Salads
There are two key mandates for Turkish salads: they must be fresh, and they must be colourful. The ingredients may vary slightly depending on the season and what appeared in the markets that week. But the freshness and colour thing are non-negotiable.
Carrot and Walnut Salad
A young married couple in our village invited us over for dinner the other week. The wife Dilek was terribly nervous that we might not like her Turkish food as foreigners. I tried to assure her: “Don’t worry - we love the local food here!” But even I was surprised how much I enjoyed her carrot and walnut salad....
Chopped Rocket Salad
Rocket is a staple green in the west of Turkey, enjoyed in its bitter full-grown form unlike the subtler baby rocket typically favoured by the western world. A fish dinner in Turkey is simply incomplete without a rocket salad to accompany it. You cannot have one without the other....
Fetta, Mint and Pomegranate Salad
A magical autumn salad. I await the advent of pomegranates in the markets every year with this dish in mind. A light salad of bold, contrasting flavours, it is perfect to accompany a BBQ, a classy meal for guests, anything really...
Kisir
A very common salad in the Turkish repertoire, frequently made for guests or to bring along to a BBQ. But to western tastes, kisir seems really quite exotic. The flavour balance of the sweet basil, tart pomegranate, gutsy olive oil and mint are just magical. Simple but really good.
Mevsim Salad
An absolute favourite with Turks, in this salad presentation is everything. The aim is to juxtapose the brightly coloured produce to best effect so that the salad is as much a feast for the eyes as for the stomach.
Mixed Herb Salad with Purple Basil
Turkish roadside can be charmingly different to the carbon-copy fast food outlets gracing the roadways of the West. Often, they are just Mom and Pop outfits serving up simple fare local to their region. Menus may not exist. Instead, you just ask the father what he is serving today, and negotiate a price. And that’s how I discovered this salad....
Red Cabbage Salad
This might just be my new favourite salad for dinner parties. Unlike pretty much any other salad, you can make it ahead of time. And even better, it is still great to eat the next day. Not to mention so colourful and yummy. Make sure you leave it to stand for a couple of hours after dressing before you serve it, to allow the leaves to soften and the flavours to blend nicely.
Shepherds Salad
This simple, colourful salad is a standard favourite all over Turkey. There are lots of variations, but this is my favouite version. The key is to have absolutely fresh, crunchy vegetables - then this simple salad just makes sense.
Walnut and Pomegranate Mountain Salad
This salad was one of the first to make me fall in love with Turkish cuisine. The sweet freshness of the mint, the sharp tartness of the pomegranate, the crunch of the walnuts all combine to make quite a magical taste experience. It has a funny name in Turkish that translates as ‘Mountain of the Infidel’....