TURKEY

For this meal trip, we traveled to the culturally-rich Turkey!

Turkey, officially The Republic of Turkey, is slightly larger than the state of Texas. It borders the countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. 

Over 80 million people call Turkey home. 99% of those people are Muslim and the other 1% are Christians or Jews. The official language is Turkish.

81 provinces in Turkey are ruled by a republican parliamentary democracy. 

The country itself spans two continents: Europe and Asia. Although, 97% of its land lies in Asia. Istanbul (which isn't the capital, Ankara is) is the only city in the world that covers two continents.

The famous Trojan Wars took place in Western Turkey which is where the Trojan Horse can be found today (not the real one, but remains have been found near the site). 

Saint Nicholas aka Santa Claus was born in Patara, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast!!

St. Peter's Church 

The first ever Christian church to be built by man was in Antioch, Turkey. The Apostle Paul was born in Turkey. 

Turkey was the first world hazelnut producer and exporter, with approximately 70% of the world's production, and 82% of the world`s export.

the Fez hat

Once a loved symbol of nationality and a special badge of the Turks, the Fez which was worn by men and women, is hardly worn anymore. The Fez was banned in 1925 and by the 1930 it all but disappeared in the country. 

Tulips do not originate from the Netherlands, as many believe, but from Turkey. Coffee was introduced to Europe from Turkey as well. 

Noah's Ark is said to have landed on Mt. Ararat, Turkey's highest peak. When Noah's family arrived, they celebrated with a pudding made of fruit, nuts, and grains. This pudding, called asure, is still served throughout Turkey. 

And yes, the turkey bird is named after the country of Turkey. Believing they were in the Far East, the Europeans mistook the birds as a type of Guinea fowl that is found in Turkey. 

Turkey is famous for its cuisine. The most famous meal outside the country as it is on the inside, is the kebab. Kebabs are mainly made of lamb, but also can consist of chicken or beef. There are many variations of kebabs and hundreds of different ways each province of Turkey specializes it. 

So, of course, we made lamb kebabs for this meal!

This is an S meal!! The fat content as well as the non-starchy vegetables kept it at an S meal. 

As simple as they sound, we still had to research recipes. We used this recipe, and then added our own touches based on several other recipes we saw. 

It was a beautiful Monday evening, perfect for grilling outside! Lamb Kebabs here we come!

Ingredients:

For the marinade:

2 tsp salt (we used Mediterranean sea salt, but reg. will work just fine)

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp red pepper flakes

2 tsp ground pepper

3-4 garlic cloves

4 Tbs coconut oil

2 Tbs lemon juice

3 lb leg or shoulder of lamb

8 plum or small round tomatoes

1 red onion, cut into chunks

Green/yellow/red pepper, cut into chunks

(Any other vegetable you want)

metal skewers

This recipe was fun because we didn't have to think too hard to make this THM-friendly. We just swapped olive oil for coconut oil. I will say, however, that the coconut oil clumped up as the lamb marinated in the fridge. Don't really know how to correct that..

This was a super fun meal to make, plus everyone just so happened to be in a very good mood, which can be rare in a house with teenagers. Everyone helped out for this meal, my mom and I, and my sister and dad! Let's get started!

Steps:

Combine marinade ingredients. 

Trying so hard to be art$y

In our marinade, we added a few leaves of oregano from our garden! 

I promise this isn't a random plant, it actually
is oregano!

Cube lamb into 1-2 inch cubes. 

Marinate for at least 1 hour, or even overnight. 

We were excited to use the charcoal part of our grill! For the charcoal grill, light the charcoal and wait until medium-hot. You should be able to hold your hand over the grill for at least 5 seconds. 

If using a gas grill, preheat on high, covered, for 10 minutes, and reduce heat to medium. 

While you wait for the grill, chop and skewer vegetables. 

In traditional Turkish cuisine, the vegetables are cooked on separate skewers (tomatoes on one, onions on one, etc.) My mom was super sad about this because she didn't think it would be "pretty" enough, so two of our skewers alternate the vegetables (happy wife, happy life?)

Drain meat and discard marinade sauce. Skewer the lamb. 

Grill. Vegetable skins should be blistered and browned, and the lamb brown and done to taste. (It took us about 30 minutes, but we're also not grill masters so....)

