Name: Quince-Flavored Tarhana Soup with Chickpeas and Paprika Sizzle
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Turkey
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons Turkish red pepper flakes (see Mail Order Sources); Salt; 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon tomato paste; 4 cups meat stock; ½ cup quince-flavored tarhana; 1 dried New Mexican chile; 4 tablespoons butter; 4 ounces lamb shoulder meat, trimmed of excess fat and erisde, and cut into ¼ - inch dice (½ cup); ½ cup cooked chickpeas, drained

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen

By Paula Wolfert

Published 2003

About

Tarhana is a rustic cereal with a gentle, sour flavor, which comes from the addition of, among other things, yogurt, soured milk, or yeast. There are many versions of rustic pasta in the eastern Mediterranean with different combinations of grains and flavorings.

Most of the tarhana soups I’ve tasted—even in Turkey, where they are a winter evening staple—have been filling and nutritious, but also somewhat bland. Not so this version from the Black Sea town of Amasra. It is, in my opin