Dandelion with Olive Oil (Hindiba)

If cooking every dish (sweet and savory) in olive oil is one of the most important characteristics of the incredibly healthy  Cretan cuisine, boiling all greens including weeds is the other one. The Cretan diet, widely accepted to be one of the healthiest diets, became an indispensable part of Turkish Aegean cuisine through Cretan-Turks who were compulsorily exchanged for the Turkish Greeks of Anatolia starting from May 1st, 1923 based on the treaty of Lausanne. As a result of this agreement between Turkish and Greek governments, half a million Greeks left Turkey and approximately one million Turks left Greek. And through this non-humanitarian and tragic population exchange which caused thousands of dislocated families and hatred between nations the west coast of Turkish cooking is enriched by this cuisine.  

This is a very simple recipe that captures the essence of Cretan cooking: greens and olive oil. Dandelion greens, like many other weeds, are widely consumed in Cretan cuisine with a simple olive oil dressing and tarator sauce. Eren Aksahin in an article about Turks of Crete (read the article) quotes a little anecdote about Creteans' infatuation with greens:

"A Cretan goes into a field with a cow. The son of the field’s owner runs to his father, and says “Papa! A cow and a Cretan are in the field! What should I do?”  His father answers: “don’t bother the cow, she’ll eat until she’s full and leave. But the Cretan will gather everything before he leaves. So chase the Cretan out!”

1 bunch dandelion greens
1/4 cup olive oiljuice of 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic
salt
-Boil enough water for your dandelion bunch in a pot with some salt.
-Add dandelions and cook for 5-7 minutes, depending on freshness of the weed.
-Blanch dandelions for ~3 minutes. 
-Squeeze excessive water and lay on a plate. 
-Mix olive oil, lemon juice, and crushed/minced garlic with salt and pour over the dandelions. (Adjust salt, lemon, and garlic to your taste)


for tarator sauce
2 slices of white bread (cannot stress the importance of the whiteness of bread for this sauce), crusts removed
1-2 cloves of garlic
juice of 1 lemon or 2 tbsp vinegar
1/2 cup ground walnuts (although walnut is more common, some prefer pinenut for tarator sauce)
4-5 tbsp olive oil
salt

-Soak bread slices in 1/4 cup water, squeeze excessive water.
-Put all in a food processor and pulse until smooth. The sauce should not be very runny or thick as a paste. Add a couple of drops of water or lemon juice to loosen up.

Celery Root Rounds with Carrot (Havuçlu Kereviz Halkaları)

I had celery root rounds first at a tea-party in Turkey as one of the 7 or so dishes that the host prepared for an ~3 hour tea-party! Apparently the recent tea-party trend in Turkey is to impress your guests with the number and the presentation of the goodies you make. Mission accomplished; I was impressed by how much I could eat in 2 hours and with only Turkish tea as digestive. Another thing that impressed me was that although at first it seems like celery root rounds with carrot recipe is not different than regular celery root in olive oil recipe in terms of taste, cooking celery root in big pieces rather than diced form did actually contribute to the taste. So here we go: a good and actually very simple recipe if you like the distinct taste of celery root and one to wow your guests with.

for 2 people

1 medium size celery root

1 similar size potato

1-2 carrots

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup frozen or canned green peas

1 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup water

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup fresh dill, finely chopped

-Peel celery root and potato and core the middle big enough for the carrots you will use with a corer or the top part of your peeler.

-Put the carrots in the holes and cut extra parts.

-Place celery root and potato in a bowl of water with half of the lemon juice to prevent darkening.

-In a broad pot heat olive oil and saute onion until soft.

-Carefully cut the celery root and potato in ~half inch rounds.

-Push the onion aside in the pot and place celery root and potato rounds in the pot side by side.

-Put the onions on top.

-Add green peas, sugar, salt, rest of the lemon juice, 1 cup water and cook on a little below the medium heat for 25-30 minutes.

