Food & Drink

Turkish Spices & Ingredients

Name: Turkish Spices & Ingredients
Creator: Wikipedia
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Common spices, herbs and ingredients used in Turkish cuisine with their Turkish names and culinary uses.

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Source:Wikipedia

Updated:2/22/2026

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Name↕	Turkish↕	Used in↕
Allspice	Yenibahar or dolma bahar	Dolma, vegetables, pilav, fish, köfte
Anise	Anason	Peksimet, rakı, used to season nut and dried fruit mixtures in both sweet and savory dishes
Black pepper	Kara biber	Egg dishes, meat dishes, laz böreği
Cardamom	Kakule	Rarely used, mostly in coffee. A common ingredient in Persian and Indian desserts, Turkish variations usually replace it with vanilla and rosewater.
Cinnamon	Tarçın	Desserts, pastries, salep, boza, iç pilav, fish, lamb, vegetables, tomato sauces, milk puddings, desserts
Clove	Karanfil	Fruit compotes, spiced black tea, meat casseroles, sweets, breads, pastries
Coriander	Kişniş	Extremely rare. Used in some fish and meat dishes, particularly in southern and eastern Anatolia.
Cumin	Kimyon	Kofta spice, pastirma, lentil soup
Fenugreek	Çemen otu	Vegetables, fish, breads, pastirma
Isot	Urfa biberi	Ciğ köfte
Mahlep	Mahlep	Baked goods
Mastic	Sakız	Used in milk desserts, ice cream, Turkish delight
Nigella seeds	Çörek otu	Savory pastries, homemade cheese. Can be mixed with coriander, cumin and haspir to make a spice for fish.
Red pepper	Kırmızı biber, pul biber	Garnish for soups, manti, Adana kebab
Rose water	Gül suyu,	Su muhallebisi, güllaç, aşure
Poppy seeds	Haşhaş	Bread, rolls, meat, fish, light sauces and yogurt dressings
Safflower	Yalancı safran (fake saffron)	Used primarily in the regional cuisine of Gaziantep to give yogurt soups a saffron-like tint
Saffron	zafiran	Zerde, pilav
Salep	Salep	A winter beverage made with milk, vanilla, sugar and starch; tastes like warm liquid vanilla pudding. Originally it was thickened with these ground wild orchid roots.
Sesame seeds	Susam	Simit, tahini, helva
Sumac	Sumak	Juice from sumac berries can be used in a marinade for fish or chicken. Ground sumac can be used to season salads, pilav and soups. A spice mix of sumac, dried thyme and roasted sesame seeds is used with grilled meats.