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Yoghurt with Dried Apricots, Walnuts, Pomegranates Seeds and Honey & More Ideas for a Delicious Brunch – Turkish Style

Yoghurt with dried apricots, walnuts, pomegranate seeds and blueberries; healthy, delicious, refreshing start for your day. 

Dried apricots, figs, prunes and raisins; not only very nutritious but also very delicious.

I wanted to share a delicious, healthy and refreshing breakfast that we like to do in my family; yoghurt with dried apricots, walnuts, pomegranate seeds and berries, drizzled with honey. This delicious treat is also suitable for gluten-free diet.

Back home in Istanbul, my parents still start a day with a few walnuts and dried fruit like apricots and prunes. Walnuts are power food; they are so rich in antioxidants that a small amount is more than enough. Just a handful of walnuts per day will help reduce the chances of heart disease, and other cardiovascular-related issues. Some of the best apricots are produced in Malatya, Turkey and the excess produce is being dried to be enjoyed all year around. Dried apricots and prunes are excellent sources of several important nutrients, including fiber, potassium and antioxidant carotenoids. Dried apricots and walnuts also pair very well, try the caramelized apricots stuffed with walnuts as a dessert; a delicious and nutritious treat. 

I have been eating this delicious yoghurt with dried and fresh fruits as a breakfast a lot recently; very refreshing and make you feel good. Yoghurt, another nutritious food that boosts your immune system, features a lot in Turkish cuisine. We use yoghurt in mezzes and appetizers, in soups, in marinating meat and many more.

I love the marriage of creamy yoghurt with the crunchy walnuts and juicy & zesty apricots, berries and pomegranates seeds. It is very easy to make and hopefully it will jump start your day!

This yoghurt with dried fruit, berries and walnuts is also suitable for gluten-free diet.

Serves 2

225 gr/8 oz/1 cup plain natural yoghurt

45 – 60 ml/ 3 – 4 tbsp walnuts, chopped

30 ml/ 2 tbsp dried apricots, chopped

30 ml/ 2 tbsp blueberries (or a berry of your choice)

30 ml / 2 tbsp pomegranate seeds

15-30ml/ 1-2 tbsp natural honey

Place the yoghurt in a bowl and simply stir in the walnuts, dried apricot, berries and pomegranate seeds, give a gentle mix. Drizzle the honey over and sprinkle extra few pomegranate seeds or berries if you like.

Afiyet Olsun!

 

Plain yoghurt, cheese, olives, oats and grains are also a part of Turkish breakfast.

We Turks love a good brunch especially at the weekends and to welcome the New Year; here are some of my favorite Turkish brunch treats, if you would like to indulge later in the day:

Sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. eggs with Turkish dried beef sausage, sucuk, variety of cheese, sesame seeded bread rings, simit, honey with Turkish thivk cream, kaymak – a heavenly brunch to welcome the new year!

Eggs with Turkish dried beef sausages – Sucuklu Yumurta-

Sucuklu yumurta - Turkish dried beef sausages with egg; so irresistable.

This is for me the center piece of the Turkish breakfasts/brunches. The spicy Turkish sausage, sucuk, goes so well with the runny egg. This with a crusty bread and a glass of cay – Turkish tea – by the side, would be my ultimate brunch 🙂

Scrambled eggs with tomatoes, peppers, spring (green) onions and feta cheese – Menemen

Scrambled eggs with tomatoes, peppers, onion and feta cheese, a delicious vegetarian breakfast.

 If you rather like a vegetarian option for your eggs; this scrambled eggs with tomatoes, peppers, onions and feta cheese would just fit the bill; delicious, juicy and healthy.

 Fillo pastry rolls, stuffed with mashed potato, cheese and parsley – Patatesli, Peynirli Borek

Fillo pastry rolls with cheese, parsley and mashed potato; a winner with children, as well as adults!

Fillo pastry rolls with cheese, parsley and mashed potato; a winner with children, as well as adults!

No Turkish brunch is complete without boreks – paper thin pastry, yufka, stuffed with cheese and vegetables. If you can’t find yufka, fillo sheets work well. This recipe also makes use of any left over vegetable like potatoes, delicious.

Olive salad with onions, tomatoes and pomegranate molasses – Zeytin Ufeleme

Olives with tomatoes, onion, parsely flavoured with olive oil and pomegranate molasses, a delicious treat from Antakya, Antioch.

This delicious olive salad hails from Antakya, Southern part of Turkey, where my roots are from. Olives are deliciously flavoured with onions, tomatoes, olive oil and a drizzle of pomegranate molasses. Wonderful for brunch, as well as an appetizer.

Sesame encrusted bread rings – Simit

Simit, sesame encrusted bread rings must be the most popular street food in Turkey.

Simit is indeed the quintessential Turkish food; these sesame-encrusted bread rings must be the most popular snack and street food at home. Most folks in Turkey have simit for breakfast with a cup of cay (tea), sliced cucumber, tomatoes and feta cheese. Simit has a wonderful crust and softer inside, and easy to make at home.

 Cay – Turkish tea

A glass of cay, Turkish tea by the Bosphorus is the ultimate treat for me ; )

Well, Turkish tea, cay, goes down very well to accompany all above! Especially if you are by the Bosphorus, Istanbul, you may loose track of  how many glasses of cay you consumed : )

 

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Fried Eggs with Turkish Sucuk (dried sausage) – Sucuklu Yumurta


This is, for me, one of the main pieces of the ultimate Turkish weekend brunch (along with the delicious olives, white cheese (similar to feta), sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, home made jam, honey, Simit, Turkish bread rings with sesame coating- and many more). And I sure will visualize myself enjoying this feast by a café along the Bosphrous in Istanbul, an ultimate treat, whenever we’re back home.

Shaped like a horseshoe, sucuk is a cured sausage made with lamb or beef and flavored with garlic, cumin and red pepper flakes. In rural areas, people make their own sucuk with variety of spices and hang them outside to cure. Most Middle Eastern markets carry sucuk, if you can’t find them; you may like to try with chorizo sausage or any other dried cured sausages or pastrami of your choice. How about adding a chopped tomato into the mixture.? Simply saute the sliced sucuk with chopped tomatoes for a few minutes before cracking the eggs, juicy tomatoes go well with the spicy sausace and eggs.

Eggs with Turkish sucuk (spicy sausage) and tomatoes, Domatesli, sucuklu yumurta - Ultimate Turkish breakfast!

Eggs with Turkish sucuk (spicy sausage) and tomatoes, Domatesli, sucuklu yumurta – Ultimate Turkish breakfast!

Serves 2 generously

Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 5 minutes

115gr/4oz Turkish sucuk (or any dried sausage or pastrami of your choice, if preferred), sliced

1 tomato, coarsley chopped (optional)
2-4 medium free range eggs
30ml/2 tablespoon olive oil
5ml/1 teaspoon ground cumin
5ml/1 teaspoon red pepper (or paprika) flakes
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Crusty bread to serve
Sliced tomatoes and cucumbers to serve by the side

Heat the oil in the frying pan. Stir in the sliced sucuk (or your choice of dried sausage or pastrami) and chopped tomatoes (if used)  and sauté them for a minute or two until they start to brown. Scatter the sausages around the edges of the pan forming a circle. Crack the eggs in the middle and cook for a few minutes on medium heat. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle ground cumin and red pepper flakes over the eggs. Cook until the egg whites are set and the egg yolks still runny.

Serve hot with crusty bread and sliced tomatoes and cucumber by the side.

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

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