Yayla Corbasi (Yogurt & Rice Soup)
Soothing and gently tangy, yayla corbasi is Turkey's beloved highland soup — creamy yogurt and tender rice crowned with mint butter, the bowl every Turkish grandmother swears by.
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Ingredients
500g thick Turkish yogurt
1/2 cup (100g) baldo rice, rinsed
1.5 litres water or chicken stock
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 heaped tbsp dried mint
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional, for the butter)
1.5 tsp salt, or to taste
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- 1
Put the rinsed rice in a large pot with the water or stock and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes until the rice is completely tender.
- 2
Meanwhile, whisk the yogurt, egg yolk, flour and olive oil in a bowl until perfectly smooth and lump-free.
- 3
Temper the yogurt: whisking constantly, add hot broth from the pot one ladle at a time — three or four ladles in total — until the yogurt mixture is warm and thin.
- 4
Reduce the heat to low and slowly pour the tempered yogurt back into the pot, stirring the whole time in one direction. Do not let it come to a rolling boil or it may curdle.
- 5
Cook gently for 8-10 minutes, stirring often, until the soup thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. Season with salt and black pepper.
- 6
Melt the butter in a small pan, take it off the heat and stir in the dried mint (and pepper flakes, if using) until it foams and smells fragrant.
- 7
Stir half the mint butter through the soup and drizzle the rest over each bowl. Serve warm with fresh pide bread.
Yayla means highland plateau, and yayla corbasi is the soup of those cool green summer pastures where yogurt has been made for centuries. Warm, mild and gently sour, it is the dish Turkish families reach for when someone needs comforting — served to children, to anyone feeling under the weather, and after long winter days. Many will tell you it settles the stomach better than anything else in the pot.
The technique is the only part that needs care: yogurt splits if it hits boiling liquid unprepared, so it is whisked with egg yolk and flour into a smooth liaison, tempered with hot broth, and only then stirred into the pot. Do that, and you are rewarded with a velvety, pale soup flecked green with dried mint.
A thick, creamy Turkish yogurt makes all the difference here, along with proper baldo rice and good dried mint — all of which you can order from Turkish Online Market, delivered anywhere in the UK.
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