Another exciting Mediterranean recipe from my sister in-law Guelevren, made from zucchinis carved like, well, gondolas.

Before I became vegetarian one of my favorite kebabs was Adana kebab. It got its name from the city of Adana in Turkey, and with its simple yet hard to achieve preparation what made this dish so tasty. Naturally we won’t be using tail fat, or mince the meat with a cleaver but we achieved a result that will satisfy any meat-eater or vegetarian out there.While some may disagree, It is important that it is served with bulgur pilaf and slices of onion rings sprinkled with sumac.

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Beyond Adana Kebab

After becoming a vegetarian one thing I missed the most was this Turkish Adana Kebab. But with the help of delicious Beyond Meat, we are now reunited!

Ingredients

Kebab Ingredients

• 4 Beyond Burger Patties about 1lbs
• 1 onion finely chopped in food processor
• 1 t pepper paste
• 1 T Aleppo paper
• ½ t paprika
• ¼ t black pepper
• ¼ t salt

Onion Rings

• Sliced onion
• sumac

Instructions

Preperation

• Mix all the kebab ingredients in a big bowl, knead until consistent. Let is rest for couple hours.
• If you have wide skewers put the mixture on there, squeezing lightly until they stick on the skewer. If you don't, you can either make long meatballs or use a butter knife to shape them (i.e. use the butter knife as skewer until the meat is shaped then pull the kebab meat out).
• Grill it until some dark grill lines are visible. If you are not using grates make sure they are cooked and hard enough. The idea is to not grill them too long so they are not dry, or not to undercook them so they are too soft (picture below shows an undercooked kebab)
• You can either use fresh onion rings or the grilled slices as the side. Either way, sprinkle some sumac on them.
• Complete the plate with bulgur pilaf.

The first time I went to Turkey, I had these sekerpare cookies and fell in love.  They’re soaked in a delicious syrup, giving them an incredibly moist crumbly texture that I’ve never had in any other cookie.  We often crave them as there’s nothing comparable available in the US.  We’ve tried making them many times with no success, until we found a recipe on yemek.com.  We reduced the sugar and replaced the vanilla extract with almond extract for an extra delicious flavor.  The result was perfect!  Finally, we can have the cookies we love at home!

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Turkish Almond Syrupy Cookies (Şekerpare)

Semolina has multiple uses in Turkish cooking, especially in desserts. This almond flavored syrupy cookie is one of them, and it sure makes you want to eat more after your first bite.

Ingredients

Cookie Dough:

• 1 stick butter 1/2 c, softened to room temperature. Don't melt the butter.
• 2 c all purpose flour
• 2½ t semolina
• 1 egg + 1 egg white see below Topping for the 1 egg yolk that will be remaining
• ¼ c sugar
• 1¼ t baking powder
• 1 t almond extract

Syrup:

• 1¾ c water
• 1½ c sugar

Topping:

• 1 egg yolk for brushing on top of the cookies
• ground pistachio optional

Instructions

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 355° F.
• Prepare the ingredients as described above.
• Combine and mix the Syrup ingredients in a sauce pan.  Cook over medium heat until boiling, turn heat down to simmer, and continue cooking for 10 minutes.  After cooking, turn off the heat, and let the syrup cool to room temperature. The syrup cannot be hot when it is combined with the cookies.
• Combine and mix the Cook Dough ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix the dough until uniform with a fork, and then kneed the mixture until it is like playdough consistency.
• Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Spray or brush oil on top.  Using your hands, form walnut-sized balls out of the mixed cookie dough.  Put them on the oiled parchment cookie sheet and press them into a flattened ellipsoid shape.
• Use a fork to press lines on the top of each cookie.
• Mix the egg yolk in a small bowl.  Brush the egg yolk on top of each cookie.
• Bake for 25 minutes.
• After done baking, while the cookies are still hot, put the cookies in a single layer in a tray that is deeper than the cookies.  Pour the cooled syrup on top of the hot cookies.  Allow the cookies to soak for 15 minutes.  Turn the cookies over and allow them to continue to soak for another 15 minutes.
• Enjoy while warm!