-Let cool in the pot with the lid on.

-Sprinkle with fresh dill and serve.

Purslane with Tomato (Domatesli Semizotu)

Purslane season is officially on! For those who have purslane growing in their yards or who can find it at the farmer's markets, flea markets, or Mexican grocery stores, here is another purslane recipe. Purslane with tomato is another version of Purslane with Rice. Mid summer when farmers markets are flooded by ripe tomatoes, you just cannot help but cook anything with tomatoes. So when we crave a sour taste, we make Purslane with Rice, which is cooked with lemon juice, and when we can get enough tomatoes, we make purslane with tomato, which is juicier and good for soaking crusty bread. Fresh purslane, ripe tomatoes and garlic were what we got from the farmer's market this week.

See more purslane recipes


























1 bunch or 1 lb purslane (verdolaga in Spanish), washed and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 small onion, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced
2 tomatoes, grated or petite diced (or 1 can petite diced tomato)
1/4 cup rice (soaked in hot water for 15-20 minutes)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sugar
salt
black pepper
1 cup hot water

-Heat olive oil on medium heat and saute onions.
-Add purslane, tomato, rice (that you soaked and rinsed), salt, sugar, pepper. Stir for a couple of minutes.
-Pour in water.
-Cook on low covered for 15-20 minutes until rice is cooked.
-Serve warm or cold.

Leeks in Olive Oil (Zeytinyağlı Pırasa)

Pırasa is one of those vegetables that you either love it or hate it. The existence of both positive and negative references to leeks in Turkish culture proves how divided we are on the topic of pırasa as well as many other issues. My favorite saying related to leeks comes from Albanian Turks. When they are very full and cannot eat more, they say "I wouldn't eat, even if it is pırasa." It seems like the divide between the pro- and anti- leek people inspired Baba Zula, a popular Turkish band, to compose a song called pırasa. The lyrics of pırasa goes: "There are two different kinds of people in this world: those who love leek, and those who don't."






































4 leeks, washed well and chopped in 1/3 inch rounds
1 big onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped in rounds or half moons
1/4 cup rice
1/3 cup olive oil
Juice of half lemon
2/3 - 1 cup hot water
1 tsp sugar
Salt


-Heat olive oil in a pot and add onions, stir for 4 minutes
-Add carrots and stir for 4 more minutes
-Add leeks and stir for a couple of minutes
-Add water, sugar, and salt (black pepper and crushed pepper)
-when the water boils add rice and lemon juice
-Cover and cook on low heat until rice is cooked

Pırasa is best when it’s served cold with a little lemon juice on top.

Vegetarian Stuffed Globe Zucchini (Zeytinyağlı Yayla Kabağı Dolması)

I hadn't seen these round zucchinis, globe zucchinis or zucchini ronde de nice, or whatever you call them, in a long time. They are perfect for stuffing. They are very easy to scoop, yet the outside is firm and stays so even after an hour of cooking.


























10 globe zucchinis
1 heaping cup of rice (I measured 1 1/2 tbsp rice for each globe zucchini)
2 medium onions, grated or finely chopped
3 tomatoes, grated or blended
3-4 tbsp pine nuts
3 tbsp dried currants
1 tsp all spice
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped finely or 1 tbsp mint flakes
1/3 cup fresh dill, chopped finely
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil


























-Wash globe zucchinis, slice the top as a hat and scoop out the flesh. (you can save the flesh to make zucchini fritters later)
-Mix all the ingredients (except for zucchinis) in bowl.
-Stuff the zucchinis with this mixture. (If there's stuffing left, you can stuff a bell pepper or a tomato)
-Place those little hats on top and place zucchinis in a pot. Pour 2-2 1/2 cups of water or more to cover the zucchini dolmas half way.
-Cover and cook on low-medium for approximately 50 mins to an hour or until rice is cooked.
-Serve warm or cold, preferably with yogurt on the side.




























recipe update
There was a little bit of whining about the slight sweetness caused by currants and all spice, so the next time I made stuffed globe zucchinis, I did not use those two ingredients. I replaced them with 2 tbsp of sumac (powdered or flakes, or you can use juice of 1 lemon). I also discarded the zucchini tops, and covered little dolmas with a slice of tomato; this way dolmas were juicier than when I made them using the tops.

