Türlü
The name means "all sorts" and the recipe means it: whatever is in the house goes in. The one rule is the order they cook in.
Vegetable dishes · Turkish · One pot · Budget · Uses leftovers · Vegan · Seasonal · Weekend batch
- Preparation
- 25 min
- Cooking
- 55 min
- Resting
- 10 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Cost
- Very cheap
- Season
- Summer, Autumn
Türlü is a fridge-clearing dish from the Ottoman kitchen and every household makes it differently. What does not change is the structure: firm vegetables first, soft ones later, leaves last. The oven version is markedly better than the pan version because dry heat browns the edges, and that browning carries the flavour of the dish.
Method
- Heat the oven to 200 °C.
- Sort the vegetables into three groups by firmness and cut everything to 2 cm.
You will need: A wide oven dish · Foil
-
Toss the potato, carrot, beans and onion with half the oil and salt, spread them in the dish and bake UNCOVERED for twenty-five minutes.
Look for The potato edges should colour and oil remain in the base.
Why The uncovered first stage browns the edges of the firm vegetables, and the flavour of a türlü comes from that browning. Covered from the start it steams and nothing browns at all.Starch gelatinised The granules soaked up water, swelled and burst into a network. It has thickened, and it will firm further as it cools. no way back
Salt · 0.82% Right in the window. Flavours sharpen, bitterness retreats, water is held.
-
Toss the aubergine, courgette and peppers with the rest of the oil and add them; dissolve the paste in the hot water, pour it over and add the rest of the salt.
Look for The liquid should stay in the base rather than covering the vegetables.
Why The soft vegetables cook in thirty minutes; given the full fifty-five with the firm ones they disintegrate. The liquid goes in here too, because added earlier there would be no browning at all.Starch gelatinised The granules soaked up water, swelled and burst into a network. It has thickened, and it will firm further as it cools. no way back
Salt · 0.41% Low. Everything reads flat and nothing steps forward.
-
Lay the tomatoes and garlic on top, COVER with foil and bake twenty-five minutes.
Look for Steam should gather under the foil and a knife meet no resistance in the potato.
Why The foil now traps steam and finishes the middles of the firm vegetables, while the tomatoes sit on top and drip their juice down.If it went wrong
Still firm: fifteen minutes more with the foil on. If the liquid has gone, add 100 ml of hot water.
Starch gelatinised The granules soaked up water, swelled and burst into a network. It has thickened, and it will firm further as it cools. no way back
Salt · 0.34% Low. Everything reads flat and nothing steps forward.
-
Take the foil off for five minutes to colour the top, and rest it ten.
Look for The tomato edges should darken and a dark ring remain at the side of the dish.
Why The last five minutes reduce the sauce and put colour on the top, and the rest lets the vegetables take the sauce up.Starch gelatinised The granules soaked up water, swelled and burst into a network. It has thickened, and it will firm further as it cools. no way back
Salt · 0.34% Low. Everything reads flat and nothing steps forward.
This recipe was run through the engine step by step — what goes in when, and at what temperature and for how long. The reactions above come from that run.
peak 200 °C · 58 minutes · engine 1.0.0 · confidence low
After the heat goes off
Warm or at room temperature with bread and yoghurt. Hot works, but türlü is better warm.
Four days in the fridge, and markedly better on the second.
Fifteen minutes at 180 °C under foil.
Three months; the aubergine and courgette soften and it does not show in the sauce.
Blended into a soup, mashed as a börek filling, or chopped into a pasta sauce.
One of the easiest ways to get vegetables into a child: everything takes the same sauce and the flavours merge. For 12–36 months take the peppers out, crush the pieces and lift their share before the salt. For a baby under one, keep an unsalted corner and mash it.
- Green beans → Okra Okra works but must go in uncut, or the sauce goes stringy.
- The oven The method this recipe rests on
- Aubergine What it does in heat, water and acid
- Tomato What it does in heat, water and acid
- Potato What it does in heat, water and acid
- Tray-roasted vegetables Similar method, or something that sits on the same table
- İmam bayıldı Similar method, or something that sits on the same table
- Musakka Similar method, or something that sits on the same table
- One pot Other recipes that answer the same need
- Budget Other recipes that answer the same need
- Uses leftovers Other recipes that answer the same need
- Vegan Other recipes that answer the same need
- Seasonal Other recipes that answer the same need
- Weekend batch Other recipes that answer the same need
What it tastes like
The axes that define this recipe: aroma 58, sweet 28, umami 36.
This profile is computed rather than measured: the role-weighted average of its ingredients’ taste vectors, shifted by what the cooking does. The thin line is the database average on that axis.
Closest in taste
Not hand-picked: ranked by distance across the eight taste axes.
Lamb casserole
The meat has two hours and the vegetables have forty minutes. Put them in together and the vegetables vanish while the m…
Tray-roasted vegetables
A vegetable that does not fit on the tray does not roast, it steams. Using two trays instead of one is the only trick in…
Karnıyarık
The one thing that stops an aubergine drinking oil is a soak in salted water: cells full of water leave no room for fat.…
İzmir meatballs
Searing the meatballs and then baking them in sauce is two dishes in one: the crust stays outside while the inside drink…