming the Köfte so that the mixture doesn't stick to your fingers!
Pirinç Pilavı
  1. Melt butter on a pot on the stove on high heat and add the noodles. Fry and stir well until they get a golden color. Then add the rice and fry for 2-3 minutes more.
  2. Pour water or stock in and add the spices. Stir once then cover with the lid and wait until the water boils.
  3. Turn the heat down to very low for about 15 minutes then turn it off and let the pot just sit where it is. The rice will soak up more of the moisture and will get done without sticking to the bottom with this method.
Frying the Köfte
  1. Meanwhile heat one or two big pans and add some frying oil. You don't need much as the meat releases some fat as well. About one tablespoon for each pan! Put the meatballs into the pan and fry them on medium heat until they are half through then turn around and do the other side. It is even better when you have a charcoal barbecue and grill them there! You can also bake them in the oven on 200°C for about 25 minutes if you want to retain some fat. But that's not the most typical way 😉
Cacık
  1. Mix yoghurt and milk in a bowl with an egg whisk until smooth. Chop the cucumbers as finely as you can or grate them. But on the secon method make sure to press some of the water out!
  2. Add the cucumber, the spices (minus the chili), the finely chopped dill and pressed garlic to the bowl and mix well. Taste and reseason as you like.
  3. Pour the Cacık in a nice bowl and decorate with olive oil, chili and some dill sprinkles!
Notes
The cumin spice is essential for the typical taste in the Turkish Cuisine! Don't miss it!

Around The World, Week by Week: Turkey - Köfte, Cacık & Pirinç Pilavı by gingerlemonandspice

Afiyet olsun!! – Enjoy your meal!

 

Here are the other recipes I shared during this series:

An Introduction to the new series

Appetizer – Sigara Böreği

Dessert – Künefe

Drink – Ayran

Salad – Kısır

Pastry – Kurabiye

Snack/Fast Food – Lahmacun

Guest Post – Acılı Ezme

 

~ Kathrin

Mar13

Simple Everyday Couscous Salad

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Simple Everyday Couscous Salad
Simple Everyday Couscous Salad

Hello everybody!!

simple everyday couscous salad with tomatoes and cucumber recipe

I hope you are great, all of you? Well, I took some time off to have my second birthday party with my family and friends at home. Then I did a whole lot of nothing, resting my brain from all the work 😉 But now I am back again!! Ready to show you some more food and stories and finally being creative again! 🙂 Last night I had a great time with my godchild. She always wanted to do a sweet yeast bread with poppy seeds on her own, so we just made a date and did it!! It was very much fun and the two braided buns turned out beautifully, too!! Of course everyone had to make their own. I would love to show you a picture, but I was so very clever to bring only my camera and not my charger to my parents house and we already took too many pictures at the wild animal park we went as a family last sunday. Well, things happen 😉

With a little luck my godchild remembered to take a picture of hers when she got back to her house!! But I can’t promise. At least I can say it wasn’t very difficult at all, so maybe  I will make it again soon with proper pictures! To round up the evening we had a lot of fun eating pasta with pesto, watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in English  and laughing about the silliest scens and of course – trying the first pieces of our sweet bread!! It tasted as good as it looked!

 

Today I have a recipe of a couscous salad for you. Well, it is not any couscous salad!! As I already told you, I live in a flat with two other girls – and this is what we eat a lot. And I really mean A LOT!!! We eat it on mondays or tuesdays, for lunch or for dinner, together or seperately – just all the time!! It is soooo very quick and definitly way too delicious to not been eaten at least twice a week!! I also take it to university if I don’t have time to eat at home which works perfectly too.

I don’t want to keep you in the loop any longer!! Here you go:

 

Simple Everyday Couscous Salad

simple everyday couscous salad with tomatoes and cucumber recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups couscous (the easy cooking type)

4 cups boiling water

2 tea-bags (about 6-8g, or as much as you want) of mint tea – fresh might be better, but that’s all we have on hand in winter

2 teaspoons of granulated vegetable broth

1/2 cucumber (Salatgurke in German)

3-4 big tomatoes (or the equivalent in small ones)

200g feta cheese (in Germany that is one package)

about 8 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

6 tablespoons olive oil

Salt, Pepper

optional: 1 bell pepper

 

directions:

1. Put couscous, mint, vegetable broth and hot water into your salad bowl. Stir a little bit with a fork, then let sit for 10 minutes.

2. Cut cucumber, tomatoes, feta cheese and bell pepper into squares.

3. If the water is soaked up by the couscous already, loosen up with a fork. If not, just wait a little bit more and then go on. Put the vegetables and feta into your bowl and continue loosing up the mixture.

4. Season with salt and pepper, be careful with the salt as the feta already is salty. Pour olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the salad and mix well. Have a taste! We never measure olive oil or vinegar, we just go on taste. So if you feel you need more of anything, just add it. I like a little tingling from the vinegar on my tounge 😉

5. Enjoy lukewarm or cold!! We usually eat this as a whole meal, but it would be great as a side dish or at a barbecue too!!

simple everyday couscous salad with tomatoes and cucumber recipe

~Kathrin