Got this delicious recipe from anne on our Thanksgiving 2019 visit to Turkey.  So healthy and flavorful at the same time.  The slight sweetness of the carrot combined with the zing of the garlic and the coolness of the yogurt compliment each other so well.  Can be eaten by itself or used as a dip.  Either way, it’s delicious!

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Turkish Carrot Yogurt Dip (Yoğurtlu Havuç Meze)

This tasty dish can be eaten by itself or used as a dip. The slight sweetness of the carrot combined with the zing of the garlic and the coolness of the yogurt compliment each other so well. 

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 4 medium carrots shredded
• 1 T cooking oil
• 2 c yogurt
• 2 garlic cloves crushed into a paste
• salt

Instructions

• Heat cooking oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add the shredded carrots and stir-fry for 4 minutes.  Add 2 Tbsp of water and cover the pan.  Cook for an additional 3 minutes.
• Remove the carrots from the pan and cool until room temperature.
• After cool, add the yogurt and garlic paste.  Salt to taste.

Gulevren taught us how to make this delicious salad during our Thanksgiving 2019 visit.  The sweetness and softness of the beet pairs so well with the freshness and bitterness of the arugula. The redness of the beets is also striking against the green salad.  It’s a match made in heaven!

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Turkish Beet Arugula Salad

The sweetness and softness of the beet pairs so well with the freshness and bitterness of the arugula. The redness of the beets is also striking against the green salad.  It's a match made in heaven!

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1 T + 1 T + 1 T olive oil
• 2 beets shredded
• 1/2 T honey
• 1 + 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 c arugula chopped into loose strips
• 1 garlic clove crushed into a paste
• 1 T yogurt

Instructions

Instructions:

• Prepare the ingredients as described above
• Heat 1 T olive oil in a medium sized saute pan over medium high heat.  Add the chopped onion and saute until golden brown, approximately 5 minutes.
• Add the shredded beets, another 1 T olive oil, and honey.  Continue to saute until beets are soft, approximately 5 minutes.  Mix in 1 t salt
• In a separate container, mix 1 T olive oil, yogurt, crushed garlic, and 1/2 t salt.
• Place arugula in a bowl.  Add cooked beets on top.  Pour the sauce on top of the beets.

One day we were searching for a vegetarian recipe as usual, and we came across this leek & carrot recipe in a Turkish cookbook. It looked simple enough, but we weren’t sure if it was going to taste good. Since we have done this twice, we can say that we have no more doubts. This recipe of veggies and rice in olive oil combines sweetness, saltines, and sourness all together just in few minutes.

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Turkish Leeks and Carrots

This recipe of veggies and rice in olive oil combines sweetness, saltines, and sourness all together just in few minutes.

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs leeks
• 6 carrots
• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ cup rice
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 cups water

Instructions

Instructions:

• Trim the very end of the leeks as well as the top green stems where they split. Cut them in 1 inch slices.
• Wash in a big bowl while taking the rings out by pushing them with your finger.
• Chop the carrots in circles or ellipses about ¼ inch thick.
• Dry the leeks, put them in a pan with the olive oil and the carrots.
• Cover and cook for about 5 minutes until the leeks are soft, stirring occasionally.
• Add the rice, salt, sugar, lemon juice, and the water. Mix it couple times, bring to boil.
• Reduce heat, cook until the rice is soft and long (still covered).
• If the water is gone but the rice is still hard, you can add little bit more water to cook it longer.
• If the flavors are not there, add more salt, sugar, and lemon in same ratios.

So I had been wanting to try to make a vegetarian fish for over a decade.  I kept procrastinating because of the level of effort and lack of necessary ingredients.  This weekend I had neither excuse and embarked upon a fun adventure.  We had just visited Chinatown the weekend before and stocked up, and Deniz was willing to help me with the labor.  And the results turned out great.  Even Deniz said it was worth the effort.  The flavors are mild, so we’ll have to keep testing to see if we can bring a more sea flavor, but the look and texture are great.  Below is a recipe from Wei-Chuan’s Vegetarian Cooking cookbook that we modified and used:

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Vegetarian Fish

Is it even possible? Well, we even made the skin! If you have a good egg substitute you can even make this vegan.

