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The Konya Table, from Etliekmek to Oven Kebab

As you approach Konya by train or by road, the view from the window already tells you about the city's table.

Radar TürkiyeRadar Türkiye19 Ekim 2026
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The Konya Table, from Etliekmek to Oven Kebab

As you approach Konya by train or by road, the view from the window already tells you about the city's table. A flat, wide plain stretches to the horizon, the fields turn yellow after the harvest, and flocks of sheep graze in between. Two things lie at the heart of Konya cuisine: wheat and lamb. Dough, bread and meat play the leading roles at this table; vegetables and spices accompany them but never take over. This article introduces four registered dishes of Konya, etliekmek, oven kebab, tirit and okra soup, together with suggestions on how you can taste them today.

From the plain to the table

The Konya Plain is the second largest plain in Türkiye after the delta plain of Çukurova, and according to its Wikipedia article it accounts for roughly seventeen percent of the country's farmland. Cereals such as wheat, barley, oats and rye grow on the plain, along with pulses such as beans, chickpeas and green lentils, as well as sugar beet and potatoes. Livelihoods rest on grain farming and on small livestock, above all sheep. Towns such as Konya, Çumra, Karapınar and Ereğli line the edge of the plain.

This picture is reflected directly in the kitchen. Almost every well known Konya dish contains either a thinly rolled dough, a stale loaf of bread, or mutton or lamb that has been cooked for a long time. In a single dish, bread serves as plate, spoon and sauce at once. The fat of the meat is never wasted; it is drizzled over the flatbread. Dried vegetables return to the table in winter. The way thrift and abundance live side by side is perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Konya table.

The ninety centimetre etliekmek

The dish people talk about most in Konya is etliekmek. According to the description on the Culture Portal, etliekmek is a market food, made in the bakeries of the market quarter. The oven is fired with oak wood and the fire is kept on the right hand side of the oven. Once it goes in, the etliekmek bakes for a short while and is then moved away from the fire so that it can finish cooking from within. This is a matter of skill that lets the edges of the dough turn crisp without burning while the topping cooks without drying out.

The topping is made of simple ingredients. Chopped meat is kneaded with tomato, green pepper, onion, parsley and salt. The Culture Portal gives the proportions as 180 grams of dough, 100 grams of meat and 100 grams of vegetables. The sources do not fully agree on the type of meat: the same page says in one place that it must be medium fat mutton, and in another that the rib and flank of a heifer are used. The Wikipedia article mentions lamb or beef depending on preference. What they share is that the meat is not put through a mincer but chopped between two knives. According to the source, machine minced meat was not considered proper in the past. The portal gives another measure as well: as a rule, ten etliekmek are made from one kilogram of boneless meat, and for those who want more meat, one hundred and fifty grams instead of one hundred can be set aside for each piece.

What sets Konya etliekmek apart from the etli ekmek of other provinces is its shape. The dough is rolled out lengthwise and, according to the sources, reaches at most 90 centimetres in length and 20 centimetres in width. In Mardin the filling is placed inside the dough and folded in half, in Kastamonu Daday it is wrapped in thin yufka; in Konya the dough stays open, thin and rimless. The proper way is to roll it up while still hot and eat it without touching it with a knife. The Culture Portal notes that it was accompanied by ayran made from strained yoghurt or by cornelian cherry sherbet.

There are different views on the history of etliekmek. In a report published in Hürriyet, a gastronomy academic traces the dish back to the 1200s and explains that it was recorded in the city's kebab market in 1923, and that bakeries making nothing but etliekmek opened from 1939 onwards. What is certain is that the name Konya Etliekmek was registered as a geographical indication by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office on 9 June 2017.

Oven kebab, a wait of many hours

While etliekmek bakes in a few minutes, oven kebab demands patience. According to the Culture Portal, this kebab is made with lamb or mutton depending on the season, but lamb is the most prized. Only the foreleg and rib meat are used. The meat is placed in large pieces in a big copper basin and cooked in a stone oven over an oak wood fire for five or six hours. At the end of this long cooking, about one kilogram of kebab is obtained from three kilograms of meat.

