Pasta with yogurt and spiced oil.
It might sound weird to eat noodles with a yogurt sauce but wait until you have tried it. Even my children’s friends who are not familiar with the Turkish cuisine like that unusual combination.
All it needs is curiosity and an adventurous attitude to food!
I love that this is a fast solution for moments when I need food on the table and that “pronto”!
You can basically call it the Turkish version of Mac’n Cheese.
Besides being a quick fix this meal still points with amazing ingredients, and to be honest, I really like simple recipes made with only a few ingredients which I have in the fridge or pantry anyways. A rule in our house, we will always have some veggies with every meal even if it is just cut cucumber or bell peppers.
The reason why this sauce made it into our family traditions in the first place is based on my mother’s origin. My mother is born in Turkey and she immigrated to Germany when she was 21. She left the country of her roots but she took the seeds of her country’s culinary traditions with her and made them sprout, grow, and stay alive when she started raising her own family in a foreign country.
This recipe is indeed a tradition taken over from previous generations, into my childhood, and then into my own family. It is a little bit of Turkish culinary history which my children will certainly continue to prepare for their own future children.
Plain yogurt is very often used in the Turkish cuisine. Spiced with garlic and salt it is often served as a sauce for rice, stews or soups. The most famous and traditional meal which is served with yogurt and a spiced oil sauce is a dish called “Manti”.
Manti are homemade mini tortellini’s stuffed with a little bit of ground meat. It is served with garlic-spiced yogurt and an oil sauce consisting of olive oil, paprika powder, salt, and pepper. In fact, this meal is the origin of the pasta version because making homemade manti takes time and is not the quickest meal.
I remember from our annual trips to Turkey to visit family and friends that cooking and meal time would often be joined by relatives, neighbours, and yes, also their children. The women would gather in the kitchen where they would help with filling and folding many little manti, cutting tomatoes for the salad, and prepare watermelon and feta cheese for dessert. After the meal, everybody would help to clean up and do the dishes. It might seem old-fashioned to have the women do the kitchen work but in reality, it was a lot of fun, laughing and gossiping.
The ingredients of the oil sauce are varying from family to family. Some would use a spoon of tomato paste instead of paprika powder, or both. In the past and maybe still in certain areas of Turkey, this oil sauce is made with sage and mint.
Due to my interest in nutrition and of creating a meal which is as rich in nutrients as possible I have developed my own concoction over the time. I added turmeric and ground pepper.
Turmeric is known for its immense health benefits.
Curcumin is the main active ingredient in turmeric and has powerful anti-inflammatory properties as well as a strong anti-oxidant effect which keeps our cells protected from damage. Curcumin is better absorbed into the bloodstream by adding piperine a natural substance found in peppercorns.
Another great effect of curcumin is that it boosts the level of a hormone in the brain which is important to grow new neuron connections. As you can see it is totally worth to incorporate turmeric into your cooking habits. And I have only mentioned a few of its health-supporting benefits…
Yogurt is a great source of probiotic bacteria which is important to keep our friendly bacteria in our colon well balanced and happy.
When our gut is happy so are we! I choose organic and if possible a brand which cares about feeding their dairy cows the food which they are actually meant to eat: grass!
The yogurt sauce is a major part of the whole recipe but if your children can’t tolerate dairy you might try some of the dairy-free alternatives or simply skip the yogurt completely and drizzle with the oil sauce only.
My favorite alternative to regular pasta are quinoa noodles. They need some extra TLC for the perfect consistency but otherwise, they taste like the real deal. I drain them 1-2 minutes before they get soft and let them steam with some oil and the lid on. That way they don’t get mushy and are perfectly al dente.
Quinoa Noodles with Turmeric-Paprika Oil Sauce
Ingredients
- pasta of your choice (I like the quinoa noodles from Costco)
- 5-6 tbsp of a good quality olive oil
- 1 tsp paprika powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- yogurt or sour cream (preferably organic and from grass-fed cows)
Instructions
Cook pasta as indicated on the packaging
If you use quinoa pasta. Cook until still slightly firm, drain, add 1-2 tbsp olive oil or avocado oil and let it sit and steam for 3-4 minutes with the lid on and a turned off stove. Don't put the pot back on the hot plate.
Meanwhile, add all the oil sauce ingredients to a very small pot. Do only warm up the mixture slightly. The remaining heat from the plate where you have cooked the noodles is probably enough to slightly warm the oil mixture.
When noodles are al dente. Place on plate. Top with 1 tbsp yogurt or sour cream and drizzle 2 tbsp of the oil sauce on top. Blend and salt to your taste.
Enjoy!
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