Vegetarian Stuffed Zucchini Flowers (Zeytinyağlı Kabak Çiçeği Dolması)

In his novel Karıncanın Su İçtiği (Ant Drinking Water), the second volume of a series titled Bir Ada Hikayesi (An Island Story), one of my favorite Turkish writers, Yaşar Kemal, writes about stuffed zucchini flowers in a way that resembles his famous descriptions of cotton fields, horses, snakes, the Taurus mountains, rain, the sea, i.e. nature in general. He writes in meticulous detail about this delicate Aegean dish so that while reading the novel you feel like you almost can taste it. After finishing Karıncanın Su İçtiği, I really wanted to have stuffed zucchini flowers, a delicious dolma dish that I first tasted when I was visiting Bodrum peninsula. Bodrum offers a great variety of Aegean dishes once you can pass its ranked #2 after Istanbul wild nightlife.
Although dealing with delicate flowers might seem difficult, to make stuffed zucchini flower is not harder than any other dolma dish. The demanding part is to find zucchini flowers. If you are already growing zucchini plants, pick flowers early in the morning when they are open and free of bugs. On the other hand, if you don't have a garden you might find zucchini flowers at farmer's markets (possibility:low), flea markets with produce sections (possibility: medium), or at Mexican grocery stores/markets (possibility: high).












serves 4
20 zucchini flowers
1 1/2 cup rice
2 medium onions, very finely chopped or grated
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp currants
2 tbsp pine nuts
1/2 tsp allspice or cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1 or more tsp salt
juice of 1/2 lemon or 2 tsp pomegranate molasses
1-2 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup finely chopped dill
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley (save the stems)
-Trim the stems and remove the stamens from the flower. It might be tricky to remove the stamen; I used a little knife to cut the stamen. Wash the zucchini flowers, check inside for any unwanted guests, and then place them in a bowl of hot (not boiling hot, though) water to soften. Set aside.
-Heat 1/3 cup olive oil in a pot. Add onions and cook for 3-4 minutes.
-Add rice and stir for 5 minutes.
-Add currants, pine nuts, sugar, allspice or cinnamon, black pepper and salt.
-Add 1 cup water and cook on low until water is absorbed. Turn it off.
-Add greens: dill, mint, parsley, and lemon juice or pomegranate molasses. Mix well and set aside to cool down.
-Place the parsley stems that you saved at the bottom of a pot. If you do not have parsley stems you can cover the bottom of the pot with vine leaves or apple skin. Flowers are very delicate so you don't want to put them directly on the pot.
-Drain zucchini flowers. With a small spoon or your fingers stuff each flower with the rice stuffing: gently open up the petals, put the stuffing, and seal the flower by folding the petals one by one around the filling.
-Place stuffed flowers tight on parsley stems (or whatever you have). Sprinkle 2 tbsp olive oil and pour 1 cup of water.
-Find a flat-ish plate that would fir in your pot. Place the plate on stuffed flowers.
-Cook on low until water is absorbed, approximately half an hour.
-Wait at least 20 minutes before taking stuffed zucchini flowers out of the pot.
-Serve warm or cold. Goes well with yogurt.

