What is the national dish of Turkey?
Turkey has no official national dish, but the one most often given the title is kuru fasulye: white beans stewed with tomato, onion and often lamb, served with rice pilav. Ask Turks and you will also hear kebab, köfte, mantı or lentil soup. Here is why kuru fasulye wins, the other contenders, and where to try them in London.
Kuru fasulye: Turkey’s unofficial national dish
Kuru fasulye means “dried beans”. White beans are soaked, then cooked slowly with onion, tomato and red pepper paste, often with chunks of lamb or beef or slices of pastırma. It is served over buttery rice pilav with pickles and a raw onion, and Turks call the pairing kuru-pilav. The Wikipedia entry on kuru fasulye notes that it is often considered the national dish.
Its claim rests on how widely it is eaten. It is cheap, filling and cooked in homes, school canteens, army barracks and lokantas (workers’ canteens) all over the country, by rich and poor alike.
Make it at home with our kuru fasulye recipe.
The other contenders
Kebab
Abroad, kebab is the dish everyone associates with Turkey, especially döner. Inside Turkey, kebabs are a whole cuisine of their own, from Adana to İskender.
Köfte
Grilled meatballs are eaten everywhere and every region has its own. Try our ızgara köfte recipe.
Mercimek çorbası
Red lentil soup, eaten at any time of day, including breakfast. Recipe.
Mantı
Tiny dumplings with garlic yoghurt and chilli butter, a dish many Turks would choose for a special family meal. Recipe.
Lahmacun and pide
The everyday breads from the stone oven. Lahmacun recipe.
Baklava
If Turkey had a national dessert, it would be baklava. Recipe.
What about the national drink?
Tea is what Turks drink most, in tulip glasses all day long. Ayran, the salted yoghurt drink, is the usual partner for kebab, and rakı, the aniseed spirit, is the drink of the meze table. Turkish coffee is on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
Where to eat Turkey’s national dishes in London
For kuru fasulye and pilav, look for a lokanta, where home-cooked stews wait in trays behind the counter. For kebab, any good grill.
Turkish Dish recommends
For more ideas, read our guide to 30 popular Turkish dishes.
Travelling to Turkey? Our sister site Visit Turkey covers what Turkey is famous for, from kebabs to Cappadocia.
Frequently asked questions
What is the national dish of Turkey?
There is no official one. Kuru fasulye, a white bean stew served with rice, is most often called the national dish. Kebab is the best-known Turkish dish abroad.
What is the most eaten food in Turkey?
Bread. Turkey has one of the highest rates of bread consumption in the world, and bread comes with every meal.