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 2 fresh or frozen bean curd skins if frozen, defrost
• 2 nori sheets

Filling:

• 6 oz dried bean curd skin broken into small pieces
• 8 oz can enoki minced
• 4 oz can water chestnuts chopped (Optional. This will give the fish a crunch, which will make the texture different from real fish, but nice in a different way)
• 1 block firm tofu drained, crumbled, and as much water squeezed out of it, as possible
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 T nori komi seaweed sesame seed furikake
• 1 T sea salt
• 1 t pepper

Paste:

• 1 T flour
• 1 T water

Instructions

Instructions:

• Prepare the ingredients as described in the Ingredients list above.
• Rehydrate the dried bean curd skin by soaking in boiling water for 1 hour.
• Drain and chop into smaller pieces, approximately 1 square inch in size
• Mix the Filling ingredients (including the rehydrated bean curd skin and squeezed tofu) together in a large bowl until well blended.  Mix the Paste in a small bowl.
• Place the fresh or defrosted bean curd skin on a large cutting board.
• Place the nori on top of it and cut it into the shape of a fish.
• Place the mixed Filling on top of the nori.
• Cut excess bean curd skin away as needed to fold the skin over without having to wrap it around the back.
• Wrap the remaining bean curd skin around the fish like a Christmas present.  Seal tightly with the Paste.
• Steam the fish for 30 minutes.  Allow to cool.
• Make diagonal slashes at 1 cm intervals halfway into the fish.
• Deep fry the fish until golden brown (pan frying it in a lot of oil and flipping it works too, that's what we did.  just be careful about splattering hot oil).

One important aspect of visiting other countries is to buy different spices and food helpers that you cannot buy back at home. In our recent trip to Turkey we bought several different spice mixes one of which happened to be a helper for one of my favorite meatball dishes: Inegol Kofte. The original plan was to make the meatballs using this mix and the soy meat, but then we saw something more mouthwatering on the package, which brings us to this recipe. Please note that it might be hard to find this mix since Knorr only makes this in Turkey. There are other brands that can be purchased online, but we can never be sure if the results are going to to the same. We apologize for any inconvenience in advance.

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

• 1 lbs of Morningstar original vegetarian sausage patties
• ½ pack of Knorr Inegol Meatball Mix  (if not available, you can try Basak brand which seems to be more accessible in some regions)
• ½ c of boiling water
• ½ Knorr vegetable bouillon cube
• 1 egg
• 4 T butter
• cooking oil

Veggie Roast:

• 4 T butter
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 2 medium onion, chopped in cubes
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped in cubes
• 2 small potato, peeled and chopped in cubes
• 4 medium tomatoes, sliced in thin circles
• 1 can of tomato paste (6 oz)

Garnish:

• 1 cup of shredded Kasseri cheese or similar (e.g. provolone)

Instructions:

Toast the sausage patties for 14 minutes at 400°F.  Pulse the toasted patties a food processor (or chop manually) to a ground beef consistency.

Melt the 4 T of butter (in a small bowl about 30 seconds on high in the microwave) and set aside to cool to room temperature.

Scramble the egg in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the boiled water with the bouillon cube and stir until it is dissolved.  Add the meatball mix continue stirring until well combined.  Add the toasted ground veggie patties, scrambled egg, and cooled melted butter.  Stir / kneed for about 5 minutes until it is mixed well. Make it long, round meatballs in shape of very short (2″ long) hot dogs, but little bit flatter. While making the meatballs, try not to squish them too much.  You want the meatballs to stay as fluffy as possible.  Put the raw meatballs on a greased cookie sheet in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Heat 4 T of butter in the empty large skillet. Add the onions, carrots, potatoes, garlic, tomato paste (in this order). Stir-fry until soft. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Set the vegetables aside.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Heat 2 T of vegetable oil on high heat in a large skillet.  Add the meatballs and sear them for one minute each side.  The meatballs should be browned on each side but not burnt.  You may have to do a few batches depending on how large your pan is.  Set the meatballs aside.