Purslane with Rice (Pirinçli Semizotu)

Long before Dr Mehmet Öz, aka Dr. Oz, started to appear on morning shows on Turkish TV channels and regularly on Oprah Show to talk about healthy eating habits with a great emphasis on purslane (surprisingly rich in Omega 3 fatty acids), the weed frequented our tables in dishes and salads all summer long. If Dr. Oz's advice on healthy food triggered interest in purslane in Turkey, it also caused inflation in purslane prices. A couple of summers ago on questioning a sudden increase of purslane prices, just out of pure curiosity not by any reluctance to pay, I was almost scolded by a vendor at my hometown's farmer's market: "Mam, even Dr. Mehmet Öz appreciates purslane, why don't you?" I always have and especially do now here in the States, where it's relatively harder to find it. I do so much so that I can stop going to trendy organic farmer's market for fresh tomatoes and peppers and make a trip all the way to almost-out-of-town chaotic and dusty flea market with the hopes of finding "verdolaga" (that's what Mexicans call purslane and it seems like they enjoy it as much as Turks do); it's totally worth it. If I can find purslane seeds I wouldn't even mind turning the backyard into a purslane field. But for now I'm making a trip to the flea market every weekend.

If you cannot find purslane in your backyard or at the farmer's market, check out Mexican grocery stores or flea markets for 'verdolaga.'


























2 bunches or ~2 lb purslane (aka verdolaga, pigweed, hugweed, or pusley)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 cup rice
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
juice of half lemon
3/4 cup water


























-Wash purslane well and chop it into 1-1 1/2 inch pieces. You don't need to discard the stems.
-Heat olive oil in a wide pot. Stir in onion and garlic. Cook until soft.
-Add purslane/verdolaga. Stir a couple of times until wilted.
-Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, and water.
-When it starts boiling, add rice and turn the heat down to low.
-Cover and simmer until rice is cooked.
-Serve warm or cold with garlicy yogurt (for garlicy yogurt use 1 clove of minced garlic per 1 cup of yogurt) on the side.


ps: if you are not very enthusiastic about green leafy vegetables, there's big chance you won't like purslance with its crunchy stems and tangy taste.

Sour Eggplant Stew (Ekşili Patlıcan)

Eggplant dishes from south eastern part of Turkey are usually cooked with a sour ingredient: lemon or pomegranate molasses. I love eggplant dishes in every form, yet I find those tangy ones such as Adana style stuffed eggplants or eggplant and lentil stew with pomegranate molasses to be even more delicious during the summer days.

























4 medium size eggplants, stem removed, peeled in occasional vertical stripes, and cut into edible chunks
2 medium onions, thinly sliced in half moons
4-5 tomatoes, diced
5-6 cloves or garlic, minced
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
juice of 1 lemon
a generous 1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped

-Place eggplant chunks in salted cold water for half an hour.
-Drain eggplants and squeeze them to remove excessive water.
-Mix eggplants with other ingredients in a pot (save half of the parsley).
-Cover and cook on low heat for 30-40 minutes, until eggplants are cooked (no water is necessary).
-Sprinkle rest of the parsley and serve hot or cold. Sour eggplant stew is even better the next day.

Zucchini Salad with Yogurt (Yoğurtlu Kabak Salatası)

Zucchini salad with yogurt is a favorite sumer time cold delicacy. It is served as a side dish at afternoon tea gatherings along with any kind of pogacas or filo dough pastries, or as a meze/appetizer at dinner. It is quite easy and quick to make and truly delicious. Even those who do not like zucchini enjoy this salad. In Turkish cuisine to have a zucchini dish without fresh dill or mint is unheard-of. For this salad it's common to use both fresh mint and dill. If you do not like one of them you can leave that one out, but only one. Zucchini salad has to have at least one fresh herb.



























serves 3

3 medium size zucchini, coarsely grated (makes approximately 3 cups)
2/3 cup thick plain yogurt
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves of minced garlic, depending on how much you like garlic
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
1/8 cup or as much as you want fresh dill, finely chopped
1 tsp mint flakes or 1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
salt and black pepper

optional
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

-Grate zucchinis in a bowl. Squeeze grated zucchini by hand and drain excessive juice.
-Heat olive oil in a pan. Add zucchini and cook for 5-6 minutes or until tender stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool down.
-Mix yogurt and minced garlic well in a bowl.
-When zucchini cools down, add zucchini, walnuts, dill, mint, salt, and pepper to the garlicy yogurt and mix well.
-Serve cold.

