A light and tasty salad is a no-brainer for lunch or a healthy meal option in Türkiye. Most Turkish dishes are accompanied by a big bowl of goodness – tomatoes, fresh herbs and cucumber even appear at the table for breakfast! Here’s a look at a few easy to make traditional Turkish salads ideal for serving the guests and the diet-conscious this summer.
POPULAR TRADITIONAL TURKISH SALADS
Coban Salatasi (Shepherds Salad)
Pay a visit to any traditional Turkish restaurant or lokanta and you find coban salatası either as a side option or served as standard with your meal. It’s one of Türkiye’s most well-loved salads and a great dish to prepare during the hot summer months when the ingredients are at their best.
Shepherds salad is a refreshing combo of finely chopped and mixed cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, parsley and green peppers, all dressed in a refreshing mix of fresh lemon juice and olive oil. It goes wonderfully with grilled fish and is equally good served with a wedge of crusty village bread to soak up all the juices.
Antakya Zeytin Salatasi (Green Olive Salad)
Zeytin salatasi or zeytin piyaz is a perfect dish to serve if you’re entertaining olive lovers. It originated in Antakya, quick and easy to prepare, and it’s great served at breakfast or as a side dish. This option highlights the beautiful green olives available with your yachting provisions in Türkiye.
The stars of zeytin salatasi are juicy pitted green olives, with the finely chopped spring onions, diced summer tomatoes, flatleaf parsley and other seasonal herbs really adding colour and a depth of flavour to the dish. The dressing is a mix of good quality olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, sweet pomegranate syrup, red pepper flakes and a little dried thyme, all whisked together, poured over and left to blend for up to an hour. Some variations also contain walnuts for an extra protein kick or pomegranate kernels for texture, colour and added zing.
Piyaz (White Bean Salad)
Turkish piyaz often crops up on menus as a side or meze option as it goes wonderfully with grilled lamb or meatballs. The word piyaz is a general term referring to a white bean salad (normally cannellini bean), of which there are many variations in Türkiye. The Antalya version is considered the best by many, and it’s often served as a main and contains tahini.
Most piyaz salads are served simply, with a base of onions smashed with salt and a little sumac, chopped flatleaf parsley, diced tomatoes, and a light lemon and olive oil dressing. You may find some boiled egg or chopped flame-grilled peppers in some. Others include spring or red onions, but the Antalya piyaz dressing includes tahini and garlic, making it a hearty dish that appeals to vegetarians.
Semizotu Salatasi (Purslane Salad)
Come spring and early summer the local markets are filled with semizotu, a wild, almost watercress-like weed packed full of Omega-3 fatty acids. A purslane salad is light and tasty, so perfect for those on a diet as it contains almost no calories.
Lots of traditional Turkish salads and meze contain purslane. Most chefs roughly chop it and add it to seasonal leaves, tomatoes and cucumber – perhaps with some black olives and feta. Other chefs use the purslane leaves as the main event, mixing it with a seasoned garlic yoghurt dressing and serving it as a side to grilled seabass or other seasonal fish.
Beyin Salad (Sheeps Brain Salad)
Here’s an unusual Turkish salad that dates back to the 11th-century. Beyin salad’s main ingredient is boiled lamb brains, once regarded as a delicacy by the elite who believed the brain was the best and most important part of the sheep.
Lambs brain salad is a cold salad made by boiling the brain in salted water and vinegar until tender, then allowing it to cool before chopping it into slices or bite-sized pieces. Other common ingredients include chopped tomatoes, parsley, and olives. The dish is seasoned with salt and dressed in olive oil before serving as part of a meze platter or as a stand-alone dish.
Patlican Salatasi (Aubergine Salad)
Turk’s love their aubergines, and a number of the most well-loved traditional Turkish salads highlight the wonderful smokey flavour of roasted eggplant. The ingredients in aubergine salad differ from chef to chef, but most use chopped or mashed roast aubergine, onions, tomatoes, grilled red peppers, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. It’s a dish that’s perfect for serving at a beach BBQ event.
Another popular aubergine option and restaurant favourite is Baba Gannouş (baba ganoush). Again, the ingredients vary according to the region. Some chefs use roughly chopped aubergine combined with regular salad ingredients. Others mix mashed grilled eggplant with yoghurt and garlic. This is a versatile dish that’s often used as a base for Turkish meat or kebab dishes or served a flavoursome side or meze.
Ezme Salatasi (Spicy Tomato Salad)
Ezme is a standard meze salad served at most restaurants in Türkiye. It’s a dish that’s refreshing, with the authentic version packing a real punch in the chilli department. It’s a great salad to serve with fresh pide bread or as a side for meat dishes.
Turkish ezme is a winning combo of fresh tomatoes, onion, parsley, green chilli, peppers and garlic, all finely diced and mixed with a dressing of lemon, olive oil and sweet pomegranate syrup.
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