The secret of oven kebab lies in its simplicity. The source states clearly that genuine Konya oven kebab contains no tomato paste, no spices and no marinade. Tail fat is spread across the bottom of the tray, the meat is laid on top without being packed down and is left to break down slowly in its own juices. In the stone oven the wood is first brought to a roaring blaze and then allowed to settle into embers; when the tray goes in, the oven walls are very hot but there is no flame. The meat is not turned while it cooks and the oven door is not opened often. Salt is added towards the end of cooking.

The serving keeps the same simplicity. The flatbread is torn into small pieces, the fat that collects at the bottom of the tray is drizzled over them, and the meat is placed on top. A whole dry onion is served alongside. The Culture Portal writes that one of the most important features of Konya kebab is that it is eaten without a fork; the meat is eaten by hand together with the bread. Konya Fırın Kebabı, also known as Konya Fürun Kebabı, was registered as a geographical indication on 18 May 2022.

Tirit, a second life for stale bread

Tirit is an old dish made by soaking stale or toasted bread in meat broth, and it is cooked in different ways in many parts of Anatolia. Konya has its own version, and the promotional page of the Governorship of Konya names tirit as one of the best loved dishes in the city. Lamb cut into cubes is first sautéed until it has absorbed its own juices, then cooked with enough hot water to cover it, cumin and bay leaves until it is tender. Stale bread is sliced, lightly crisped in the oven and cut into small squares.

The way the plate is built matters as much as the dish itself. The bread squares are spread on the serving plate and the meat is poured over them together with its broth. Garlic yoghurt is spread on top, onion sliced for salad and rubbed with salt to take away its sharpness is scattered over it, and chopped parsley goes on last. According to a DHA report, the geographical indication registration lists lamb on the bone, tandır bread, red onion, strained yoghurt, garlic, tomato, green pepper and meat broth. In the same report a chef explains that tirit is made in two ways, with meat and with aubergine, and that there is even a sweet version prepared by pouring dried sour cherries over stale bread. Konya Tiridi received its geographical indication on 29 September 2022.

Okra soup and the order of the festive table

One of the most interesting habits of Konya cuisine is the place of okra soup at the table. According to the Governorship of Konya, this soup holds an important place in the city's classic menus as an intermediate course. At wedding and festive meals, that is in the sequence built around pilaf and the so called kara yemek, it is served after the dessert because it is sour, and it whets the appetite so that the second round of dishes can be eaten. In other words, the soup comes not at the start of the meal but in the middle, preparing the palate for the next round.

The soup is made with small dried okra pods. The okra is washed in a sieve or between cloths so that its fuzz falls away, half boiled in water with lemon slices and taken off the string on which it was dried. In a separate pot mutton and tail fat are sautéed, butter and finely chopped onion are added, and tomato paste is stirred in, or fresh tomatoes if it is summer. The boiled okra and lemon or unripe grape juice are added to this base cooked in meat broth, and the soup simmers over a low flame until the okra is soft. Its sourness comes from that lemon and unripe grape juice. Konya style okra soup was registered as a geographical indication on 18 February 2021.

How to sit at the Konya table

Each of these dishes belongs to a different moment in the city. Etliekmek is a market food; while you are walking around the centre, for example after the walk between Alaeddin Hill and the Karatay Madrasa, the most natural thing is to ask a neighbourhood bakery for one fresh out of the oven. Watching the baker roll out the long dough and slide it into the oven while you wait is part of the experience. Try eating it hot, folded in two like a wrap.

Do not ask for a fork when you eat oven kebab; using the bread as a spoon and biting into the dry onion served with it comes closest to the custom the sources describe. Do not leave the fatty pieces of flatbread under the kebab on the plate, as they are perhaps the part of the dish that takes the most effort. Tirit and okra soup, as the Governorship's page also explains, belong more to home and festive meals. If you see okra soup on a festive menu, do not be surprised that it comes after the dessert; that is the order of the table in Konya.

Whichever dish you choose, ask for ayran or cornelian cherry sherbet alongside. The Konya table is not showy, but every mouthful speaks of the wheat of the plain, the lamb of the flocks and patience.

Sources

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