I always think it must be very easy to be vegetarian here in Turkey because what with the abundance of fresh vegetables here, the cuisine includes so many non-meat dishes. Think of all those meze for a start. Now me, I am not vegetarian: I just love vegetables!
You might say courgettes – kabak – are not seasonal and you would be right. For me too they spell summer but with the addition of the chickpeas/nohut, the dish acquires a whole new wintry dimension. Anyway there they were at the market no less so I succumbed and bought some. In Turkish this dish is called Ekşili Kabak – my Turkish husband says he has never heard of it! Probably because he is more used to Kıymalı Kabak/courgettes with mince, which is the classic. But I was burning to make this: I love pulses in any form so I knew I’d love this combination which I first saw in Alev Kaman’s book ‘Modern Türk Mutfağı’.
I say airily I love pulses but I hardly knew what they were when I first came here. They were not English staples by any stretch of the imagination and when I saw the amount of work it took to prepare them – think mother-in-law with a pile of lentils in front of her sifting through them meticulously fishing out the little pieces of stone – it was hardly a given that I too would try my hand.
After similar sorting, the dried nohut had to be soaked the night before and then boiled. No wonder a pressure cooker was a prize possession in those days: cooking Turkish-style was a long-winded business. Eventually I bought one myself but I never really took to it. It now languishes on the top shelf in my kitchen today. But I do know that especially the older generation of Turkish home cooks still swear by it.
1. I mentioned those tomato and pepper pastes in the recent kapuska post. One little caveat: the pepper one comes in 2 types: acı as in hot or spicy, and tatlı/sweet.You can use either depending on your taste. Be careful as acı really is acı!
2.These pastes or purees are sold in both tins and jars of all sizes. Always get a small jar as it will keep much better and anyway I’m betting that you’re not going to be using it in huge quantities on a regular basis, are you?
Oh Claudia…thanks for this recipe. I'm not a big fan of courgettes but I do use them, along with most other vegetables here, because they help to pad out a meal…meat being expensive! I always have biber salça and domates salça in the fridge, and of course dried mint. This recipe sounds delicious.
So good to combine the two! At first, I thought you'd make a hummus with chickpeas and use the veggies as pita chips. This is new and promises to be tasty.
I could easily give up meat but never fish, this recipe looks delicious and lovely to have another one for courgettes. Thank you.
I love the photo of the chillies…so colourful.
Much love from Germany (until later today)xx
SUPERSIN CANIM NE GUZEL ANLATIYORSUN
HARIKA GORUNUYOR AFIYET OLSUN
SEVGILER
How lovely to find all your comments!! The thing about this recipe and so many other Turkish ones is that are extremely simple: the secret is that all the ingredients are so fresh. If they weren't, the final dish would probably be very bland.
Yes, I love that pepper photo too!
Mutfakistan: çok teşekkürler o güzel yorum için! Praise indeed from you!
This sounds delicious and I can't wait to cook it. I'm always looking for something different to do with those ubiquitous courgettes