Turkish · Nationwide · mezze

Cacık (Cucumber-Yogurt-Mint Soup/Dip)

cacık

Cacık is Turkey's answer to a dish that nearly every Mediterranean culture has claimed — cold yogurt with cucumber and garlic — but the Turkish version is distinctly its own: dried mint (not fresh), a generous pour of olive oil, and the option to thin it with ice-cold water into a proper chilled soup. On a hot summer afternoon in Istanbul, you'll get it in a bowl with ice cubes floating in it. At a meze spread, you'll get it thick as a dip alongside warm bread. Both are right.

• full-fat plain yogurt (not Greek-style — use regular whole-milk yogurt for soup, or strain it 30 min for dip)

  2 cups

  480g

• English cucumber (or 2 Persian cucumbers)

  1 medium (about 10 oz)

  280g

• garlic cloves

  2 cloves

  10g

• dried mint

  1 1/2 tsp

  1.5g

• extra-virgin olive oil

  2 tbsp

  30ml

• fine salt

  3/4 tsp

  4g

• ice-cold water (for soup version only — skip entirely for dip)

  1/2 to 3/4 cup

  120 to 180ml

• pul biber (Aleppo pepper) for garnish — find it at Whole Foods or Middle Eastern markets

  1/4 tsp

  0.5g

  Substitution · hard-to-find

  Original: pul biber (Aleppo/Maraş pepper). Mix 3 parts sweet paprika to 1 part red pepper flakes — you want that fruity mild heat, not sharp chili heat

• dried mint, extra, for garnish

  1/4 tsp

  0.25g

1. 01

   12 min

   Grate the cucumber on the large holes of a box grater directly into a colander set over the sink (or a bowl). Sprinkle with a pinch of salt, toss, and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then squeeze firmly with your hands — you want to press out as much water as possible. This step keeps your cacık from turning watery and thin within minutes of serving. Don't skip it.

2. 02

   3 min

   Peel and mince the garlic cloves very fine, or crush them to a paste with the flat of your knife and a pinch of salt. Turkish cacık uses raw garlic — it should be present but not aggressive. Two cloves for 2 cups of yogurt is the right balance; go to one clove if your garlic is very pungent or your crowd is garlic-shy.

3. 03

   3 min

   In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt, squeezed cucumber, minced garlic, dried mint, and salt. Stir well. Taste and adjust salt. The mint should be clearly there — dried mint in Turkish cooking is not a background whisper, it's a flavor.

4. 04

   2 min

   Now decide: soup or dip? For a dip, stop here and proceed to step 5. For a chilled soup, whisk in the ice-cold water a little at a time until you reach a pourable, slightly thick consistency — think buttermilk or a thin smoothie. Some Turkish households add a couple of ice cubes directly to the bowl when serving. Both are traditional.

5. 05

   2 min

   Transfer to a serving bowl (or individual bowls for soup). Drizzle the olive oil generously over the top — don't stir it in. Scatter the pul biber and a pinch of extra dried mint over the oil. That red-orange oil pooling on the white yogurt is the visual signature of cacık; it also adds flavor in every spoonful. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes before serving if you have time — cold cacık is noticeably better than room-temperature cacık.

• · LLM tiebreak failed for "pul biber" — picked first result as fallback

Reheating · Reheat gently — dairy can split at a hard boil. Whisk if separated.

Source: foodkeeper