Yayla soup: Turkish yogurt soup with rice and dried mint

Yayla çorbası is the soup I make when the fridge looks empty and the evening is cold. It needs a tub of plain yogurt, a handful of rice, an egg, a spoon of flour and some dried mint, and it turns those into something gentle and sour and very comforting. The name means "highland soup", after the summer pastures where yogurt was always plentiful, and in Kayseri homes it was on the table at least once a week from October onwards.

The dish has one real difficulty. Yogurt that meets heat too fast splits into grainy curds and thin whey, and once that happens there is no taking it back. Everything in this version is arranged around stopping that: the flour and egg yolk that hold the yogurt together, the slow tempering with hot broth, and the stirring that carries on until the soup has settled into a quiet simmer. Do those three things and the result is smooth every time.

What goes into the pot

The rice

Use a medium-grain or short-grain rice, the kind you would use for pilaf or for stuffing vegetables. Its starch leaks into the broth as it cooks and gives the soup body before the yogurt even arrives. Long-grain rice works, but the soup is thinner and the grains stay separate in a way that feels less settled. Some families use broken rice or a small handful of coarse bulgur instead, and both are good. Rinse the rice once or twice, enough to wash off loose dust, not so much that you lose all the starch.

The yogurt

Full-fat plain yogurt is the safest choice. The fat and protein make it more stable under heat, and low-fat yogurts split far more easily. If your yogurt is runny, that is fine, but thick strained yogurt gives a creamier soup. Avoid anything sweetened or flavoured, obviously, and check the label for gelatine or thickeners, which can make the soup gluey.

Take the yogurt out of the fridge when you start the rice. Cold yogurt straight into hot broth is the most common reason the soup curdles, and twenty minutes on the counter takes the chill off.

The binders

A spoonful of plain flour and one egg yolk are whisked into the yogurt before any heat touches it. The flour coats the milk proteins and stops them clumping, and the yolk adds richness and a little more insurance. Some cooks use a whole egg, which works too, though the white can set into tiny flecks if you are careless. I prefer the yolk alone and save the white for an omelette the next morning.

The broth

Water is traditional in many homes and gives a clean, sour taste. Chicken stock makes a rounder soup. Vegetable stock is fine if it is mild; a strong stock full of carrot and celery fights with the yogurt. On a tight week I use water with a little butter and nobody complains.

The mint butter

This is what makes the soup taste of itself. Butter is melted until it foams, dried mint goes in for half a minute, and the green, fragrant butter is spooned over each bowl. A pinch of pul biber (Turkish chilli flakes) turns it red and gives a mild warmth. Use dried mint, not fresh. Dried mint has a deeper, almost tea-like flavour that is the whole point here, and fresh mint tastes thin by comparison.

Tempering the yogurt, step by step

This is the part people worry about, so here it is slowly.

First, whisk the yogurt, flour, egg yolk and a cup of cold water together in a large bowl until there are no lumps at all. Lumps of flour now become lumps in the soup later. The mixture should look like a thin batter.

Second, when the rice is completely soft, take a ladle of the hot broth and pour it into the yogurt bowl in a thin stream, whisking all the time. Do it again with a second ladle, then a third, and a fourth if the pot is large. You are warming the yogurt gradually instead of shocking it. By the end the bowl should feel warm, like a bath, rather than hot. If you have a thermometer it will read somewhere around 60°C (140°F).

Third, turn the heat under the pot down to low and pour the warmed yogurt into the rice, stirring the whole time. Keep stirring, always in the same direction, with a wooden spoon or a whisk, and raise the heat to medium.

Fourth, keep stirring until the soup reaches a gentle simmer. This takes six to ten minutes and it is the moment that matters. As it heats, the flour thickens and protects the yogurt, and the stirring stops any part of the soup on the bottom of the pot from overheating. Once you see slow bubbles breaking at the edge, lower the heat and let it murmur for five minutes, stirring now and then. Do not let it boil hard.

That is all. If you cook it this way, the soup will be smooth and glossy.

What it should look like

A finished yayla soup coats the back of a spoon in a thin, even layer, about like single cream. When you draw a finger across the coated spoon, the line holds for a second before closing. It should pour from the ladle in a ribbon, not drop in lumps. The rice grains are soft enough to squash against the roof of your mouth and the colour is the pale ivory of the yogurt, broken by the green and red of the butter on top.

If it is thicker than that, add hot water a few tablespoons at a time. If it is thinner, simmer for a few more minutes, stirring; it also thickens as it stands.

