Spicy Vegetarian Snack: Çig Kofte

These raw scones are originally made with raw meet, but how about replacing it with soja and potato?

It is made with finely ground bulgur (durum and other wheat) and covered that with ingredients like mild onions, scallions, parsley, tomatoes, garlic, tomato paste, and mint leaves. Indispensable for an authentic çiğ köfte is ‘isot’, a very dark, almost blackish and special dried pepper that is locally produced by farmers of Şanlıurfa, in the southeast of Turkey.

Çig Kofte is a favorite Turkish snack and a specialty of southeastern Turkey, especially Şanlıurfa and Adıyaman. With the mass migration since the 1960s, of people from the east to big cities in the west, like Ankara, Izmir, Bursa and Istanbul their dishes and spices went with them.  That’s why we now can enjoy those delicacies of Eastern Turkey in Istanbul too.

Traditionally, it is spicy enough nut you can always ask for a not spicy one It is eaten wrapped with different kinds of salad, pieces of cucumber, lemon and pickles. As a snack, only some drops of lemon and a leaf of lettuce will be enough! An Ayran (yogurt drink) may be the best match for this delicious snack as a fresh balancer for this spicy snack!