This recipe is for Weekend Herb Blogging that was founded by Kalyn and is hosted this weekend by Simona from Briciole.

Black-Eyed Pea Pilaki (Börülce Pilaki)

Pilaki is a general name for a group of dishes that are cooked in tomato sauce with onion, garlic, carrot, potato, parsley, lemon juice, and most importantly olive oil. Among favorite pilaki dishes are barbunya pilaki and fish pilaki.


























serves 6 people
1 lb frozen black-eyed peas (once you soak them you can also start with dried ones)
1 big onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
2 green chillies, finely chopped or 1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 carrot, thinly sliced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
3-4 tomatoes, diced
3-4 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup chopped dill or parsley
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
ground pepper
crushed red pepper flakes (optional)


-Heat oil and add onion and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
-Add green chillies, potatoes, and carrot. Cook until soft.
-Stir in black-eyed peas and diced tomato. Let boil.
-Once it boils, stir in sugar, salt, pepper, bay leaves, pepper flakes, juice of half lemon, and 1 cup of water.
-Cook on medium heat for 30-35 minutes until peas are soft.
-Once it's cooked, take out bay leaves and add dill or parsley.
-Let it cool down a bit. Serve warm or cold.

Stuffed Red Bell Peppers (Zeytinyağlı Kırmızı Biber Dolması)

It's almost summer and I cannot help but cook summer dishes. Dolmas simmered in olive oil, i.e. vegetarian dolmas, are perfect summer dishes. They can be served as the main dish for lunch. Also there's nothing like a cold delicious dolma as a side dish for dinner.

stuffs 8-10 medium size red bell peppers

1 cup white rice
2 medium size onions, finely chopped (you can use a food processor)
2 tomatoes, grated or 1 can of petite diced tomato
1 tomato (this one is for covering the tops of red bell peppers after stuffing)
2 tbsp pine nuts
2 tbsp currants
1/2 tbsp all spice
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp mint flakes or ¼ cup fresh mint, chopped finely
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp white sugar
salt
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup olive

optional
1 tbsp basil flakes (it goes really well with the sweetness of red bell peppers)

-Mix well all the ingredients (except for peppers and 1 tomato) in a bowl.
-Wash peppers and take out the top part and the seeds.
-Stuff the peppers with the rice mix with a spoon or your hand.
-Cut small pieces from 1 tomato to cover the top parts of peppers. Press the tomato slice down a bit so that it won’t come out.
-Place the dolmas in a pot. Pour water. Make sure water is 1 inch below the dolmas.
-Let it boil on high heat then turn it to medium and cook for 35-45 minutes.

-You can serve it hot, but olive oil dishes like dolmas taste better when they cool down and taste even better the next day.
-Try them with yogurt.

*If you end up with extra stuffing, you can either freeze it for another time or stuff whatever you have in the fridge: potato, zucchini, tomato, etc.

Vegeterian Stuffed Eggplants (İmam Bayıldı)

İmam bayıldı is one of the most popular olive oil dishes of Turkish cuisine. It literally translates as "imam (the priest) fainted." The rumor goes that imam faints, out of stinginess, when he learns the amount of olive oil used to make this dish.

İmam bayıldı is also known as the vegetarian version of another very popular eggplant dish: stuffed eggplants (karnıyarık). In traditional cuisine eggplants are deep fried as a whole, just like in stuffed eggplants, in preparation of imam bayıldı. And the stuffing is kind of stir fried with olive oil. However, my mom skips the deep and stir frying parts and starts with raw vegetables for a lighter and possibly healthier recipe.


