And then, you've got a famous Turkish meal on your plate! We paired this meal with cauliflower rice. 

BONUS: 

Kabak Tatlisi!!

Because this meal was simple, we decided to make a Turkish dessert (No baklava here though). We made Kabak Tatlisi, or, sweet butternut squash. 

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash

1/2 cup pyure organic stevia

walnuts

Steps: 

Preheat oven to 400

Peel squash until orange. Cut ends off. Discard seeds. 

Cut into equal chunks.

Line a baking sheet with foil and spread the chunks evenly across. Bake for 5 minutes.

Remove and cover with 1/2 cup of pyure sweetener (erythritol and stevia blend) or equivalent sweetener.

Cover with aluminum foil tightly.

Bake at 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes.

Remove foil. Stir and bake 5-10 minutes more.

Cool and eat. Top with walnuts and (optional) sweetened whipped cream. 

Thoughts and Comments:

Madeline: I was super pumped for Turkey--I've heard so many great things about the cuisine. Although this is considered the national dish, I think we should have chose something different to cook. It was too similar to things that we eat all the time. Basically, it wasn't foreign enough! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the food! We have never cooked with lamb before in my house, so that was fun and tasty! Also, as said earlier, we are not grill masters. The vegetables definitely should have been cooked longer, and maybe even the meat as well. Next time, maybe grill amateurs shouldn't take on a meal that requires a grill...haha. The dessert was good, but not great. I think with regular sugar, as it's made in Turkey, would have been a lot better. Real sugar is supposed to caramelize the squash, which didn't really happen with the sweetener. I ate it all, though. And also, we set off the fire alarm because we (aka Lisa) burned the squash :). 

Lisa: I have to admit this was my least favorite meal so far from our trip around the world.  I love lamb in gyros dishes - used to be sandwiches, but now I get it as a salad.  And this lamb had this distinct flavor and was very good.  But it was just all too familiar - like I’ve had this before.  I have enjoyed our dishes that I would have NEVER made myself if it wasn’t for this journey we are taking together!  And this just seemed like grilling out.

We are still new to THM and, although I love it and have lost weight and feel great, I still get confused on whether I should have THIS meat with an E meal or not. Or how much of THAT vegetable can I have with an S meal.  When we decided to make the “candied” butternut squash for dessert, I said we would have to wait 3 hours since that would be an E dessert (more starchy vegetable) and we just had an S meal.  So we ate it at 11pm!  (Well, my hubby did not - he’s not very adventurous when it comes to food!)  But later, I decided if we had kept it to 1/2 cup, it could have been enjoyed after our S meal, especially since we didn’t have starchy veggies with the meal, and we could have put as much whipped cream on it as we wanted!  

Up Next: Portugal!

Here is the second most popular song in Turkey as of this week:

Once again, lamb kebabs and kabak tatlisi:

Lamb kebabs:

Combine 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp cumin, 2 tsp paprika, 2 tsp red pepper flakes, 2 tsp ground pepper, 3-4 garlic cloves, 4 Tbs coconut oil, 2 Tbs lemon juice.

Cube 3 lb lamb shoulder or leg into 1-2 inch cubes. Marinate for at least one hour, or even overnight.

Charcoal grill: Light charcoal and wait until medium/hot. (Hand can be placed above grill for at least 5 seconds)
Gas grill: Preheat on high, covered, 10 min and reduce heat to medium.

Drain meat and discard marinade sauce.

Skewer lamb. On separate skewers, skewer 8 plum or small round tomatoes, 1 red onion cut into chunks, and green/red/yellow cut into chunks.

Grill. Vegetable skins should be blistered and brown. Lamb should be brown and done to taste.

Kabak tatlisi:

Preheat oven to 400.

Peel 1 butternut squash until orange. Cut ends off. Discard seeds. Cut into equal chunks.

Line a baking sheet with foil and spread the chunks evenly across. Bake for 5 minutes.

Remove and cover with 1/2 cup of pyure sweetener (erythritol & stevia blend) or equivalent sweetener.

Cover with aluminum foil tightly. Bake at 400 for 40-50 minutes.

Remove foil. Stir and bake 5-10 minutes more.

Cool and eat. Garnish with walnuts or optional sweetened whipped cream.