Türk Mutfağı · The Anatolian Table

Turkish Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Step into the kitchens of Anatolia, where lamb roasts slowly under a spoonful of butter, lentil soup finishes with a sizzle of dried mint, and the sea bass of the Aegean asks for nothing but good olive oil. Copper pans, honest fats, and patience, the way Turkey has always cooked.

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Tereyağı Butter✶ Olive Oil✶ Ghee
An elegantly plated Turkish dish on a dark restaurant table
✶ Kuzu Tandır
From the recipe collection
Tereyağı

Butter First

Anatolian cooking begins with tereyağı, sweet butter from the high plateaus. Our soups, pilafs, and pastries start there, never with a refined seed oil.

Zeytinyağı

Aegean Olive Oil

Along the Aegean coast the kitchen runs on olive oil, pressed from old groves and poured with a generous hand over vegetables, fish, and warm bread.

Asla

Never Vegetable Oil

No seed oils, no shortcuts. Only the traditional fats that Turkish home kitchens and neighborhood lokantas have trusted for generations.

✶
From Our Kitchen

Turkish Recipes

Six beloved dishes from the Anatolian and Aegean table, each cooked with the honest fats that bring out the best in every ingredient.

Anatolia Kuzu Tandir, slow roasted lamb resting on a serving board

Kuzu Tandır

Slow roasted lamb in tereyağı butter

4 hr 30 min·6 servings·Medium

The great celebration dish of Anatolia. A shoulder of lamb rubbed with butter and warm spices, then roasted low and slow until it slips from the bone at the touch of a spoon.

Ingredients

  • 2 kg bone-in lamb shoulder or leg
  • 100 g tereyağı (butter), softened
  • 6 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 250 ml hot water or lamb broth
  • Warm flatbread and roasted onions, to serve

Instructions

  1. Bring the lamb to room temperature and pat it very dry. Heat the oven to 150°C (300°F).
  2. Work the soft butter with the garlic, salt, oregano, cumin, and pepper into a rough paste and massage it over every side of the lamb.
  3. Set the lamb in a deep roasting pan with the bay leaves, pour the hot water around it, and cover the pan tightly with a lid or a double layer of foil.
  4. Roast for about 4 hours, basting once each hour with the buttery pan juices.
  5. Uncover, raise the heat to 200°C (400°F), and roast 20 minutes more until the surface is deeply burnished.
  6. Rest the lamb 20 minutes under loose foil, then pull the meat into generous pieces.
  7. Serve over warm flatbread with roasted onions, spooning the pan butter over the top.
Ege Levrek Izgara, grilled sea bass fillet dressed with olive oil and herbs

Levrek Izgara

Aegean grilled sea bass in olive oil

30 min·2 servings·Easy

The pride of the Aegean shore. Whole sea bass brushed with good olive oil, grilled over steady heat, and finished with little more than lemon, oregano, and parsley.

Ingredients

  • 2 whole sea bass, cleaned and scaled
  • 5 tbsp olive oil, divided
  • 1 lemon, half juiced and half in wedges
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • Sea salt and black pepper
  • A handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
  • A pinch of sumac (optional)
  • 1 small bunch of arugula
  • Crusty bread, to serve

Instructions

  1. Pat the fish very dry, inside and out, and cut three shallow slashes into each side.
  2. Season generously with salt and pepper and brush all over with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil.
  3. Heat a grill or a heavy ridged pan until firmly hot, then lay the fish down and leave it alone for 5 to 6 minutes until the skin releases easily.
  4. Turn once and grill the second side another 5 to 6 minutes until the flesh flakes at the bone.
  5. Meanwhile whisk the remaining olive oil with the lemon juice, garlic, oregano, and parsley.
  6. Rest the fish 2 minutes, then spoon the dressing over, dust with sumac, and serve on arugula with lemon wedges and bread.
İstanbul Karniyarik, stuffed eggplant with vegetables in a rustic dish

Karnıyarık

Stuffed eggplant in olive oil

1 hr 15 min·4 servings·Medium

Istanbul's beloved split belly eggplant. Whole eggplants fried gently in olive oil, filled with spiced meat and tomatoes, and baked until silky all the way through.

