Kisir, a great Turkish dish
Kisir is a traditional salad of Turkish cuisine based on bulgur and tomato puree, flavored with parsley, spices and biber salçası, a pepper paste. Cucumber, shallot, fresh tomato and also nar eksisi, pomegranate molasses are also added to the salad.
While Turks love to serve it to accompany grilled meat on the barbecue, the most common way to consume kisir is meze.
Another typical Turkish way to eat kisir is to put a spoonful of salad inside a lettuce leaf and eat it all together.
Kisir in Turkish cuisine
This dish is particularly representative of two fundamental elements of Turkish cuisine: bulgur and salads.
Bulgur, the star ingredient of the recipe, occupies a central place in the country’s culinary traditions. This is explained by the fact that the first wheat crops appeared in the Middle East, on the Mesopotamian lands that today correspond to Iraq, Syria and southeastern Turkey. For centuries, bulgur and other grains derived from wheat have therefore formed the basis of Turkish food.
As examples, bulgur pilavi is another bulgur dish with tomato sauce and spices that is enjoyed hot. There is also kibbeh, which are fried meatballs wrapped in bulgur.
Salads, on the other hand, are also part of the local culinary heritage. This type of dish is therefore very popular during the heat of the Turkish summer and very simple to eat in mezze.
Among the best known Turkish salads is çoban salatası, “Shepherd’s salad” which consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and aromatic herbs. There is also the piyaz salad with white beans and the Ezme, with tomatoes.
