Tarhana Soup
Turkish: Tarhana Corbasi
I think this is one of the most prepared soups of Turkish kitchen. You can eat it any time of the day, including breakfast. Its origin is going back to the Turks who migrated from Middle Asia. They dried all their food and they came up with tarhana to be able to save yogurt for a long time. This is one of the oldest instant soups in the world.
Tarhana is made of yogurt, mint, flour, red and green pepper, tomatoes and onion. In Western Turkey it’s a must to add dill as well. After mixing all the ingredients the dough is covered by a fabric and waits for a week to ferment. This fermentation time will determine the taste of the tarhana. The longer it waits, the more sour it gets. The dough is then broken into small pieces and spread on a fabric to dry. This is done in the shadow during hot summer days. The dry pieces are later powdered by rubbing. Now you know how to prepare tarhana.
If you want to skip this part, I think you need to visit Turkey, since I don’t think you can find the tarhana powder anywhere else. I will soon post information about some interesting places in Turkey, so you will have chance to see them as well.
Here is the recipe for the tarhana soup;
Ingredients for 4 persons:
8 tbsp tarhana
3 lt water
1 dl butter
1 onion
1 tbsp Turkish tomato paste
1 clove of garlic
Salt
Mint
Parsley
Chili
Directions:
- Mix tarhana in cold water in a bowl
- Heat butter in a pot and add chopped onion and garlic, stir for some minutes
- Add Turkish tomato paste and stir a bit more
- Add the tarhana and water mix
- Add salt, chili and the herbs
- Stir non-stop until it boils and let it boil on low heat for a short while (if you don’t stir non-stop it will burn on the bottom of the pot)
- Let it cool down before serve
Tarhana soup is best with roasted bread, pickle, fresh mint, green pepper or radish.
A.
