Almost Turkish Recipes

Zucchini Salad with Yogurt (Yoğurtlu Kabak Salatası)



Zucchini salad with yogurt is a favorite summer time cold delicacy. It is served as a side dish at afternoon tea gatherings along with any kind of pogacas or filo dough pastries, or as a meze/appetizer at dinner. You can serve it with grilled meat or simply as a side to anything you want. I love this salad as lunch on toasted bread and sometimes with crumbled white cheese/feta on top. It is quite easy and quick to make and simply delicious. Even those who do not like zucchini enjoy this salad. In Turkish cuisine to have a zucchini dish without fresh dill or mint is unheard-of. For this salad it's common to use both fresh mint and dill. If you do not like one of them you can leave that one out, but only one. Zucchini salad has to have at least one fresh herb.

serves 4
3 medium size zucchini, coarsely grated (makes approximately 3 cups)
2/3 cup thick plain yogurt )enough to barely cover zucchini, not much)
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves of minced garlic, depending on how much you like garlic
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
1/8 cup or as much as you want fresh dill, finely chopped
1 tsp mint flakes or 1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
salt

optional
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

-Grate zucchinis in a bowl. Squeeze grated zucchini by hand and drain excessive juice.
-Heat olive oil in a pan. Add zucchini and cook for 5-6 minutes or until wılted and tender stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool down.
-Mix yogurt, minced garlic and a pinch of salt well in a bowl.
-When zucchini cools down, mix zucchini, walnuts, dill, mint, salt, and the garlicy yogurt.
-Serve cold.

19 comments:

  1. I love this type of salad with zucchini, and I especially like the idea of adding walnuts! I would definitely use both mint and dill in mine!

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  2. This sounds like a wonderful salad, burcu!

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  3. This meze sounds delightful...a must-try!

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  4. I think adding mint to zucchini is a relatively new thing here in the States. I always grew up with basil or parsley. But, I can't wait to try this recipe, with both the dill and the mint!

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  5. This sounds great! I have both mint and dill in my little herb garden, so I have no excuse not to try it.

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  6. Anonymous3:38 PM

    This is a great salad! I make a slightly different version of it, where I do not grate the zucchini but slice and bake in the oven, and I love it! I love the idea of grating it too. I am sure it makes a great appetizer! A must try!

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  7. I tried this recipe, and it was great. My husband loved the walnut addition , added crushed red pepper. I am originally from Turkey, so I know most of the salads. This would be a must addition to my menus.
    Do you know other salad recipes that incorporates nuts?
    Thanks for a great recipe.

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  8. Thanks everyone for your nice comments.

    Karin, I'm glad you liked the recipe. It frequents my dinner menus often, and is a great hit. Look for carrot salad with yogurt or thracian eggplant salad under salads, sides, dips. You can use nuts in both. Also walnuts are used in gavurdag salatasi ,too. These are the ones that I can think of right now.

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  9. Anonymous1:58 AM

    Yum yum, perfect for ouzo/raki!

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  10. What a flavourful wayt to use those zucchini that are sprouting up prolifically in the garden:D

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  11. I'm American, but my boyfriend is Turkish. I made this dish for our Christmas dinner (served as a buffet) and my family loved it! It was very easy to make and your instructions were great. I was a little too generous with the garlic, but now I know to use less next time.

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  12. This was delicious! I'll definately make this recipe over and over again.

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  13. Kacper9:48 PM

    this is amazing! it looks like you used sumac in the photo so I did and it works.

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  14. It was crushed aleppo pepper, but it does indeed look like sumac, and actually sumac would be great, too.

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  15. This is going in my forever rotation...it is delicious!!

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  16. Looks amazing - going to make it tonight. Im thinking of making a batch to last a few days - would that work as it has garlic? How long would it keep in the fridge for?

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    1. Yes, definitely. It would last 2-3 days, but remember garlic gets more fierce each day :)

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  17. Sevgili Burcu, zeytinyağlı kabak tarifi sayfası bir süredir hata veriyor. Ev halkı özledi, yapamıyoruz :/. Zucchini with tomatoes recipe page has been giving error for a while. Household is sad :).

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    1. Aaaa hiç ister miyim ev halkını üzmeyi. Blogger'ın azizliği olmuş. Düzelmiş olması lazım şimdi.

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