🇹🇷 Türkiye · Turkey
Terbiyeli köfteTurkish meatball soup
A Turkish soup of small meatballs of minced meat with rice or bulgur simmered in water or broth with potato and carrot, thickened and soured with a terbiye of egg yolk, lemon (or yoghurt) and flour tempered with hot broth.
Origin and history
Terbiyeli köfte is a home-style Turkish meatball soup of small floured meatballs of mince and rice or bulgur, simmered with potato and carrot and finished with a terbiye. Cumhuriyet calls the closely related sulu köfte one of the first dishes that come to mind as Turkish home cooking (anne yemeği). The sources read give no origin or date.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 50 min
- Hands-on
- 30 min
Ingredients
- 300 g10.5 oz lean ground beef or lamb
- 60 g1/4 cup short-grain rice, or fine bulgur; rinsed (one tea glass)
- 1 tbsp dried mint
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt, for the meatballs and pot
- 2 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp in the meat, 1 tbsp for the terbiye
- extra flour, for rolling the meatballs
- 1 potato, peeled, diced small
- 1 carrot, peeled, diced small
- 1.5 l6 cups water
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 egg yolk, for the terbiye
- 3 tbsp lemon juice, from 1 lemon
Method
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1. Knead the meat with the rice, 1 tbsp of flour, the mint, thyme, pepper and a pinch of salt until it holds together.
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2. Roll into small balls the size of a hazelnut or small walnut, then roll each in flour spread on a tray.
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3. Bring the water to a boil in a pot with the oil and salt.
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4. Add the potato and carrot, then lower in the floured meatballs.
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5. Simmer over medium heat for 20 to 25 minutes, until the rice inside the meatballs is cooked and the vegetables are soft.
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6. In a bowl whisk the egg yolk, lemon juice and the remaining tablespoon of flour until smooth.
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7. Ladle in a cup of hot broth, whisking, then another, so the egg warms gradually.
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8. Pour the terbiye slowly into the pot while stirring, and simmer gently for 5 to 10 minutes more without a hard boil.
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9. Serve hot, scattered with dried mint or parsley.
Notes
- The terbiye, a liaison of egg yolk, lemon and flour tempered with hot broth, is what gives this soup its sour, creamy finish. Cumhuriyet files the same preparation as sulu köfte, with a spoon of tomato paste fried into the broth.
- Yemek.com's ekşili terbiyeli köfteli çorba (sour, liaison-thickened meatball soup) uses rice, mint and thyme in the balls, with a simmer ending in the terbiye; Cumhuriyet's sulu köfte uses fine bulgur or rice with grated onion, cumin and an egg in the mince, a tablespoon of tomato paste in the broth, a 20 to 25 minute simmer and a terbiye of 1 yolk, half a lemon and a spoon of flour.
- Keep the meatballs small and tightly rolled in flour so that they do not fall apart in the broth.
- Do not boil hard once the terbiye is in or it will curdle. Reheat gently.
- For a richer soup replace the water with meat broth.
- Yemek.com's list includes a whole egg but uses only the yolk in the terbiye; the white can go into the meatball mixture.
Adapted from Yemek.com: Ekşili terbiyeli köfteli çorba and Cumhuriyet: Pratik ve yapımı kolay sulu köfte tarifi.
At the festivals
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