Turkish Meal Mondays: Cacık

Turkish Meal Mondays are a glimpse into the food we enjoy here in Turkey, accompanied by a recipe.  Mondays are one of our favourite days, because they're Market Days. Ever since our first market day a year and a half ago we have only missed two, due to torrential down pour a few weeks ago.  Our trips to the market will continue to focus on selecting fresh and delish produce to use in our weekly Turkish recipes.  Get ready... This blog just became appealing to foodies. 

 One of my absolute FAVOURITE Turkish side dishes is cacık.  I'm not sure whether you would classify this as a soup, or a salad, or what... because its a soupy consistency, but it's cold... but it's not Italian, so I feel like we can't call it Gazpacho... and I can't find it in any of my recipe books, sooo... you decide.

Besides being DELICIOUS, and fresh on a summer day (or any day), it's super easy to make.  I think it took all of 10 minutes from start to finish.  Woohoo!

 Ingredients: 2 cucumbers, Turkish or Greek style plain yogurt, dried mint, red pepper flakes, black pepper, salt, and water.  (Zeynep wanted to be sure that I used cold, clean water. I was going to use dish water... but I guess I'll spring for the fresh stuff.)

 Peel cucumbers so that there are stripes of green left.  Next, grate them with a cheese grater.  Set the grated cucumber in a colander.  Sprinkle with salt to soften.  Set to the side. 

Scoop a cup or two of yogurt into a bowl.  Pour in splash of clean water. Beat until smooth.  Yogurt should be thin enough to drip off the sides of your spoon.

Add a tea spoon of red pepper flakes and a sprinkling of black pepper.

Add a few table spoons of mint flakes.

Mix well.

Add in cucumber, and mix again.

Serve cold.

Today, with your cooking lesson, you get a Turkish lesson!

Senden cacık olmaz.

Pronounced: San Dan Jajuk Ol mas. 

This is an insult meaning something like,"You're less than cacık."  Confusing for someone who thinks cacık is such a delicacy. 

Thank you Zeynep for the recipe, and Kamil for the insult.  

Afiyet Olsun!