Is there vegetarian food in Turkish cooking?
There is, and more than people expect. Turkish cooking looks built on meat, but the olive oil dishes, the meze and the vegetable courses are a tradition of their own.
Zeytinyağlı dishes are cooked in olive oil, served cold, and contain no meat. Green beans in olive oil, imam bayıldı and stuffed vine leaves lead that list. Most of the meze table is vegetarian too.
The Sultan Grill House menu holds 136 dishes and 21 of them are vegetarian. Pressing the Vegetarian button leaves 43 items, drinks included, so you are not left hunting.
What can I eat as a vegan?
Vegetarian and vegan are not equally easy in Turkey. Vegetarian dishes are plentiful, fully vegan ones are fewer, because cheese and yoghurt turn up everywhere.
The safe ground is this.
- Vegetables cooked in olive oil. Most are vegan to begin with.
- Dips. Acılı ezme, hummus, roasted pepper. Ask about the ones made with yoghurt.
- Salads. Asking for them without cheese is enough.
- Grilled vegetables. Cooked over the coals, and vegan as long as no sauce comes with them.
- Bread and lavaş. Usually made without milk, but worth asking.
Yoghurt, butter and cheese are the three you will meet most often. Saying yoğurtsuz or peynirsiz, without yoghurt or without cheese, settles most dishes.
How do I explain that I am vegetarian?
Et yemiyorum, I do not eat meat, is understood clearly. It helps to add that chicken and fish count as meat for you, since they are sometimes thought of separately.
If you want to be precise, vejetaryenim, et, tavuk ve balık yemiyorum covers it. As a vegan, add süt ürünü ve yumurta da yemiyorum, no dairy and no eggs.
Most people working in Sultanahmet hear these questions daily, and English works.
At Sultan Grill House the menu can be read in fifteen languages through the QR code on the table. The vegetarian dishes are marked there too.
What is the issue with meat stock?
A dish that looks like vegetables may have been cooked in meat stock. This comes up most often with soups and with rice.
Lentil soup is usually meat free, but not everywhere. Rice may be made with butter or with stock.
One question closes all of it. Et suyu var mı, is there meat stock in this.
I have an allergy. How do I see it on the menu?
Of the 136 dishes on the Sultan Grill House menu, 104 are marked individually for gluten, milk, egg, nuts, sesame and the rest. Where a dish carries no marks it means nothing has been entered, not that it is free of allergens.
Where a dish carries no marks it means nothing has been entered, not that it is free of allergens. If you are considering one of those, ask at the table.
If your allergy is serious, say so before ordering. The kitchen works one grill and one counter, and it is better to talk about cross contact up front.
What do you order for a vegetarian at the table?
A shared table is the easiest arrangement for a vegetarian. A few meze, a salad, grilled vegetables and hot bread go to the middle. Everyone eats from the same table and nobody waits for a separate plate.
At a mixed table the meat eaters order their own dishes and the meze in the middle stay open to all. A Turkish table is laid that way anyway, so nothing special is needed.
None of the six desserts on the menu is marked vegetarian, so ask at the table what is in them. As a vegan, ask about butter in the syrup ones as well.
