Turkmen Recipes

Turkmen cooking comes from desert and oasis life, built on mutton, wheat, rice and dairy. Fat-tailed sheep supply both the meat and the cooking fat, and the dishes are slow, simple and filling. Bread is baked in clay ovens, and every family has its own habits for dough, shaping and sesame. A feast opens with soup, often a clear mutton chorba or dograma, in which torn bread is moistened with rich broth. Pies and pastries are well loved: gutap, thin flatbreads folded around spinach, pumpkin or herbs, and içlekli, a large round meat pie baked for honored guests. Palaw, manty and grilled skewers are shared with neighboring kitchens but cooked here with a light hand with spice. Cracked-wheat ýarma, noodle soups and vermicelli milk puddings round out holiday menus. Fermented dairy such as gatyk (thick drinking yogurt) and çal, fermented camel's milk, cool the long summer, and green tea is poured throughout every meal.

Staple ingredients

• mutton
• wheat flour
• rice
• onions
• carrots
• yogurt and fermented milk
• sesame
• green tea

• Soups 1
• Main Dishes 3
• Desserts 1
• Snacks 1

Soups

• Dograma (Turkmen Torn Bread in Mutton Broth)TM2 h 50 minMedium

Main Dishes

• Palaw (Turkmen Mutton and Carrot Pilaf)TM2 hMedium
• Içlekli (Turkmen Layered Meat Pie)TM1 h 45 minMedium
• Ýarma (Turkmen Cracked Wheat with Mutton)TM1 h 15 minEasy

Desserts

• Süýtlaş (Turkmen Vermicelli Milk Pudding)TM25 minEasy

Snacks

• Gutap (Turkmen Stuffed Flatbread)TM1 h 15 minMedium