Turkish cuisine is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, which can be described as a fusion and refinement of Mediterranean, Balkan, Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Eastern European, Armenian, and Georgian cuisines. Turkish cuisine has in turn influenced those and other neighbouring cuisines, including those of Southeast Europe (Balkans), Central Europe, and Western Europe. The Ottomans fused various culinary traditions of their realm with influences from Mesopotamian cuisine, Greek cuisine, Levantine cuisine, Egyptian cuisine, Balkan cuisine, along with traditional Turkic elements from Central Asia, creating a vast array of specialities.
Tartar sauce is a cold sauce made of mayonnaise, chopped pickles, capers and herbs such as tarragon and dill. Tartar sauce can also be enhanced with the addition of other varieties of herbs, lemon juice, or olives.
Tzatziki, also known as tarator or cacık, is a dip, soup, or sauce found in the cuisines of Southeast Europe and the Middle East. It is made of salted strained yogurt or diluted yogurt mixed with cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil, sometimes with vinegar or lemon juice, and herbs such as dill, mint, parsley and thyme. It is served as a cold appetizer (mezze), a side dish, and as a sauce for souvlaki and gyros sandwiches and other foods.
Hummus is a Middle Eastern dip, spread, or savory dish made from cooked, mashed chickpeas blended with tahini, lemon juice, and garlic. The standard garnish in the Middle East includes olive oil, a few whole chickpeas, parsley, and paprika.
Vicia faba, also known in the culinary sense as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption, and also as a cover crop. Varieties with smaller, harder seeds that are fed to horses or other animals are called field bean, tic bean or tick bean. Horse bean, Vicia faba var. equinaPers., is a variety recognized as an accepted name. This legume is very common in the cuisines of Southern European, Northern European, East Asian, Latin American and North African cuisines.
Dolma is a family of stuffed dishes common in Anatolian, Levantine, Caucasian, Mesopotamian, and Iranian cuisines, that can be served warm or cold. Some types of dolma are made with whole vegetables, fruit, offal or seafood, while others are made by wrapping grape, cabbage, or other leaves around the filling. Wrapped dolma are known as sarma.
Taramasalata or taramosalata is a meze made from tarama, the salted and cured roe of the cod, carp, or grey mullet (bottarga) mixed with olive oil, lemon juice, and a starchy base of bread or potatoes, or sometimes almonds. Variants may include garlic, spring onions, or peppers, or vinegar instead of lemon juice. While not traditionally Greek, smoked rather than cured cod's roe is more widely available in some places, and often used. Bottarga is usually much more expensive than cod's roe.
Ful medames, or simply fūl, is a stew of cooked fava beans served with olive oil, cumin, and optionally with chopped parsley, garlic, onion, lemon juice, chili pepper, and other vegetable, herb, and spice ingredients. Ful medames are traditionally made in and served out of a large metal jug. It is notably a staple food in Egypt and is considered a national dish, especially in the northern cities of Cairo and Gizah. Ful medames is also a common part of the cuisines of many Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African cuisines.
Iraqi cuisine or Mesopotamian Cuisine is a Middle Eastern cuisine that has its origins from Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and the other groups of the region.
A purée is cooked food, usually vegetables, fruits or legumes, that has been ground, pressed, blended or sieved to the consistency of a creamy paste or liquid. Purées of specific foods are often known by specific names, e.g., applesauce or hummus. The term is of French origin, where it meant in Old French purified or refined.
Sarma, commonly marketed as stuffed cabbage leaves, is a stuffed dish in Southeastern European and Middle Eastern cuisine that comprises fermented leaves—such as cabbage, patencia dock, collard, grapevine, kale or chard leaves—rolled around a filling of grains, minced meat, or both. Sarma is part of the broader category of stuffed dishes known as dolma.
Bean salad is a common cold salad composed of various cooked beans – typically green, wax, kidney, and/or lima beans - tossed in a sweet-sour vinaigrette. Variant ingredients include fresh raw onions, bell pepper, and/or other cooked or raw vegetables, such as chickpeas.
Sephardic Jewish cuisine is an assortment of cooking traditions that developed among the Sephardi Jews.
Many cuisines feature eggplant salads and appetizers.
Maccu,, is a Sicilian soup and also a foodstuff that is prepared with dried and crushed fava beans and fennel as primary ingredients. Several dishes exist using maccu as a foodstuff, such as Bruschetta al maccú and Maccu di San Giuseppe, the latter of which may be served on Saint Joseph's Day in Sicily.
Bissara, also known as Bessara, Besarah and Tamarakt is a soup and a bean dip in North African cuisine of Berber origin, prepared with dried, puréed broad beans as a primary ingredient. Additional ingredients include garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, hot red pepper, cumin, and salt. Bissara is sometimes prepared using split peas or chickpeas. In Egypt, bissara also includes herbs or leafy greens—particularly parsley, mint, dill, spinach, or molokhiya, though the latter is more commonly added by Egyptian expatriates in Palestine—and is eaten with bread as a dip. It is typically inexpensive, and has been described as a pauper's dish.
Garlic sauce is a sauce prepared using garlic as a primary ingredient. It is typically a pungent sauce, with the depth of garlic flavor determined by the amount of garlic used. The garlic is typically crushed or finely diced. Simple garlic sauce is composed of garlic and another ingredient to suspend the bulb via emulsion, such as oil, butter or mayonnaise. Various additional ingredients can be used to prepare the sauce.
