If you love yoghurt, Turkey should be near the top of your travel list. Yoghurt has been central to Turkish cooking for centuries, and what you find there is different from anything sold in a supermarket. It’s thicker, tangier, and used in ways that might surprise you. Whether you’re sitting down to a proper restaurant meal or eating at a small lokanta, yoghurt is likely to appear at the table.
Cacık: The Dish That Started It All
Cacık (pronounced “jah-jik”) is the Turkish version of tzatziki, but slightly thinner and more refreshing. It’s made with full-fat yoghurt, cucumber, dried mint, garlic, and a small amount of olive oil. Unlike the thick Greek version, cacık is often served as a cold soup or a side dish alongside meat and rice. In summer, you’ll find it at almost every table.
The quality of the yoghurt makes a real difference here. Turkish yoghurt is typically made from whole cow’s or sheep’s milk and has a clean, slightly acidic flavour that works beautifully with the mint and cucumber. When you order cacık in Turkey, you’re getting something made from scratch that day, not something from a container that’s been sitting in a supermarket chiller for a week.
Mantı with Yoghurt: Turkey’s Beloved Dumpling Dish
Mantı are tiny Turkish dumplings, usually filled with spiced minced lamb or beef. What makes them distinctive is how they’re served: smothered in garlicky yoghurt, then drizzled with hot butter infused with dried chilli and dried mint. The combination of warm dumplings, cool creamy yoghurt, and spiced butter is one of the great flavour contrasts in Turkish cooking.
Kayseri, a city in central Anatolia, is famous for its mantı, and locals will argue that the smaller the dumpling, the better the cook. In Istanbul, you’ll find it everywhere from small neighbourhood restaurants to more formal dining rooms. It’s filling, satisfying, and much more interesting than you might expect from a description on paper.
İskender Kebab: Yoghurt as a Sauce
İskender kebab, named after its creator İskender Efendi in 19th-century Bursa, is one of the most famous Turkish dishes. Thin slices of grilled lamb are layered over pieces of pide bread, then topped with a rich tomato sauce and poured-over hot butter. The dish is always served with a generous side of plain yoghurt, which you mix in yourself as you eat.
The yoghurt here does something essential: it cuts through the richness of the lamb and butter, providing balance and freshness. Without it, the dish would be too heavy. Bursa is the place to eat İskender properly, though you’ll find it across Turkey. If you’re in the city, head to a restaurant that’s been doing it for generations rather than a tourist-facing place near the main square.
Çoban Salatası and the Yoghurt Meze Table
Turkish meze culture involves a wide spread of small dishes shared at the start of a meal, and yoghurt features prominently. Beyond cacık, you’ll encounter haydari (a thick, herb-heavy yoghurt dip), cevizli biber (yoghurt with walnuts and roasted red peppers), and various regional variations depending on where you’re eating.
The best way to experience these is to eat at a meyhane, a traditional Turkish tavern, where the meze table is the main event and the food keeps coming until you’ve had enough. Ask what the kitchen makes that day rather than ordering from a menu, and you’ll generally eat better.
Where to Find the Best Yoghurt in Turkey
Smaller cities and towns tend to have better yoghurt than Istanbul, simply because the supply chain is shorter and local producers are more common. Konya, Gaziantep, and the Aegean coastal towns all have excellent local dairy traditions. At local markets (pazar), you’ll often find vendors selling yoghurt made from sheep’s or buffalo milk, which has a richer, more complex flavour than the cow’s milk versions that dominate supermarkets.
If you’re in Istanbul, the covered markets in neighbourhoods like Kadıköy and Fatih are better hunting grounds than the tourist-facing areas of Sultanahmet. The city is enormous and the food quality varies enormously by neighbourhood, so asking a local where they actually eat is always a better strategy than relying on travel apps.