2 lb small eggplant
1 lb onion, chopped thinly in half-moon shape
4-5 green chilies, chopped
10 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 lb tomato, diced
1 tsp sugar
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
3/4 cup olive oil



















-Peel eggplants in stripes lengthwise. Cut them into four lengthwise leaving the bottom attached. Put them in salty water to prevent darkening.
-Chop onions very thinly in half moon shape. Place them in a bowl and knead with a pinch of salt.
Add finely chopped green peppers and cubed tomatoes to onion.
-Add finely chopped garlic, parsley, salt and sugar to the mixture. Mix them all well.
-Take eggplants out from the salty water by squeezing them well.
-Place eggplants in a broad and shallow pot. With your hand lift the top two parts, open them up, and fill them with the vegetable mixture. If there's any stuffing left, place it on top.
-Pour the olive oil on top along with ½ cup water.
-Cover and cook first on high until it boils, then on low until eggplants are cooked, approximately 30-45 minutes depending on the kind of eggplant.
-This is a traditional olive oil dish, which means that it's served when it's cold and that it's always better the next day.

Stuffed Zucchini with Bulgur (Bulgurlu Kabak Dolması)

I made pepper dolmas with bulgur two weeks ago and we loved it. So, I decided to try the recipe again, this time with zucchini. I picked big zucchinis, carvable in my standards. I cut each zucchini into 3 equal parts and carved carefully so that each one had a thin bottom to hold stuffing. If you work with smaller zucchinis, just cut them into two. With zucchinis I used fresh dill and mint, and also added garlic. And in the end, stuffed zucchinis was as delicious as stuffed peppers with bulgur. Yet again if you don't like bulgur much, try stuffing zucchini with stuffing in this recipe.

3 big zucchinis
1/2 cup coarse bulgur
1 big onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 bunch dill chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint or 2 tsp mint flakes
2 long green chilies like anaheims, chopped
4 medium tomatoes, petite diced
approximately 1 tsp lemon zest
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp crushed peppers
salt
water


























-Saute onion, garlic, green onion, and chilies with 1/4 olive oil for 5-6 minutes.
-Add bulgur, tomato, dill, fresh mint, lemon zest, salt, and crushed peppers. Stir for a minutes. Add 1/3 cup hot water. Cover and cook until bulgur soaks all the water.
-Stuff zucchinis with bulgur mix. Place in a pot facing up.
-Pour hot water half way through zucchinis. Scatter rest of the olive oil. First bring to a boil and then cover and simmer on low for 40-50 minutes or until zucchini is cooked.

Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging is 2 years old! This weeks' WHB is hosted by Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything.

Stuffed Peppers with Bulgur (Bulgurlu Biber Dolması)

This dolma recipe is definitely for those who love bulgur. If you don't like bulgur, then your recipe for stuffed peppers is this one. On the other hand, if you like bulgur, this is a great recipe with fresh herbs and refreshing lemon zest.


























5-6 small bell peppers (do not use those huge American bell peppers; they have really thick skin, are too big for stuffing, and most important of all are not flavorsome)
1/2 cup coarse bulgur
1 big onion, finely chopped
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 bunch dill chopped
1-2 tsp mint flakes
2 long green chilies like anaheims, chopped
4 medium tomatoes, petite diced
approximately 1 tsp lemon zest
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp crushed peppers
salt
water

























-Take the tops of bell peppers. Take the seeds out, wash and rinse.
-Saute onion, green onion, and chilies with 1/4 olive oil for 5-6 minutes.
-Add bulgur, tomato, dill, lemon zest, salt, and crushed peppers. Stir for a minutes. Add 1/3 cup hot water. Cover and cook until bulgur soaks all the water.
-Stuff bell peppers with bulgur mix. Place in a pot facing up.
-Pour hot water half way through peppers. Scatter rest of the olive oil. First bring to a boil and then cover and simmer on low for half an hour.
-Serve warm with yogurt.

This dolma recipe is for Weekend Herb Blogging for the enriching contribution of fresh dill. WHB is founded by Kalyn and is hosted by Ulrike of Kuchenlatein.

