Soups

Çorbalar

Appears in

Published 1989

About

In classical Turkish cuisine a meal always starts with soup. It is said that Turks in Central Asia drank tarhana soup – a soup of dried curds and cereals – and the 11th-century Classical Turkish Dictionary has an entry for tutmaç soup made with noodles, meat and yoghurt.

Turkish soups are generally served hot, even in the hotter regions, but there are exceptions, and in Adıyaman in southeastern Anatolia döğmeli yogurt çorbası – a soup made with yoghurt – is served cold. In Mardin this same soup is served cold as a dessert with grape syrup (pekmez) poured on it. The Easter lunch menu of the Christian inhabitants of Mardin, composed of roast mutton, rice, boiled eggs and Easter cakes, also includes this cold soup which they believe represents the purity of the Virgin Mary.