Grease the bottom of a deep baking dish.  Lay the tomato slices to cover the bottom. Spread half of the cooked vegetables on top, then add the meatballs side by side, and then add the rest of the vegetables on top.  Bake it covered for 40 minutes in center rack. Take it out, sprinkle the shredded cheese on top. Broil it until the cheese on top is melted and slightly brown (about  5 minutes).

This is a light and healthy Turkish Salad that Gülevren taught us.  In Taiwanese cuisine, green mung beans are always sweetened and used in dessert.  It was cool to discover a way to make them into a salad.  The diversity of vegetables in this refreshing dish makes it not only healthy, but also deep in flavor and textures.

Ingredients:

• 1 c green mung beans
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• ½ bunch parsley leaves, chopped
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 t apple cider vinegar
• ¼ c olive oil
• 2 dill pickles, diced
• salt to taste

Instructions:

Soak the mung beans in water overnight.  Boil with water in a medium pot over medium heat for 15-20 minutes (or 30-40 min if beans are not soaked overnight).  The cooked beans should be soft, but not mushy.  Cool the beans to room temperature.

Prepare the rest of the ingredients as described in the ingredients list.

Combine and mix all the ingredients in a large bowl.  Serve.

Gülevren also taught us to make this tart and creamy dill meze.  It’s refreshing to the pallet, especially with rich and/or hot dishes.  It’s full of flavorful and healthy veggies, a perfect Mediterranean dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 potato, cut in half
• 4 small carrots, shredded
• 2 zucchini, shredded
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 t salt, or to taste
• 1 c of thick yogurt
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 T mayo
• ½ c dill, minced
• 4 walnuts (8 walnut halves), chopped

Instructions:

Boil the potato halves in a pot of water until soft, approximately 15 minutes.  Drain and skin the boiled potato and allow it to cool to room temperature.  Shred the cooled potato

Prepare the remaining ingredients per the instructions in the ingredients list above.

Heat a large saute pan over high heat with the olive oil, and then add the carrots and zucchini.  Stir fry for approximately 10 minutes, until soft, but before juice is released.  Remove from the pan and cool to room temperature in a large bowl.

Add the potatoes, and the rest of the ingredients to the carrots and zucchini.  Stir to combine.

We were blesssed to get a private cooking lesson from Gülevren last night.  It was a unique treat watching superwoman.  She cook 5 dishes for a 10 person dinner, while teaching us and watching the kids.  Here’s her Ali Nazik Kebab dish, with its bold tangy meaty topping and cool, smooth eggplant base.

Ingredients:

Yogurt Eggplant base:

• 4 medium Italian eggplants
• 1 T salt
• 3 T olive oil
• 2 c thick yogurt

Kebab topping:

• 8 Morningstar Vegetarian Sausage Patties
• 2 small red peppers, seeded and diced
• 2 T olive oil
• 4 T tomato paste
• 1/2 t salt

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Slice each eggplant in half.  Poke holes in the eggplant with a fork.  Brush olive oil onto the cut side of each eggplant.  Place cut side down on a cookie sheet.  Bake the eggplant for 40 minutes.  Allow to cool, peel the eggplants.

At the same time, bake the sausage patties on a greased cookie sheet for 12 minutes.  Allow to cool, then pulse the patties to a ground beef consistency in the food processor.

Pulse the eggplant in a food processor until it is mushy but still a little chunky.  Heat the remaining 3 T of olive oil in a medium non-stick pan on medium high heat.  Add the eggplant and 2 t salt.  Stir-fry for 2 minutes.  Remove to a bowl, and cool to room temperature.  Mix in the yogurt.

Heat 2 T of olive oil in a medium non-stick pan on medium high heat.  Add the diced red peppers and tomato paste and stir-fry for 4 minutes.  Add the ground sausage patties and 1/2 t salt and continue to stirfry for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Place the eggplant-yogurt mixture on the bottom of the serving bowl.  Add the veggie meat-pepper mixture on top.  Serve with bread.

While visiting Turkey this year, we had the great honor of learning to cook from Deniz’ mom, ane Fatma Turkmen. She taught us how to make her mercimek kofte, lentil balls. The balls pack so much flavor, and are surprisingly easy to make. They’re the perfect snack size.  I loved them so much, I ate them in dinner-sized quantities.