Yayla çorbası

Recipe

Yayla çorbası (yogurt and rice soup with dried mint)

Serves 4 to 6, about 2 litres

Prep

10 min

Cook

35 min

Total

45 min

Amounts in

cups & spoons grams & ml

Soup

• 1/2 cup95 g medium-grain rice, rinsed
• 6 cups1.4 litres water or mild chicken stock
• 1 1/2 tsp8 g fine salt, or to taste
• 2 cups490 g full-fat plain yogurt, at room temperature
• 11 egg yolk
• 3 tbsp25 g plain flour
• 1 cup240 ml cold water, for the yogurt mixture

Mint butter

• 3 tbsp45 g butter
• 1 tbsp3 g dried mint, rubbed between your palms
• 1/2 tsp1 g pul biber (Turkish chilli flakes), optional

Method

1. Put the rinsed rice, the 6 cups of water or stock and the salt in a large pot and bring to the boil.
2. Lower the heat, half cover and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until the rice is very soft and starting to break at the ends.
3. While the rice cooks, whisk the yogurt, egg yolk, flour and the cup of cold water in a large bowl until completely smooth.
4. Whisking constantly, pour one ladle of the hot broth into the yogurt mixture in a thin stream. Repeat with three more ladles, until the bowl feels warm to the touch.
5. Turn the heat under the pot to low and pour in the warmed yogurt mixture, stirring all the time in one direction.
6. Raise the heat to medium and keep stirring for 6 to 10 minutes, until the soup thickens and slow bubbles appear at the edge.
7. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 5 minutes, stirring now and then. Do not let it boil hard. Taste and add salt if needed.
8. If the soup is thicker than single cream, loosen it with a few tablespoons of hot water.
9. For the mint butter, melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat until it foams. Add the dried mint and pul biber and swirl for 20 to 30 seconds, until fragrant, then take off the heat.
10. Ladle the soup into bowls and spoon a little mint butter over each one. Serve hot with lemon wedges and bread.

Cook's notes

• If the soup starts to look grainy while heating, take it off the heat at once and whisk hard for a minute; caught early, small grains often smooth out.
• The soup thickens in the fridge. Reheat it gently over low heat with a splash of water, stirring, and never let it boil.

Scaling it for a crowd

The recipe doubles and triples well, as long as you keep the ratios and give yourself a wider pot. Here is how I scale it when the family comes for the weekend. The yogurt to liquid proportion stays the same, and the flour goes up a little faster than the rest because a bigger pot takes longer to come to a simmer and needs more protection.

For the largest batch, temper the yogurt in two bowls if your mixing bowl is not big enough, and add the second bowl only after the first has been stirred in. Allow fifteen minutes, rather than ten, for the soup to reach the simmer.

When it goes wrong

It split

Small grains appearing as the soup heats are a sign the heat is too high or you stopped stirring. Pull the pot off the heat, whisk hard, and if that does not help, use a stick blender for a few seconds. It will not look quite the same, because the rice gets blitzed too, but it will be smooth and it will taste fine.

It is too sour

Some yogurts are much sharper than others. A little more broth softens it, and a teaspoon of butter stirred in at the end rounds it off. Do not add sugar.

It is bland

Usually this is salt. Yogurt soups need more of it than you expect. Add it in small pinches and taste between each one. A squeeze of lemon at the table also wakes it up.

It is gluey

Too much flour, or rice cooked to mush and then stirred hard. Next time use the flour amount in the table and stop simmering the rice as soon as it is soft.

Variations from different kitchens

Some households cook a few chickpeas with the rice for more body, which makes the soup a meal on its own. Others swap the rice for fine wheat berries or for coarse bulgur, which gives a nuttier, chewier soup; if you use bulgur, simmer it for about fifteen minutes instead of twenty-five. In some homes the mint is stirred straight into the pot instead of fried in butter, and the soup is served without a topping at all.

A version with tiny meatballs is common in some regions, and there are cooks who add a handful of chopped fresh dill along with the mint. In summer, a chilled cousin of this soup (made with cooked wheat and lots of herbs, without the hot simmering) is a different dish entirely but uses the same yogurt and mint pairing.

Storing and reheating

Yayla soup keeps in a covered container in the fridge for three days. It sets quite thick when cold, which is normal. To reheat, put it in a pan over low heat with a few tablespoons of water and stir as it warms. Bring it up slowly and stop when it is steaming, just short of a simmer; reheating it hard is the easiest way to split it at this stage. Make fresh mint butter for each serving rather than storing it on top.

I do not freeze it. Frozen yogurt soups tend to separate when thawed, and the rice goes soft and grainy.

What to serve with it

On a weeknight a bowl of this with warm bread is supper in itself. For a fuller table, serve it before a simple rice pilaf and a plate of sautéed greens, or alongside a bean dish. It sits well in a rotation with other everyday soups: when I have made a pot of red lentil soup one week and ezogelin the next, this is the one that comes round after them, pale and sour and different.

A wedge of lemon, a small dish of pul biber and the rest of the mint butter on the table let everyone finish their own bowl the way they like it. In my house the last spoonful of butter always goes to whoever stirred the pot.