Türkiye’s Traditional Dishes are VEGAN?! Turkish Street Food in İzmir + Most Underrated Delicacies

Did you know that a lot of Turkish food just happens to be vegan? VEGAN CULTURES EP. 7 | İzmir, TÜRKIYE - I'm visiting Türkye's largest city along the Aegean coast to get a taste of the local food culture. From freshly baked Gözleme to stuffed vine leaves, Turkish donuts, the smoothest marzipan and a rare coffee culture, this episode is packed with traditional dishes that are naturally plant-based. İstanbul Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvAQrrWncSk İstanbul Part 2: https://youtu.be/gsWtcpFFK_g?si=1OO869Ph9QbaUjpf 📚 My book Naturally Vegan (includes recipes and stories from my travels): https://geni.us/NaturallyVegan CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:48 Lokma 03:26 Ceviz Ezmesi 04:54 Badem Ezmesi 06:13 Antep Fıstık Ezmesi 08:50 Dibek Kahvesi 11:25 Gözleme 14:55 Sarma & Kabak Çiçeği Dolması 17:28 End IZMIR FOOD TOUR This tour kicks off with with one of Izmir's most underrated delicacies: Lokma. It's essentially Türkiye's answer to donuts, which get soaked in a rose-water-flavoured syrup. Extremely delicious! I'm meeting Mustafa from Öztat Kardeşler (https://www.instagram.com/oztatkardesler/) to learn how they are made the artisanal way. Then it's time for another Turkish delicacy. Ezmesi at Elgani Ezmecizade (https://www.instagram.com/ezmecizadeelgani/). This family-run business knocks out Turkish marzipan from three different nuts: Almonds, walnuts and pistachios. For generations, they use semolina instead of egg to give the marzipan the right texture and to make it more stable. Luckily for me, that means that it's now naturally plant-based. If you love nuts, you'll want to try those! Here in Izmir, you'll find Dibek Kahvesi as a local, specialty coffee option. I visited Dibek Tahmis (https://maps.app.goo.gl/bhJdidXSKpxhfQrx9) to learn about this uniquely made coffee. The flavour is milder than the more common Turk Kahvesi, but with more developed aroma. I loved it! For my final stop, I joined the family behind Pervin Teyze (https://www.instagram.com/pervinteyze.restaurant/) and watched Dursun make three iconic Turkish dishes, the most famous of which is Gözleme. These stuffed flatbreads are a popular street food all around Türkiye and she prepared them with a spinach, potato and pul biber stuffing as well as an aubergine, tomato and black pepper filling. She also showed me how to make Sarma, the iconic stuffed vine leaves, before she continued with Kabak Çiçeği Dolması, which are stuffed courgette flowers. They were incredibly delicate, with the sarma having a more robust, almost olive-like flavour. Delicious! VEGAN CULTURES - THE MISSION Vegan food is not a modern invention. It’s a modern label. We've been eating plant-based dishes for thousands of years, be it for religious reasons, out of poverty or simply because of what was available naturally. This show is about discovering these kinds of dishes - dishes from around the world that just happen to be vegan — so that we can embrace them for a more sustainable plant-based diet. 📣 Let me know in the comments which country I should visit next and what dishes I might find! SOCIAL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hermann/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bakinghermann Website: https://bakinghermann.com Substack: https://hermann.substack.com/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bakinghermann Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/bakinghermann/ Edit by Trang Nguyen