Ingredients:

• 1 c red lentils
• 2 c water
• 1 c bulgur, fine (#1) ground

Wet Spices:

• 3/4 c olive oil
• 2 T pepper paste
• ½ T salt (or ½ bullion cube)
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced

Herbs:

• ½ small bunch of parsley, tough stems removed, diced, and pat dry
• 1 small bunch scallions, diced and pat dry
• 3 charliston peppers, diced and pat dry
• juice from 1½ small lemons (or pomegranate juice)
• 1 T pul biber (Aleppo pepper)

Instructions:

Cook the lentil in the water in a covered medium pot on medium high heat.  After 5 minutes, add the Wet Spices ingredients, and continue until the lentils are mushy (about another 5 minutes).

Add the bulgur, mix well, turn the heat off, and cover the pot again.  Let the pot sit for 15 minutes for the bulgur to absorb the water.  Fluff with a fork.

Transfer the mixture to a large plastic container.  Add the Herb ingredients.  Stir well and kneed with hands to evenly mix the ingredients.

Scoop about 1½ T of the mixture with your hands and pat/roll it into 2 inch rolls.  Repeat for the rest of the rest of the mixture.

This walnut sauce is a simple, but delicate and perfectly balanced complement for vegetarian chicken.  Smooth and creamy with crunchy chunks.  Together it’s one of those so-good-have-to-eat-more type of dishes.  We adapted it from The Sultan’s Kitchen:  a Turkish Cookbook by Ozcan Ozan for our vegetarian diet.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs Gardein meatless crispy chick’n (we use the Mandarin Orange variety, and leave the sauce out for a different purpose)
• 2 t paprika

Walnut Sauce:

• 2 T butter
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 t garlic, minced
• 1½ T paprika
• 1 t chili powder
• 2 c veggie broth (1 Knorr vegetarian bullion cube dissolved in 2 cups of boiling water)

• 2 slices day-old white bread, crusts removed
• 1½ walnuts, chopped
• ½ t salt, or more to taste

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Place the Gardein meatless chick’n in a single layer on a greased baking pan.  Sprinkle the paprika over the top of the chick’n.  Bake in the oven for 9 minutes.  Flip over each chick’n piece, place back in the oven and bake for another 9 minutes more.

Heat the butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat.  Add the chopped onion and stir-fry for 2 minutes until the onion is soft but not brown.  Add in the garlic, paprika, and chili powder.  Turn off the heat and immediately remove the mixture from the pan to a food processor.

Add the remaining sauce ingredients to the food processor.  Blend the sauce until mostly smooth with a few chunks.  Add more salt as needed, to taste.

To serve, slice the baked chick’n strips.  Liberally pour the sauce on top.

Deniz and I have always loved lentil soup.  Before we met, each of us made it in our own way, me with Taiwanese seasoning (soy sauce and vegetables), Deniz with Turkish seasoning (tomato paste and onions).  When we started cooking together, we found a way to marry our two recipes, and the result was better than either of our original recipes.  It’s now become one of our old standby easy recipes if we don’t know what to cook.  We had a little extra lentil this week and decided to make it again.  This time we spiced it up with chipotle and it turned out dynamite.  We’re adding it to this website so we don’t forget to add the chipolte again next time!

Ingredients:

• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 2 T tomato paste
• 3 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
• 3 carrots, finely chopped
• 2 t garlic, minced
• 1½ c dried lentils
• 1 large chipolte from a can marinading in adobo sauce, chopped
• 10 c vegetable broth
• ¼ c orzo
• olive oil for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Prepare the ingredients as described on the ingredients list.

Heat 2 T of cooking oil in a large non-stick pot.  Stir fry the chopped onions in the oil for 3 minutes.  Add the tomato paste and continue stir-frying for another minute.  Add the chopped celery, carrots, and garlic and continue stir-frying for 2 minutes.  Add the lentils, chipotle and vegetable broth.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.  Add the orzo and continue simmering covered for another 10 minutes.  Garnish with (optional) olive oil.