Eggplant Stew with Rice (Patlıcanlı Cive)

I'm still posting eggplant recipes, and I still have more, because eggplants and zucchinis are the main things we've been getting from farmers market every week for over a month now. And I took the opportunity to show how Turks are crazy about eggplant! Cive is a great summer dish from the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, Antalya. Cive is good warm or cold, with yogurt or bread. The main point is to make it with green tomatoes that give cive the desired sour taste.


























1 lb eggplant, peeled partially leaving lengthwise stripes and diced
2 medium onions, cut in thin half moons
10-12 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
3 green chilies, chopped
3 tomatoes (preferably green tomatoes for a sour taste), peeled and petite diced
3 tbsp rice
1/4 cup olive
1 tsp black pepper
salt
2 or 3 tbsp chopped fresh basil or mint OR t tbsp dry mint or basil



























-Heat oil in a pot. Add onion and garlic. Stir for 3-4 minutes.
-Add chopped chilies. Stir for a couple of minutes.
-Add tomato, eggplant, black pepper, salt. Stir one and do not stir again; otherwise eggplant will get mushy.
-Cover and cook on low-medium until vegetables will get juicy in the pot. Stir in rice nice and polite.
-Cover and cook on low for 30-40 minutes.
-Before you serve, sprinkle chopped basil or mint.

As much as the green tomatoes, fresh basil is what makes this eggplant dish distinctive and special. And for the sake of fresh basil, this is my contribution for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, which was hosted by Kalyn and is hosted this week by Myriam of Once Upon a Tart.

Eggplant and Lentil Stew with Pomegranate Molasses (Mualle)

Here's another delicious certified Turkish eggplant recipe. I had mualle first in İstanbul at Çiya Restaurant. The owner and chef of Çiya, Musa Dağdeviren, is not only a great chef but also a passionate researcher of forgotten Anatolian recipes. He has traveled all around Anatolia and collected almost 4 thousand local recipes. That's why Çiya's menu changes daily. One of those 4 thousand recipes, Mualle, is a summer stew from Antakya. Mualle that I had at Çiya was so good that I got very excited when I found Dağdeviren's recipe in Food & Wine. Try this recipe before the last eggplants of the season start to disappear from farmers markets.

























3-4 long narrow eggplants, peeled in lengthwise stripes
1/2 cup green lentils
1 medium onion, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 banana peppers or any long thin green chilies, seeded and chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped or 2 tbsp dry mint
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tbsp tomato paste
2/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp pomegranate molasses (you can find pm easily at Middle Eastern markets)
salt
























-Peel the eggplant partially and leave lengthwise stripes of skin. Cut them into 4 lengthwise. Chop every piece crosswise into 3. Place them on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Let them stand for an hour.
-Bring green lentils to a boil with 2 cups of water. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until lentils are soft.
-In a bowl mix tomatoes, green chilies, onion, garlic, mint, salt, crushed peppers, and tomato paste.
-Coat a small cast-iron casserole with 1-2 tbsp of olive oil. Put 1/2 cup of veggie mix on bottom. Cover with half of the eggplant, then half of the lentils, and half of the remaining veggie mix. Top first with remaining eggplant, then with lentils, and then with veggie mix.
-Pour olive oil around the side. Sprinkle pomegranate molasses.
-Bring the stew to a boil. Then cover and turn it down to low and simmer for 1-1 1/2 hours.

Mualle is good with rice and yogurt.

Spinach with Soft Wheat Berries (Buğdaylı Ispanak)

I usually cook spinach with white rice. I had bought a big bag of soft wheat berries for another recipe. They are tastier than bulgur, and softer and easier to chew than brown rice. I decided to use them with spinach for a great summer recipe.

