Ingredients

  • 4 slender eggplants
  • 6 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 300 g ground lamb or beef
  • 2 ripe tomatoes, 1 chopped and 1 sliced
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 small green peppers
  • A handful of parsley, chopped, plus salt and black pepper
  • 150 ml hot water

Instructions

  1. Peel the eggplants in stripes, leaving bands of skin, and salt them for 15 minutes, then pat dry.
  2. Warm the olive oil in a wide pan and fry the eggplants, turning, until golden on all sides and beginning to soften. Set them into a baking dish.
  3. In the same pan cook the onion until sweet, add the garlic and meat, and brown well.
  4. Stir in the tomato paste, chopped tomato, half the parsley, salt, and pepper, and cook 5 minutes more.
  5. Split each eggplant down the middle without cutting through, press the sides open, and pack in the filling.
  6. Top each with a tomato slice and a piece of green pepper, pour the hot water around, and bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30 minutes.
  7. Rest briefly, shower with the remaining parsley, and serve warm with rice or bread.
Lokanta Mercimek Corbasi, red lentil soup in a warm bowl with herbs

Mercimek Çorbası

Red lentil soup with butter

40 min·4 servings·Easy

The soup that opens every Turkish day. Red lentils simmered soft with vegetables, blended silky, and finished with a sizzling spoonful of butter, dried mint, and pepper.

Ingredients

  • 200 g red lentils, rinsed
  • 60 g butter, divided
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1.4 litres chicken broth or water
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • Sea salt and black pepper
  • 1 tsp dried mint and 1 tsp pul biber, for the finishing butter
  • Lemon wedges, to serve

Instructions

  1. Melt 40 g of the butter in a soup pot and soften the onion and carrot for 6 to 8 minutes.
  2. Stir in the tomato paste and cumin and cook until fragrant.
  3. Add the lentils and broth, bring to a simmer, and cook 20 to 25 minutes until everything is completely tender.
  4. Blend the soup until silky, adding a splash of water if it thickens, and season with salt and pepper.
  5. Melt the remaining butter in a small pan until it foams, then pull it off the heat and stir in the dried mint and pul biber.
  6. Ladle the soup into bowls, spoon the sizzling mint butter over the top, and serve with lemon wedges.
Fırın Pide, golden baked flatbread dusted with flour on a bakery board

Peynirli Pide

Flatbread baked with olive oil

2 hr 30 min·4 pide·Medium

The boat shaped flatbread of the Turkish fırın. A soft olive oil dough shaped by hand, filled with white cheese and parsley, and baked hot until the edges turn deep gold.

Ingredients

  • 500 g bread flour
  • 7 g instant yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 300 ml warm water
  • 5 tbsp olive oil, plus more for brushing
  • 200 g crumbled white cheese (beyaz peynir or feta)
  • A handful of parsley, chopped
  • 1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 tbsp water
  • Nigella or sesame seeds, to finish

Instructions

  1. Whisk the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt, then add the warm water and olive oil and knead 10 minutes to a soft, supple dough.
  2. Cover and let it rise about 1 hour 30 minutes until doubled.
  3. Divide into 4 pieces and roll each into a long oval on a floured board.
  4. Mix the cheese with the parsley, spread it down the middle of each oval, and fold the long edges in, pinching the ends into points to make a boat.
  5. Brush the rims with the egg yolk and scatter with nigella seeds.
  6. Bake on a hot stone or tray at 240°C (465°F) for 12 to 15 minutes until deep gold.
  7. Brush the warm crusts with olive oil and serve cut into wide ribbons.
Bayram Sekerpare, golden semolina cookies glistening with syrup on a plate

Şekerpare

Butter semolina cookies in syrup

1 hr 15 min·20 cookies·Easy

The little bayram sweet found in every Turkish pastry case. Tender semolina cookies made rich with butter, baked gold, and left to drink a bright lemon syrup.

Ingredients

  • 150 g soft butter
  • 100 g icing sugar
  • 1 egg, plus 1 yolk for glazing
  • 150 g fine semolina
  • 200 g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla sugar
  • 20 blanched almonds
  • 400 g sugar, for the syrup
  • 450 ml water and the juice of half a lemon, for the syrup

Instructions

  1. Start with the syrup: boil the sugar and water 10 minutes, add the lemon juice, boil 5 minutes more, and let it cool fully.
  2. Beat the soft butter with the icing sugar until pale, then beat in the whole egg and vanilla sugar.
  3. Fold in the semolina, flour, and baking powder to a soft dough that just holds its shape.
  4. Roll into walnut sized balls, set them spaced on a lined tray, and press an almond into each.
  5. Brush with the beaten yolk and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20 to 22 minutes until golden.
  6. Pour the cool syrup over the hot cookies as soon as they leave the oven.
  7. Let them rest at least 30 minutes to drink the syrup before serving.
A cook working at a warm stove in a busy home kitchen
Our Kitchen

The Kitchen Behind Maizva Mutfak

Maizva Mutfak is a small home kitchen devoted to the cooking of Turkey, from the slow tandır ovens of Anatolia to the olive groves of the Aegean coast. We write these recipes down the way they are still cooked in family kitchens and neighborhood lokantas, in copper pans, over patient heat, and always with a generous hand on the butter.

Our only house rule is an old one: tereyağı from the dairy, olive oil from the coast, ghee clarified gently on a low flame and nothing else. Vegetable oil never comes through our door, because it never sat on the tables we learned from.

Afiyet olsun, may it feed you well.