1 full cup of pearl onions, or 1 big onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
3 tomatoes, grated or 1 can diced tomato
1 cup cooked soft wheat berries
1 lb / almost 1/2 kilo spinach, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
1 cup vegetable stock or water (hot)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
salt
black pepper (optional)
red pepper flakes (optional)

























-1/3 cup of soft wheat berries will make approximately 1 cup when they're cooked. Boil 1/3 cup soft wheat berries in 3-4 cups of water until berries are soft.
-Heat the oil in a broad pot. Stir onion and garlic until slightly brown.
-Pour in tomatoes and cook for 5-8 minutes.
-Stir in spinach, lemon juice, sugar, salt, pepper(s), and berries.
-Pour vegetable stock.
-Cover and cook on medium for 30-35 minutes.
-You serve it cold or hot. It goes well with fresh bread and yogurt.

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers (Zeytinyağlı Biber Dolma)

Another great traditional olive oil dish recipe: Stuffed peppers with olive oil. Olive oil dishes are cooked only with olive oil; best when they're served cold; and are usually summer dishes. There are two ways to cook stuffed peppers with olive oil: on the stove and in the oven. In my family we like baked stuffed peppers. Here's another certified Turkish recipe from my mom.












2 lb small green bell peppers (approximately 18-20 peppers)

2 cups white rice

4 medium size onions, finely chopped (you can use a food processor)

3 tomatoes, grated

1 tomato (this one is for covering the tops of bell peppers after stuffing)

1/3 cup pine nuts

1/3 cup currants

1 tbsp all spice

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp mint flakes or ¼ cup fresh mint, chopped finely

1 tsp white sugar

salt

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 cup olive

-Mix well all the ingredients (except for peppers and 1 tomato) in a bowl.

-Wash peppers and take out the top part and the seeds.

-Stuff the peppers with the rice mix with a spoon or your hand.

-Cut small pieces from 1 tomato to cover the top part of peppers. Press the tomato slice down a bit so that it won’t come out.

-Place the dolmas in an oven dish which is as tall as dolmas. Pour on top 2 cups of boiling water.

-First let it boil for 5 minutes on stove. Than, bake it in a preheated oven at 400F for 35-40 minutes until rice is cooked and tops are browned. Check them regularly if you don’t want to burn the tops.

-It’s better cold, but good when it’s hot, too.

Artichokes Stuffed with Fresh Fava Beans (Zeytinyağlı İç Baklalı Enginar)

Usually fava beans and stuffed artichokes are cooked separately. They're both famous dishes of the Aegean cuisine. Fava beans can be found throughout Turkey, but it's hard to find fresh artichokes outside the Turkish Aegean coast. Tasty artichokes grow close to coastal lines in iodine-rich soil. Artichokes stuffed with fresh fava beans is one of the unique dishes of the Aegean cuisine. Their union is a feast that I first tasted in Izmir.

You can find both artichokes and fava beans frozen at big supermarkets or international markets.

1 lb peeled artichokes (7-8 pieces)
1 lb fresh fava beans.
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 bunch green onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp dried mint flakes or 1/2 bunch fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
juice of 2 lemons
1/3 cup olive oil
1 bunch dill, chopped
1 tsp sugar
salt
1 cup hot water


























-Heat oil in a broad pot. Stir in onion and green onion. Let them soften.
-Add fava beans, mint, and half of dill. Stir for 3-4 minutes.
-Add lemon juice, sugar, and hot water. Place artichokes in the pot: pointy sides facing up.
-Seal the pot with aluminum foil and place the lid. Cook on medium for 25-30 minutes or until beans are cooked.
-Once you turn it off, sprinkle salt. Let artichokes cool in the pot.
-When they're not hot anymore place artichokes on a serving plate and with a spoon stuff them with fava beans.
-Sprinkle the rest of dill on top.










This is a Turkish olive oil dish which is always served and eaten cold. It's great with yogurt or garlicy yogurt sauce on the side.

This recipe is for WHB is back at home at Kalyn's this weekend.